Bakersfield Life

On the right tail

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              The hustle and bustle of city life can take its tolls on a person. Stress from work, family and life in general can amalgamate into a sour demeanor that makes one ache for escape, an escape that some may think is unobtainable. Escape is just a hike away in the surrounding areas around Kern County.
“It’s like mini vacation. There is a lot of beauty within a reasonable distance,” said Glenn Gregory, one of the leaders of the Kern River Valley Hiking Club. “You can work during the week and then go hiking on Saturday or Sunday and be put into a totally different environment.”
Glenn Gregory, 60, began hiking while growing up in San Fernando Valley, hiking the “fire roads in the Santa Monica Mountains,” and carried the hobby on throughout his life. A few years after moving to Bakersfield in 1992, Gregory joined the Kern River Valley Hiking Club and has remained active ever since.
According to Gregory, hiking is a hobby that appeals to people of all ages and walks of life, with the average age of hiking club members being “in the 40s or 50s, but there are also people all the way up to 80 years old. Children will come with their parents, too.”
“There are a lot of married couples that one person likes to hike and the other doesn’t, so we end up with a lot of halves of couples. We’ve had people who hike with their child in a carrier on their back. Personally, I’m not that coordinated, but I’m very good at putting one foot in front of the other.”
While some start out hiking as children, others come to the hobby later in life. John Parson, 26, began hiking five years ago out of a sheer desire to try something new and now hikes regularly, of which most have been done solo due to a lack of interested friends rather than a solitary disposition.
“I’ve always been into exercise and working,” Parson said. “And I just started wanting to do something other than sit around and hang out on weekends, so I took up hiking.
“I like the struggle and the endurance aspect of it,” Parson said. “And the experience of getting to go to these places and see things that most people don’t get to see.”
The breathtaking scenery can be a big draw for local hikers. “There are so many pretty places to go hiking in Kern County,” Gregory said. “And everything has a different emotional impact. We’ve hiked in Red Rock Canyon, the Sequoias and Tejon Ranch.”
Trails range in length and difficulty throughout Kern County. For example, there is the moderate 8.6-mile Freeman Creek Trail that takes roughly four to five hours to hike, whereas the 21.4-mile Cannell Meadow Trail can take two or three days to hike, depending on pace.
“Once you’re in the woods for a couple of hours, you can kind of step back from your regular life and think,” Parson said. “Basically, you daydream all day. You get to step back from your life and observe it from a different position.”
Added Parson: “It’s kind of like hitting reset.”
“It’s the journey, not the destination,” Gregory says. “And it beats the heck out of working out on a treadmill.”
 
Tips for beginners
Research trails.
Plan ahead and map out route.
Be sure to have plenty of water and food to suit your needs.
Pack a change of clothes for different climates, as weather can change unexpectedly.
Pack a map, a compass and a first aid kit.