June 21st is Naked Hiking Day

Ever wanna strip down to your birthday suit and wander through the woods?

Well, your chance is coming soon. That’s right—June 21 is unofficial Naked Hiking Day. Celebrated on the summer solstice, it’s a day to rejoice a natural (or au naturel) way of travel through the wilderness.

Naked hiking isn’t anything new. Apparently, it’s been going on for years in Europe, although according to the Economist , Europeans are starting to cover up more. In America, the activity appears to still be in its infancy.

So how did this unique event start?

According to verywellfit ( https://www.verywellfit.com/ ), a website devoted to fitness, “Outdoor author Colin Fletcher wrote in his popular hiking books of enjoying hiking naked through the Grand Canyon and along the Pacific Crest Trail on hot days.”

Obviously Mr. Fletcher didn’t just enjoy Walking through Time (the title one of his great books), he found no pants sublime.

Whether he could really be called the father of naked hiking is up for interpretation. I’ve known a couple of naked hikers over the years, and it seemed to me they just wanted to be more in touch with nature than you can in a $600 hiking outfit.

But is it legal?

According to Wendy Bumgardner, who wrote the verywellfit piece, “It's not illegal to be naked in public in some jurisdictions if your intent is simply to be unclothed rather than to incite or satisfy sexual arousal. But the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Parks and Wildlife warned potential celebrators in 2017 that naked hikers would not be tolerated on state lands and would be dealt with according to the local laws if on federal lands.”

Indeed, here’s a headline Channel 7 ran in Denver dating back to 2017.

Getting ticketed or arrested on public lands is one downfall of hiking naked, but there are a few others. Lathering your entire body in sunscreen is, I'd guess, a requirement. And then there are the bugs, which are going to have greater access to your skin when you hike naked. And same deal with plants like poison ivy. And then there’s the possibility of naked crazy people who are sometimes not doing it entirely for the hiking.

But, it still has its enthusiasts.

“Bushwhacking in the buff I find energizing, does anyone else do this?” wrote a chap on the Nude Hikers of America facebook page.

Yes, the Nude Hikers of America .

Then there’s the Naturist Appalachian Hiking Group and the Virginia Natural Hiking Association —among others. There’s even a change.org page devoted to getting naked hiking made legal. The movement is titled “Exempt Public Nudity From Penal Laws,” which is some really interesting wording considering the purpose of the movement.

It’s not for me, but if you wanna try something different, it might be just the ticket.

But maybe carry some pants and a shirt in your backpack.