Tips for Downhill Hiking

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about some more ways to go downhill. First of all, sometimes when you're outside, you're exhilarated, you start to feel younger than you felt in a long time, you might be tempted to go oh, I can just jump down that. Don't. I've had a couple of injuries in hiking programs from people who decided to jump. You can hurt your knee, you can knock the wind out of yourself, it's just a dumb idea to jump. Instead, stay patient, stay methodical, stay in constant contact with mother Earth. And be aware of too that sometimes there's sand on the rock that makes it even more slippery than it might appear. So, one way to go down this little piece is to use your walking stick, make sure it's anchored there at the bottom, just go on down. But this third leg is very helpful. Another way to do it is on your butt. I call that five point hiking. Where you use your bottom, your arms, your legs, everything you got. And if that's the way you feel more comfortable, there's not a thing in the world wrong with it. If it gets you there safely, that's good. Sometimes when you're getting ready to go uphill, you might want to check the bottoms of your shoes, there might be sand on the bottoms of your shoes that you want to get off because it'll be slippery if you don't. So just knock your toe against the rock before you start up."