Tag: freehiking

Great walking opportunities

And that close to home.

Walking trail

This might not look like much, but it’s a trail I found that I can walk naked at least half. The altered line (not red, I don’t know what it’s called as I am colour blind) is the nude stretch. It’s a fabulous little stretch, all among the trees, and there are a few small side trails I can do as well.

walking trail close to home

This is another trail I found that’s perfect. The non-red part can be done naked easily.

On both occasions I ran into a non-nude person, just once, because these are not the routes people prefer, so far away from ‘civilisation’. Well, I’ll take them; they’re perfect. Each trail gives me at least 1 km of nude walking, and each time it ‘surprises’ me how free that is.

Putting the clothes back on is always a bit of a downer, but I know there will be more naked walks. Perhaps the choice of routes looks a bit limited, but I’m convinced that many people don’t even have 1 or 2 of such routes to take, so I count myself lucky.

Do you have nude routes near where you live? (I.e. without having to get into the car and driving there?)

Nude hiking is the best

While you read this, I’m probably on my way home from a short vacation on one of the Canary Islands. These islands are wonderful for the naked tourist. No, alas, that doesn’t mean you can wander around in the nude anywhere without getting into trouble, but they offer lots of places where you can.

On Easter Sunday I was out for a walk. I had been looking forward to this particular one as it is a walk I can’t do at home (lacking mountains and the space to do it naked).

Walks like this are always good. I know that many of you, reading this, can and will agree.

For me, the experience of consciously taking my clothes off and going for a long walk (this one was about 3 kilometres long) is an almost spiritual experience.

I am peeling away the physical boundaries between me and nature. All of me will be able to feel the sun and the wind. All of me will be moving without being bothered (yes, that is really it) by the stuff other people demand I wear when in most kinds of company.

And the best thing: it’s free.

And then I mean free in the most literal meaning. No one who has a problem with me being how I want to be. Nothing holding me back except gravity (and I am very grateful for that one 😉 ).

Having this possibility to walk around clothes-free is truly amazing. The sad thing always comes when the walk comes to an end and I have to put the hot stuff on again. That moment tells me how unnatural it is to wear clothes in an environment that is made for bodily liberty.

I can hardly wait to go on another nude hike. Let’s hope the world will someday get its act together and understand that our lifestyle isn’t bad. That we’re actually preserving energy and water.

And let’s hope it happens in our lifetime.

A naturist’s view on freehiking (notably in England)

What is Freehiking?

Let’s look at Wikipedia:

Freehiking refers to naked hiking as well as a form of hiking in which the participants intentionally avoid trails and predetermined destinations. This can also be referred to as “wander hiking.”

The most interesting part for us naturists is explained further as:

The term freehiking has been used by naturists for decades to describe the activity of naked hiking. It was adopted by hikers after the sport of freeskiing gained popularity in the 1990s.

Now we’ve cleared up what freehiking is…

I had to write this post because my friend Robert mentioned freehiking a few times, and then I stumbled over this tweet:

warning signPlease note the explicit mention of the UK. This is not automatically applicable to any country. This is only applicable when you are in the UK.

If you don’t want to go through the whole twitter-clicking, here is a link to the file in question:

pdficonClick here

If that is too much for you, here are the two sections from the document which are most important for real naturists:

Police action naturists

I think this is a brilliant move on behalf of the police force in the UK. Every country should adopt this – well, every free-thinking country. I understand there will be plenty of less open-minded cultures that will never accept this, but that’s up to them. Unfortunately.

I’m really excited about this development, as will be many naturists in the UK, I’m certain of that. With a police directive like that I can envision an influx of naturists in the UK. It might even do something good for their tourism.

Now, back to freehiking itself.

Have you ever done it? Have you been in the lucky circumstance that you could drop all clothes and just go for a long walk without being afraid someone would see you and make things difficult?

Freehiking in the UK

I’m glad to say I had that opportunity plenty of times. I’ve been out for naked walks in Germany, where the laws are quite relaxed as well, in the UK (even before the police pdf was published) and plenty of times on the Canary Islands.

On Lanzarote I’ve done very long walks even, the longest around 13km (little over 8 miles). The great thing during that actual walk was that I encountered people (walking, cycling and in cars) who didn’t bat an eye. Some actually greeted me.

I’ve been freehiking in Scotland as well. The benefit of Scotland, I found, is that it’s very spacious with very few people. I had a great walk near Loch Lomond.

So what about the United States?

The US is a very large country. Still I keep hearing from many people that it USA Mapis hard to go for a naked walk. It’s something I find a bit difficult to comprehend but I am not from the US of A, so please enlighten me. I’m curious to know what makes it difficult to go freehiking. I understand you don’t do that in big cities. That isn’t accepted in most places. Is it so hard for people to go out into the open where there’s space? Is the US so built up that it’s cities and towns wall to wall, back to back? Or do most people have no car? (Which I find hard to believe, as America loves its cars.)

Do you have freehiking experiences over there? Where did you do them? Were you harassed? It would be great if you can share your opinions to help others.