From 2009 to 2012, Granger hiked over 1,000 miles on hiking trails in seven different states. Wendy began joining him on most hikes in 2013, and the pace slacked off once the novel trails within easy driving range were exhausted. But there are a slew of posts you can peruse.
Granger’s Trail Guides for the Bartlesville Region
- Osage Hills State Park is a 15-minute drive west of Bartlesville and has several nice trails through the Cross Timbers
- Elk City Lake west of Independence, Kansas is an hour’s drive north of Bartlesville and features several rugged long trails
Favorite Hikes
- Oregon’s Saddle Mountain and Eagle Creek
- Colorado’s Piedra River, Williams Creek, and Alberta Peak
- Arkansas’ Mount Nebo
- Oklahoma’s Robbers Cave and Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge
- Missouri’s Roaring River
To read about the day hikes, you can click Day Hike in the category cloud in the lower right-hand column to see those posts in reverse chronological order.
Interactive Google Map of the Day Hikes
Click on a map marker to bring up the name of each hike and links to blog posts and photo sets from it. You can drag and zoom the map to your liking.
You can also access a full-page version of the Google Map.
Granger’s Hiking Outfit
Pack: belt for a water bottle and snack, or a small light pack
Poles: Leki Trekking Poles with cork handles & speed locks
Boots: Columbia Fireland Mid Omni-Tech Hiking Boot
Socks: Smartwool Hiking Crew Sock
Hat: Tilley (I wear TM10 with LTM8 AirFlo a close match)
Summer Shirts: wicking T-shirts, such as Under Armour
Summer Long Pants: Magellan Hiking Cargo Pants and Railriders Eco-Mesh Pant with Insect Shield
Summer Shorts: Cargo Shorts
Insect Repellent: Cutter Backwoods Unscented
(Cutter doesn’t stink like Off!; applied liberally to bare legs, socks, boots, pant cuffs, hat, etc.)
Hiking GPS: Gaia GPS on an Apple iPhone
Driving GPS: TomTom GPS app on an Apple iPhone
Audio: Audible audiobooks, The Great Courses lectures, and podcasts on an Apple iPhone
Why Do It?
I spent most of my childhood vacations at my parents’ lake home near Roaring River State Park in Missouri and grew up hiking its various trails with family and friends. In my adult life I would go on the occasional hike, but it wasn’t a focus until I did some hiking during summer vacations in the cool and beautiful Pacific Northwest.
When I returned to Oregon in 2009 for my fifth summer vacation in the Pacific Northwest, I made hiking trails the focus and posted daily blogs and photo uploads, enhanced by my iPhone’s GPS tracking. The feedback from the posts and enjoyment of the experience led me to continually seek out new trails in the region around home.
Long drives to reach distant trailheads are less appealing for us as a married couple, but thankfully there are several decent trails at the nearby Osage Hills State Park, some beautiful and rugged trails at Elk City Lake in Kansas an hour’s drive north, and Bartlesville’s Pathfinder Parkway allows long walks with minimal driving. We still include a bit of hiking in some of our vacation plans, and I expect my dayhikes to rebound somewhat after my retirement.
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