What is Soft Hiking? Emily Thornton and Lucy Hird Discuss Their Inclusive Concept

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Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (00:00)
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Introduction

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (00:27)
When we kind of came up with the soft hiking concept, we just felt like maybe we didn’t fit into the outdoors community because everything seemed to be, you know, you’re getting up there as fast as you can and you’re clocking as many miles as you can and ⁓ not really taking the time to be present in nature and to notice the little things. ⁓ so soft hiking was kind of born out of that.

How Do You Define ‘Hiking’?

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (00:58)
Hello, her side of the trail listeners. I’m doing something a little different today. I wanted to try like a pre-show type thing before I share the interview with my guests today. I have Emily and Lucy who are the Soft Girls Who Hike and they came up with the concept of soft hiking where you’re not trying to get like your fastest time. You’re not, going for the best, you know, biggest elevation gain, anything like that. You know, you’re just out on the trail enjoying nature. And that is a hot topic sometimes in the outdoor space.

Especially on social media, isn’t everything a hot topic on social media, but when people are defining what is hiking, what is not hiking, ⁓ and then people kind of argue like, well, that’s not really a hike or, you know, like I share a trail online and I say, it’s, you know, it’s rated hard and they’re like, well, that’s not hard. Like, okay, maybe not to you, but to the average person it is.

But anyway, so sometimes the outdoor space can be a little mean. Like, let’s be honest, some of these hikers out there can be very judgmental about what other people are doing with their time for some reason. ⁓ And then they can really like make people feel bad. And we want to encourage people to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. We don’t want to discourage that. ⁓ So why are we telling people that what they’re doing isn’t really hiking?

And, you know, if you’ve been around here for a while, I’m a big advocate for like the outdoors are for everybody. I had Jennifer from Wonders Within Reach on earlier. ⁓ Previous episode, her son has spina bifida. She does a lot of accessible hiking. That’s still hiking.

It’s different for everybody, but it’s still hiking. So let’s all kind of agree like to stop giving people a hard time who aren’t doing your level of hiking because it’s still hiking. I mean, think about it. Would a marathoner like say to a person who ran a mile that they’re not running? No.

They still ran, didn’t they? Yeah. So on this episode, though, we have again, Emily and Lucy from Soft Girls Who Hike, they do their their version of hiking, which I love, which actually I’m kind of like, maybe I’m a soft hiker. ⁓ They get out on the trail and they just take their time and they enjoy everything. It’s not just about getting to the top, right? Isn’t that what everyone says? It’s not the destination. It’s the it’s the journey, right? It’s the it’s the walk along the way. And that’s they live that right. They stop and they’re like, look at this pretty mushroom. Look at this plant. Look at this view. That’s not the you know, the summit view. I love that concept. And that’s why I wanted to have them on here.

So what do you think? mean, don’t come on here and tell me that that soft hiking isn’t real hiking. I’ll be mad at you. I will be. ⁓ But I hope you agree with me that any form of hiking is hiking. OK, let’s talk to Emily and Lucy.

Meeting Emily and Lucy

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (04:10)
Hello, Emily and Lucy. Thank you for joining me today. I’m so excited to talk to you about your concept of soft hiking. But before we even get started, I just wanna let you guys know you are my first international guests. So I’m very honored to have you here. Where are you located? So the audience knows.

Lucy (04:23)

So we’re from Yorkshire originally and then we moved to Manchester which is probably one people know about. I currently live in the Peak District, and Emily, you? ⁓

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (04:33)
Okay.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (04:43)
Yeah, yeah, so I’m in Manchester

in the United Kingdom. Yeah, so way over the pond.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (04:48)
And that’s like central England, right? Is that kind of like in the center of the country?

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (04:54)
Yeah, it’s like, no, yeah.

Lucy (04:55)
So it’s the north of England, but I would say of the whole of the United Kingdom, it’s the middle because Scotland is the north, yeah.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (05:02)
Okay, we’re going to talk about hiking, but I wanted to know, was hiking ⁓ a big activity in your childhood? Did you grow up doing a lot of hiking with your family or is that something that you started doing more later in life?

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (05:18)
Me personally, I did grow ⁓ up in quite an outdoorsy family, slightly against my will as a teenager.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (05:26)
I think my kids feel that way too right now.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (05:30)
Yeah, well, I think over time I’ve grown to love it and that’s something that I’ve rediscovered now with Lucy and with soft hiking is that I’m kind of reinventing ⁓ how I look at the outdoors and doing things in kind of a softer way. And yeah, just realizing that maybe camping is not for me, but maybe one night or two is fine. But yeah, that’s kind of background.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (05:52)
Yeah, no, I agree with

How about you, Lucy?

Lucy (05:55)
⁓

I didn’t grow up in an outdoorsy family. My mum took me out and we went on walks and went to really nice places, but we never did like camping or hiking or anything like that. So yeah, the love of it came as I got older and yeah, the rest is history, I guess.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (06:16)
I know a lot of guests, previous guests that I’ve had also, if they didn’t really grow up hiking or outdoorsy, it was because of the pandemic, like right after that, that kind of forced them outside because that’s what a lot of people were doing. Did you find that to be the case, Lucy, or was it even before that that you were getting outside?

Lucy (06:37)
The pandemic is the thing that got us doing soft hiking. We were just really, we felt really stuck and in the UK we had curfews. I think you had the same. Yeah. Yeah. So we were stuck in a lot with the curfews and then as they started lifting, we thought let’s get out of it more. Now we finally can. And I think it made us realize as well that

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (06:49)
Yeah, some, yeah, we had some, some places, yes.

Mm-hmm.

Lucy (07:05)
places are accessible by public transport because we didn’t have a car at the time. So it made us really think how can we get outside even if it is just to a green space near us. And then we realized as well that the Peak District, which is a huge national park in the just, I would say like 20 minutes, 30 minutes out of Manchester, you realize it’s really nearby and especially by public transport and we can actually.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (07:09)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Lucy (07:32)
explore things that are not just parks but national parks and go hiking. So yeah, the pandemic is what started our hiking journey.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (07:40)
I think that’s so nice that you have ⁓ parks so accessible by public transport. That’s something that we’re definitely lacking in the States where, you know, it’s very hard to get to these outdoor spaces if you don’t have your own personal vehicle because buses, trains and whatnot, they’re not going there. I mean, some of them, yes, but most of them, no, they’re kind of in the middle of nowhere is what we would say, right? So that’s awesome that you guys have that available to you.

What is Soft Hiking?

We just, you we mentioned soft hiking a couple times now. So what is soft hiking and how did you come up with this?

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (08:15)
So it essentially means that hiking doesn’t have to be hard and that you can be softer and gentler with yourself on the trail. ⁓ When we kind of came up with the soft hiking concept, we just felt like maybe we didn’t fit into the outdoors community ⁓ because everything seemed to be, you know, you’re getting up there as fast as you can and you’re clocking as many miles as you can and ⁓ not really taking the time to be present in nature and to notice the little things. ⁓ so soft hiking was kind of born out of that.

So yeah, essentially that’s what it means.

Lucy (08:52)
it’s a really, we found an inclusive term because people who have physical or mental barriers, they can use that term and it describes how they hike as well. So it just includes people that didn’t see themselves as hikers before into the hiking community. And we’ve said as well that language is so important because if someone asked me to go on a hike and they wanted to go really fast in a certain amount of time,

that’s not my style of hiking. And similarly, I was to invite my mum on a hike and I called it a walk and then I took her up a massive mountain, she would be confused. we think language is really important and how people relate to each other. People have made friends because they’re soft hikers. They understand what sort of hiking they do.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (09:21)
Mm-hmm.

I love the concept and for the same reason because not everyone is, I I appreciate the people out there who are scaling these crazy mountains, who are trying to beat their best time. ⁓ Fastest time known, I think, is the concept. At least I know over here, people trying to ⁓ do longer trails. We only did this in three days. ⁓ That’s not how I hike. I’m the same with you guys.

I enjoy like a challenging trail, but I’m going to take my time. going to look around. I’m going to stop every once in a while from a snack and my water and not worry about how long I’m spending. You know, just my only time frame is, we got to get back to the car before the sun sets, right? Like, that’s the idea. ⁓ So you guys weren’t really intense hikers, you know, before, right? This wasn’t like a, I don’t want to be an intense hiker anymore. This is just always kind of the way you’ve done it before, right?

Lucy (10:24)
and requested.

Sharing Soft Hiking With the World

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (10:36)
we were saying, yeah, maybe you didn’t feel like you were belonging in the outdoorsy space and I had previous guests also saying that they felt like they weren’t quote unquote outdoorsy because they weren’t doing what everyone else was doing. So I love that you came up with this concept. So what made you decide then to…

promote this, right? I mean, this is your idea. This is fun. You can say, hey guys, let’s go on a soft hike, but what made you decide to kind of put it out to the world?

Lucy (11:03)
So we went on a group hike and we realized, that’s when we realized we didn’t fit in because everyone was running to the top. We kept wanting to look out and take pictures and it was like, come on guys. So we just thought that’s not our community and good for them because that’s what they want to do and that’s fine. So yeah, were like, well, what’s it for us? So we recorded.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (11:23)
Everyone’s got their own style, right?

Lucy (11:30)
I mean we record our hikes anyway because I don’t know about you, I really struggle to stay present. I have to record things so I can look back and look at the pictures and videos and sort of take in what I’ve just seen. Yeah.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (11:38)
Mm-hmm.

Or also just to remember everything, because you know, especially when

you go on several hikes, sometimes you’re like, wait, which was the hike that we saw this, right? So then you have the recording and you know, like this is what this was, yeah.

Lucy (11:50)
Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Exactly, yeah. So we take pictures anyway. ⁓ And then we just thought, we’ll put it online on TikTok just to document our time together really, something cute that we do as friends. And then our first video went viral and CNBC reported it got billions of views, which we, yeah, I don’t know how they calculate that, but.

Yeah, it’s crazy. So that’s where it took off and we kind of found our community there because other people related to the term and we then created Facebook groups. We have Discord group for on click as well where people can meet other soft hikers like them. It’s kind of like an online space where other people can meet people just like them.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (12:39)
love that. Yeah, because you want to even for other ⁓ activities, you know, you want to find people who are in your level of activity or, the style of activity. So that’s great that you created the space for people for soft hikers. Maybe I like maybe we need to start a chapter in the US. I don’t know if we have we got to find one. Okay. I got to find that then maybe I’ll find my people.

Lucy (12:58)
We have a lot, yeah, we’ve got loads of new asks. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Soft Hiking Activities

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (13:05)
So what are some of the activities that you’ve enjoyed while soft hiking because you’re taking the time? are you?

using apps to identify plants? Are you looking for animals? Like, what do you do when you’re soft hiking? Besides hiking, obviously.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (13:19)
So many things. think we’re like, yeah, identifying plants and birds and you usually take out a little foraging buck, don’t we, and we’ll stop and see if we see a mushroom and we’ll look it up or something like that. And yeah, I can’t think of any particular what’s like one particular thing that we do. Oh, yeah.

Lucy (13:31)
Yeah.

We’ve just got some binoculars so we can

look for birds as well.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (13:44)
Oh, I love that.

know like birds are so fun to to to try to identify. We have, you know, a lot of raptors in our area, like hawks and falcons and stuff like that. But most of the time we always end up seeing the turkey vultures. I don’t know if you guys have both the vultures in the UK, but they’re everywhere because they’re just always trying to eat all the dead things, which is fine. That’s their role. But I’m like, can you move out of the way and let like the eagle or the falcon fly by, please? Thank you.

Lucy (13:48)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Good

No.

The worst thing, the biggest killer in the UK is cows. We just don’t have anything that’s like super dangerous. So yeah, the biggest thing that we’ve got to watch out for is if you walk through a field of cows, especially if they’ve got calves, you’ve got to be really careful because they can stampede. But yeah, it’s funny. Like the comments we get from especially Americans like, be careful on trail. And we’re like, we don’t have scary things in England.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (14:19)
⁓

you

yeah.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (14:41)
Yeah, we don’t

need our bear spray or anything.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (14:44)
the four-legged ⁓ animals that we pretty much have to worry about in the US are bison. I had someone earlier, she actually was hiking ⁓ on an island off California and bison shouldn’t naturally be there, but apparently they were filmed a movie there and they left bison there. So now when you’re doing this trail in California, you just have to be very wary of them because they’re there and they have no predators. So they’re just living their life. Yeah. So you have to worry about them.

Lucy (15:09)
What?

home.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (15:13)
So you guys hike all over Europe. you hiked in the, like, have you, where have you gone? Where have you been?

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (15:20)
PIP

Lucy (15:21)
So

we do a lot in the Peak District, don’t we, Em? And then we’ve done Scotland. Yeah, there’s so many here. We haven’t even finished the Peak District routes yet. We’ve done Scotland. You’ve done London as well, haven’t you Em which is interesting because you wouldn’t think of London as hiking, but there’s some.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (15:23)
It’s great to stay close to home though.

Yeah.

No.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (15:38)
Yeah, what’s

important to us, I think, in the UK is obviously we don’t have these huge, huge national parks. It’s also remembering what you’ve got that’s nearby. We have a lot of lovely green spaces, like country parks and things like that, that we forget about. So we always try and push those as well, because obviously hiking up a mountain is great. But also, what have you got that’s 10, 15 minutes down the road?

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (15:49)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (16:06)
because we’ve got a great park in Manchester that I went to not long ago. And a lot of people were like, I didn’t even know there was a walk here. So I think it’s important to notice that as well. But yeah, Scotland was amazing, wasn’t it? Like we went up Arthur’s seat in ⁓ Edinburgh, and that’s a really popular spot. I think it’s in, have you seen One Day? The series One Day, it’s featured in that as well. And it’s a really, really beautiful spot.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (16:27)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

My parents will actually be in Scotland, actually probably when this podcast airs. I think they’re going end of September, early October. So I’ll have to let them know. They’re hikers too. So I’ll have to let them know about that. I don’t remember where they’re going to be in the country though. That’s the only problem. But the neat thing about Scotland, which I love this like little trivia is that we have sister mountains here on the East coast and Scotland, the Appalachian mountains, which

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (16:42)
yes.

Lucy (16:47)
Mm.

Yes.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (16:58)
I forget which mountains they are in Scotland, but they were formed, the Highlands, okay. I think that’s so cool to me. I’m like, I love all of that, because then it’s like you’re hiking kind of the same things. But I agree with you, Emily, though, about looking close by to see what is available to you. And I think soft hiking is a great way to promote that as well, because again, people… ⁓

Lucy (17:01)
It’s the Highlands, yeah, it’s the Scottish Highlands. Yeah, I love that fact as well, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (17:22)
we’re more likely to go out to the local parks, you know, and check out the trails there, knowing that they could just kind of take their time and be leisurely about it. But same where I live, I live in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. if you’re familiar with the East Coast and again, there are a lot of local parks nearby, but people are trying to, you know, they’re driving three, four hours to go somewhere else. I’m like, no, there’s some really great trails like just right here, like within 30 minutes. And they’re not aware of that.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (17:47)
Yeah.

Lucy (17:47)
and then.

How to Find Other Soft Hikers

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (17:50)
I’m gonna put all of this in the notes too and on my website, but if you could just share again all of the places where people can learn about soft hiking and maybe join groups for soft hiking.

Lucy (18:01)
Yeah, so we are on Facebook and it’s the Soft Hiking Club. We are on Discord, which is also the Soft Hiking Club. And we are on Click, which is also the Soft Hiking Club. So all the links are on our link tree and we are on at Soft Girls Who Hike on TikTok and Instagram. We’re pretty much at the end of it as well.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (18:21)
Gotcha. And I’ll make sure all of that information

is available for anybody who wants to do that. before I let you go, because I do appreciate your time and I know you’re all busy, but ⁓ one of the questions I always like to ask people is like the kind of hike that you could do for the rest of your life. If you, if you could only do one kind of hike, would you prefer to do hikes that would lead you to beautiful views, overlooks, or would you prefer to only do hikes that lead to a waterfall?

Lucy (18:48)
oooo

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (18:50)
That’s a tricky one actually.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (18:51)
I know.

And there’s no wrong answer.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (18:55)
I really can’t choose between those two. Do you know what, I think I’d probably go for the waterfall because I feel like it’s nice to like, if you are able to wild swim there, then you can like cool off at the end. It’s a hot day, but if it’s a cold day, maybe the views. I feel like it depends on the weather as well.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (18:58)
It’s hard. I don’t think I could either.

Lucy (18:58)
No.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:08)
Definitely, yes, I agree with that.

Lucy (19:09)
I think it’s only try

so.

Yeah, I think I would naturally go for the waterfall. But when I think about why I enjoy hiking is the views. Like when I see videos, it’s all, yeah, when I do it myself, I do it for the view. So I think I’ll go with views.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:23)
Mm-hmm.

it’s a tough question. just that’s what I like to ask everybody. But well, ladies, I do appreciate your time. Thank you so much. And thank you for creating this concept of soft hiking. I think it would resonate with a lot of people who, feel like maybe they don’t fit into the outdoorsy space. But then they realize, no, there’s a lot of people like them who enjoy being out in nature, who want to do the trails, who aren’t interested in.

Lucy (19:32)
Yeah, it’s a good one.

Lauren – Her Side Of The Trail (19:53)
you know, making the best time or doing a 5,000 foot elevation gain in one hike. And it’s nice to know that there’s people, you know, that they belong, you know, they also belong in the group.

Lucy (20:00)
Thank

Thank you so much for having us on as well.

Emily – Soft Girls Who Hike (20:08)
Thank you.