SAUGUS — Lose weight. Exercise more. Get outside.
Approximately 200 people put those common New Year’s Resolutions not just into words, but into action Tuesday at the Breakheart Reservation’s annual First Day Hike.
“It’s a new year; a new resolution to lose weight,” said Salem resident Bob Kieran. Although he acknowledged he makes the same resolution each year. “But why discard a perfectly good resolution? It was hardly used,” He joked.
Ranger Dan Donovan of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which operates the more than 700-acre reservation, said Breakheart began holding the first official First Day Hikes in the country in 1987. The hikes soon spread to other state lands, and First Lady Michelle Obama’s physical fitness initiatives have led to more than 400 similar hikes on conservation lands throughout the country, Donovan said.
Four groups departed on hikes of varying degrees of difficulty and length from the Breakheart Reservation’s Christopher P. Dunne Visitor Center at noon New Year’s Day. Workers at the center said they had enough clam chowder from Kelly’s to feed 200 visitors after the hikes – although many canine friends and baby carriages on the trails Tuesday suggested many more visited the reservation than were eating the chowder.
And they came from throughout the area.
Malden residents Sisi Deng, 25, and Xikang Zhang, 29, said they were not avid hikers, but were looking for a way to get outside this New Year’s Day.
“It’s close, and it’s fun,” Deng said of the hike.
Stacey Leone and her son Jonathan, 10, came from Reading to fulfill a resolution to get outside and exercise more.
“It’s outside and fresh air ”¦ I love the cold,” Stacey Leone said. She said she and her son last visited the reservation this past summer and wanted to see it in a different season.
She also praised the movie nights and other activities at the reservation for helping get kids interested and connected with the property and in the outdoors.
Jonathan said he was impressed that he could see Boston when he had climbed Eagle Rock last summer.
Donovan said he hoped the popularity of the hikes and the year-round activity at the reservation helped expose more people not just to Breakheart Reservation but also to other public lands in the commonwealth.
He said increased awareness of these resources brought more stewardship of the lands and support for additional resources to be protected.
But though people routinely marveled at the trees, old stone walls, wildlife and accessibility of the land when they visited – he said many more were unaware of the resource and that it could be used year-round.
“It’s your tax dollars at work,” he said.
Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].
