Hiking With Olivia: Trail Entertainment

By Olivia Reese

Hiking is about the scenery, the physical exertion, accomplishing goals and of course, the food. But playing games and singing songs while wandering through mountain meadows and shaded forest paths keeps our brains fresh and makes us laugh. Check out some of my favorites:

20 Questions

20 Questions is an old standby capable of entertaining for hours. It is simple and one of my favorites. I spent a weekend last month hiking the Great Sequoia National Forest and it took 3 hours of intense questioning to determine what my friend Victoria was thinking about…it was a mailbox. We played the game again hiking in Tahoe. It took us 2 hours to figure out “keyboard”.

The rules:

One person thinks of an object. Everyone else asks yes or no questions about the object, attempting to determine what it is. Some helpful questions: “Can you buy it at Walmart?”, “Is it made of plastic?”, “Would it cost more than $50?”, “Do you own one?”.

Green Glass Door

This game is the most fun for hikers who have never played it before. While backpacking the Porcupine Mountains in Wisconsin, my friend introduced the world where there are puppies but no dogs; Kittens but no cats; Battles but no wars. It took two days of agonizing to figure out the trick of the green glass door: things are only behind the green glass door if they have a double letter. There are letters, but no words! Butter but no jam! Trust me, this can keep the uninitiated entertained for hours. It is so obvious once you get it, and fun to hear the theories of the people struggling to get the pattern.

Singer Zinger

We played Singer Zinger while parked in San Mateo waiting for a friend to meet us. There was a traffic light nearby and we used it as a timer, but you could use a stopwatch on the trail. It needs to be set at one-minute intervals. To play, start the stopwatch, then the first person names a singer, band, or musician. The next person thinks of a musician whose name begins with the last letter of the first musician’s name. For example: Player one says “Randy Newman”, then player two could say “Nine Inch Nails”. The third person thinks up a musician whose name begins with “s”. When the stopwatch goes off, the person who is still trying to think up a musician must sing a song from the musician named by the person before them. That is the hilarious part.

Good Plain Old Conversation

Ahh old fashion chit chat! This one is honestly my favorite. I love to learn my friends stories and hear about what they are interested in. Of course you do to, but I hope you found some inspiration to add a little silliness to your hiking. I’d love to hear any other games that you guys like to play and I’ll add them in next time I go hiking! Have fun on the trails!

About the Author: Olivia Reese blogs at Hiking Backpacks. She has hiked since she was knee high and loves to explore nature around the world.