Fall Gear Essentials for Your Next Outdoor Adventure

Happy Babywearing Month! Each year people all over the world celebrate babywearing during the month of October! Not only is the sense of community around babywearing heightened, expanded, and enjoyed, but there is also a focus is spreading babywearing magic with others. Caregivers everywhere share their babywearing stories, introduce others to the joys and benefits of babywearing, and the cultural and historical babywearing traditions are learned and passed on. It is an important month and OutGrown is celebrating too! Since babywearing has become popular in Western culture, it has changed the way we experience the outdoors with our families. Whether you are using a ring sling, stretchy wrap, or soft structure carrier for a walk around your neighborhood or using a frame carrier or soft structure carrier and hitting the trail for a day-long hike, we rely on wearing our babies to make it easier to get outside with our kiddos every day. Even those toddlers with tired legs go up into the carrier once in a while (they make toddler carriers too)! In celebration of babywearing, Hike it Baby is sharing our top 5 blog posts on wearing our babies and toddlers, as well as some important links to additional babywearing information. Our Top 5 Babywearing Blog Posts 1. How Babywearing Benefits You and Your Child Anyone who has experience with babywearing will tell you that it definitely has its benefits. However, there are actual studies out there that provide scientific evidence for these benefits, and it turns out there are many! 2. How to Babywear in the Rain Tips to keep you, your baby, and your carrier dry! 3. How to Tandem Babywear While Hiking More children also mean more tired little legs. You may need to enter the realm of tandem wearing – wearing two children in carriers at once. Here are some general tandem wearing tips to get you started. 4. How to Layer When Babywearing in the Cold Winter is right around the corner! Wearing your baby is a great way to keep baby safe, dry, and warm in winter weather. Get those layers right and you'll be happy on the trail all winter long! 5. Ways to Get Back On the Trail After Having a Baby Being able to wear your baby on the trail is key to getting back outside after baby. But, it's only one component. Check out these tips and advice from our Hike it Baby community to make it easier to get back into nature after having a baby. Additional Babywearing Information Babywearing Basics - Learn all about different carriers, safety tips, and more. International Babywearing Week - This celebration also occurs in October and is all about promoting babywearing across the world! This celebratory week was created by the now-defunct organization Babywearing International, but volunteers stepped up have kept this annual tradition going. Black Babywearing Week - This June celebration is all about uplifting and inspiring black babywearers, while also unifying black babywearing educators, bloggers, and black-owned babywearing companies. Are you planning on hitting the trail to celebrate babywearing month? Visit https://weareoutgrown.org/events to see if there is a scheduled hike near you! Photos courtesy of Deanna Curry and Jessica Human. ABOUT OUTGROWN OutGrown is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to create a world where everyone can enjoy the physical and mental benefits of spending time outside. We are focused on creating opportunities and removing barriers to access so families with babies and young children can take their first steps outside. We believe all families have the right to connect with nature, benefit from spending time outdoors and be inspired to a lifelong love of nature. Since its grassroots inception in 2013 as Hike it Baby, OutGrown is a growing community of 280,000 families and over 300 volunteers. You can find additional information on all of our programs at WeAreOutGrown.org EDITOR’S NOTE: We're thrilled that you are reading this article from OutGrown. Our team is dedicated to bringing you valuable content and resources that inform, inspire, and entertain. However, creating quality content comes with its costs. It's the result of the dedication and hard work of our writers, editors, and volunteers who truly believe in the mission of connecting families with young children to nature and fostering community. As a non-profit organization, we rely on the support of our amazing community. If you are in a position to help, we kindly ask for your contribution to help us expand our reach and continue providing valuable content for everyone. No matter the amount, every contribution counts and allows us to keep growing and making a difference together.        

From haunted houses to haunted objects, there is no shortage of scary things you can explore, especially at this time of year. Haunted hiking trails are no exception.  However, not every source agrees on which trails are in fact, the spookiest. So, we did the research for you. All of the spooky and haunted trail lists were reviewed, the data was compiled, and here is the ultimate top 5 list of the spookiest trails in the United States, based on popularity.   #1 Bloody Lane Trail, Maryland As if the name isn’t enough to frighten you, this 1.5-mile trail loop takes visitors through the open fields of the Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg MD, the site of one of the deadliest battles in the U.S. Civil War. The three primary battles fought between Confederate and Union soldiers on September 17, 1862, resulted in more than 23,000 casualties.  Gunfire and the smell of gunpowder have been reported when no one is on the road or even nearby. One visitor to the battlefield saw several men in Confederate uniforms walking Bloody Lane. He thought they were reenactors until they vanished. The most convincing of the reports is one of some Baltimore schoolboys who walked Bloody Lane and heard singing out in the fields. They said it sounded like a chant or the Christmas song Deck the Halls. The area was near the observation tower where the Irish Brigade charged the Confederates with a battle cry in Gaelic, which sounded like the Christmas carol.  Chilnualna Falls, California. Image by Bmdavll. #2 Chilnualna Falls Trail, California This strenuous 8.2-mile loop takes you along cascading Chilnualna Creek to a series of falls, comprised of five large cascades sliding through and over rock formations about the Wawona Basin.  As you pass Grouse Lake listen for the cries of a young boy, who according to Ahwahnechee tribal legend, drowned in the lake. And, if you jump into the lake to save the boy, you’ll drown too. A Miwok tribal legend warns visitors to stay away from the 240-foot edge at the highest waterfall. Those that get too close will get pushed over by the evil spirit “Po-ho-no”. Transept Trail, Arizona. Image by Daniel Schwen. #3 Transept Trail, Arizona With multiple views of the Grand Canyon, the fairly-easy, 3-mile Transept Trail follows the canyon rim from Grand Canyon Lodge to the North Rim Campground. There are also many rocks along the path with fossils in them, including crinoids, shells, sponges, and many other sea creatures. You might happen upon a creature of the ghostly sort as well. According to trail visitors and park rangers, the ghost of a bereaved wife and mother mourns the loss of her husband and son, supposedly in a hiking incident no less, at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim. The affectionately named Wailing Woman appears dressed in a white dress with blue flowers and floats along the trail crying.   Mason Hutchinson’s Grave, Ghost House Trail, Tennessee. Image by Brian Stansberry #4 Ghost House Trail, Tennessee Zero points were given for originality in the name of the trail, but this 1.2-mile easy loop makes up for it in the number of scares it provides hikers. Homesteader Matson Hutchinson lost his daughter Mary to tuberculosis in the late 1800s and visitors to where the home once stood claim to hear sounds of a young girl suffering. The trail winds past the Hutchinson family cemetery, where visitors have reported spirits’ shapes appearing behind the gravestones in photos. Lastly, look twice if you come across a fellow hiker dressed in a red flannel and gray pants. It could be the apparition of Mason Hutchinson, who’s rumored to appear throughout the woods. Iron Goat Trail, Washington. Image by David Severance/US Department of Transportation. #5 Iron Goat Trail, Washington This 6-mile trail loop runs along the old railroad grade that used to take trains up into the cascades. The remarkably beautiful hike is complete with amazing mountain views on one side, and the bones of old railroad tunnels and snowsheds on the other. The trail is also the site of one of the Wellington Avalanche Disasters where, in 1910, nearly 100 lives were lost when a vast section of snow on Windy Mountain broke loose and crashed down, sweeping two stopped trains off the tracks. There have been reports of disembodied voices echoing through the avalanche tunnel when no one else is there or no one else accompanying them has spoken. Visitors say they have felt invisible hands touch them, with their hair standing on end for no reason. Some have claimed to have even seen full-on apparitions. This trail combines beauty, history, and possibly a haunt or two. Honorable Mentions Lastly, our list of honorable mentions. These trails appeared in at least two of the spookiest or haunted hike lists. Long Path, NY Norton Creek Trail, North Carolina Batona Trail, New Jersey Warm Springs Canyon Road, California Violet City Lantern Tour and Heritage Walk, Kentucky The Black Diamond Mines, California The Gold Mine Trail, Washington Spruce Railroad Trail, Washington Bluff Mountain and Punchbowl Shelter, Virginia White Sands National Monument, New Mexico Elfin Forest, California Bash Bish Falls, Massachusetts Mammoth Cave, KY Appalachian Trail, New Hampshire Do you have an allegedly haunted trail or natural area in your town? Share your local legend in the comments! What’s the best way to hike a haunted trail? With a group, of course! Find your outdoor community with Hike it Baby. Learn more about our mission and membership levels today! About Hike it Baby Hike it Baby is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to getting families outdoors and on trails across the U.S. and internationally, supporting, educating and inspiring families through their more than 300 communities across North America. Since its grassroots inception in 2013 in Portland, Oregon, Hike it Baby is now a growing community of 270,000 families and 500 volunteer branch ambassadors hosting more than 1,600 hikes per month. More information, as well as daily hike schedules, can be found at HikeitBaby.com, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.   Sources: US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Date accessed 10/28/2019, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back1105.cfm National Park Service, Accessed 10/28/2019, https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wawonahikes.htm Only in Your State, Accessed 10/28/2019, https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/northern-california/haunted-hike-waterfall-norcal/ Outside Magazine, Accessed 10/28/2019, https://www.outsideonline.com/2393687/most-haunted-hikes-us Sierra, Accessed 10/28/2019, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2013-5-september-october/green-life/6-haunted-hiking-trails That Oregon Life, Accessed 10/29/2019, https://thatoregonlife.com/2016/11/iron-goat-trail/ Images sourced from The Wikimedia Commons Image Library with use granted under the Creative Commons CC0 License.