Turners Falls First Day Hike helps residents focus on health in new year

MONTAGUE — All across the world, people made the same resolution for 2020: Be healthy.

In Turners Falls, that resolution manifested in a 3-mile walk on the Canalside Rail Trail on Wednesday, part of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR’s) First Day Hikes program, hosted locally by the Great Falls Discovery Center.

With temperatures in the high 30s, the route took hikers across several old and rusted bridges, with railroad tracks occasionally peeking up from under the crunching snow.

About half-way through the walk, the group of about 50 hikers stopped to take in the scene. The Montague Power Canal Reservoir glistened beneath the sun.

“(This is to) take a moment to reflect on the past year and the coming year,” said Janel Nockleby, who led the hike. “2020, can you believe we made it?”

With some prompting, people called out their New Year’s resolutions: “Hike more,” “Come out on the rail trail more,” “Getting outside every day,” “Making healthy choices,” “Being happy.”

There were some exceptions — like the woman who called out, “I want to read more about trees” — but almost all of the resolutions had to do with maintaining or bettering one’s health, either mental or physical.

Nockleby recognized that the Great Falls Discovery Center can play a role in helping those resolutions come to pass, and she said she would like to see more organized walks or hikes on the Canalside Rail Trail.

“One of my resolutions is to continue to try to offer as much as we can given the limited resources we have,” Nockleby said. “Our efforts today were successful in getting people to be out.”

Some had specific goals, like Guy Marks, who said he wants to lose weight in the coming year. He purposely set his sights high on losing 30 pounds.

“If I try to lose 30 pounds, and I only lose 10, I am good. That’s all I really need to lose,” he said. “But if I try to lose only 10 pounds, maybe I’ll lose only 5 pounds, or nothing.”

Betty Tegel said she wants to be active in general, and appreciates opportunities like the Canalside Rail Trail walk.

“This is fantastic. I’ve done this walk for three years in a row,” she said. “My New Year’s resolution? I want to have more fun, do more traveling — maybe somewhere I haven’t been before.”

Every year, DCR’s First Day Hikes program provides free, guided walks and hikes across Massachusetts.

Fittingly for New Year’s Day, the goals of the program are to facilitate healthy outdoor activity, while also promoting state parks and public land as places for recreation.

Tegel said she would like to see outdoor recreational opportunities expanded, and said it would be helpful if the Great Falls Discovery Center or the town of Montague facilitated activities like snowshoeing or cross-country skiing.

“There’s so much more we could utilize,” she said.

Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.