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It’s a cold January afternoon in Kent, patches of snow still on the ground despite bright sunshine. On the North Downs Way, just outside Sevenoaks and 20 miles from the centre of London, a dog-walker pauses and steps to one side of the narrow, muddy path to make space for a group of young people coming the other way. But a strange thing happens. As the man and the dog wait, the people just keep coming — two or three abreast, all seemingly in their 20s, smiling and chatting animatedly as they pour out of the woods along the path, a gregarious Gen-Z column almost 400-people strong.
Though he didn’t know it, the man was witnessing the latest outing of Overground, one of a new breed of walking groups that is taking an activity previously associated with sedate middle-age and reinventing it for a Gen-Z and millennial audience. Information is shared on TikTok and Instagram, and the groups often meet in the Home Counties or within a short train ride of other major cities.
For many of the organisers, it’s about building community, harnessing the mental-health benefits of spending time in nature, encouraging participation from under-represented groups and getting away from hectic city lives. And for an increasingly sober demographic, the early starts on weekend mornings are no problem.
Before starting their hiking group Dykes Who Hike in March 2024, neither Lucy Cooper nor Yas Message had been big hikers. “We wanted to see more of the countryside whilst making new connections. . . without relying on alcohol,” says Cooper.
When the pair advertised their first hike on social media, the “Seven Sisters walk” from Seaford to Eastbourne, 60 people turned up. When 250 turned up for their second, they realised they might need to formalise a ticketing system to avoid hikes becoming “too intimidating for people to enjoy”. Tickets now cost £2, and all 200 spaces typically sell out in minutes; in the past year, new branches have sprouted in Manchester, Leeds, Shropshire and Birmingham.
Last weekend I joined another new group, the Adventure Girls Club, meeting up with 12 women and two dogs at Bath station for a foray into the Downs. “The [traditional] hiking community can often focus on hiking the farthest, fastest or the most challenging route,” says the group’s founder Alice Keegan, “whereas I love to hike slowly, take in the views, notice the nature around me — a more mindful approach.”
Keegan, a qualified mountain leader, used to live in London’s bustling Bethnal Green and work as creative director of a design agency catering to the music industry. Feeling burnt out, she took herself solo hiking in the Lake District and began to appreciate how beneficial the outdoors was for her mental health. Now she wants to support others to “escape the stress of modern living”.
We file out of town and wind up steep woodland footpaths towards Sham Castle, built in 1762 for Ralph Allen, one of the key figures in Bath’s Georgian revival. As we meander through Smallcombe Wood, Keegan points out species of fungi including the frills of a turkey tail, and the black bulbs of King Alfred’s cakes.
But if connecting with nature is a key obsession, it is the digital world that is enabling these new communities. Lauren La Faci, TikTok’s London-based consumer communications lead, says that “in recent months, hiking enthusiasts have been captivating millions with stunning landscapes and hiking tutorials”. On the platform, #hiking has 5mn posts (and #hiketok has 270,000). In comparison, #swimming manages 2.1mn posts.
For Jeb Jagne, who founded Overground in July 2023, “walking became a way of taking a breather and a way to decompress” after suffering a bereavement, relationship breakup and job loss within the course of a few months. Overground hosts monthly walks within an hour’s train journey of the capital. On their first, 43 people showed up; now there can be as many as 500.
The walks are free and non-ticketed which means the organisers can’t limit numbers. “There are already so many barriers when it comes to finding space in the outdoors, I wouldn’t want to introduce another one,” says Jagne. Overground is now fundraising to set up a training programme for people from marginalised groups to become mountain guides.
Jagne, who previously worked as a DJ and nightclub promoter, has been sober for the past year. “I’ve seen people meet at Overground and form solid friendships, move into new homes and even go on holiday together. The walks will always be our North Star but what really matters is being that first domino in forming a new connection.”
Back in Bath, 13km trodden and legs aching, the Adventure Girls Club troops back to the train station. The group splits, exchanging social-media contacts and “nice to meet you’s”, returning to suburbia with new friendships forged — if a little muddier than four hours earlier.
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