Here at Slow the Parks, we love word games and wordsmithing.
Over the years we have collected a healthy number of trail games to play while backpacking or just out on a day hike.
Some we even invented ourselves.
Paul and Ned are particularly accomplished at word-play and word games, which makes hiking with them a day full of puns, spoonerisms, and quips.
So, here are our five favorite hiking and backpacking games to play along the trail.
Daisy Chain
2+ players
This is a game Ned and Paul came up with while driving home from a hike and it’s become one of our favorite.
It’s a great game to play when you want a little bit of word stimulation, but not too much competition.
How to Play:
- One person picks a word to begin the game, for example, “rain.”
- The next person in the hiking line repeats the first word and adds a related word or sound, for example, “rain-man.”
- Each hiker repeats the chain adding a new word to the end, for example, “rain-man-bun.”
- The play continues until the original word can be added to the end of the chain. An example could be “Rain-man-bungalow-down-pour-rain”
- Once you have finished the chain you can start again.
- The above chain is also a great example of how you can play around with how to fit words together. In the example, the word “bungalow” is helping the phrases “man-bun” and “low-down”
- It helps to be flexible about who finishes the chain when working with difficult words. If we are stumped and someone (out of turn) thinks of how to finish the chain by adding three words then we say go for it!
Hinky Pinky
2+ Players
This hiking game is a sort of DIY simple riddle game. Paul, Ned, and I played this for hours on our 50 miler in Glacier National Park.
How to Play:
- One person thinks of two two-syllable words that rhyme, e.g. “humble fumble.”
- The person then thinks of a simple riddle or clue for the word combo, for example, “meekly dropping a ball.” The clue can be as simple or difficult as you would like.
- The player then states they have “a hinky pinky for meekly dropping a ball.” The other players then work to guess what the hinky pinky is.
- Create whatever system you would like for taking turns. We usually just go for whoever has a hinky pinky they want to share next. This allows the game to develop organically and at random throughout the hike.
- Alternate rules: You can also play this game with one-syllable rhyming words called a “hink pink”, or three-syllable rhyming words called a “hinkity pinkity” (Ned is great at these). Just be sure to announce at the start of your riddle whether it is a “hink pink,” “hinky pinky,” or a “hinkity pinkity.”
Book Titles
2+ players
Paul and I created this hiking game on our 100 miler this last summer.
It was probably our most played game throughout the ten days.
How to Play:
- One person thinks of a title for a fake book, such as “Wax-Filled Chocolate.” The more absurd the better!
- Everyone (including the person who came up with the title) then thinks of subtitles for your book. It’s amazing the variety of titles and genres this can start to cover.
- Once you have exhausted the current book title move on to another!
- Alternate rules: You can also play this game in reverse. First, think of a great subtitle for a fictional book, and then have everyone think of titles.
- Example: We played a round with the book title “Wax-Filled Chocolate” and got some fun examples: Wax-Filled Chocolate: The Death of Romance in Modern America, Wax-Filled Chocolate: 100 Tips and Tricks to Make YOUR Instagram Snacks Stand Out, and Wax-Filled Chocolate: Maximizing Profits in a Free Market.
Nouns of Assemblage
1+ players
Have you ever heard the crazy names that exist for groups of animals?
Names like a “murder of crows,” a “parliament of owls” or a “gaggle of geese.”
These are known as nouns of assemblage, or collective nouns.
Nouns of assemblage originated as a fad some 500 years ago with the publication of a book on how to have a respective conversation about hunting.
It’s full of collective nouns that honestly sound like they were made up while some friends were drinking one night.
So why not come up with some more?
Maybe you’ll create the next one that sticks around like “panel of judges” or “staff of employees.”
How to Play:
- Think of a noun you want to create an assemblage for, for example, “mosquito.”
- Spend some time coming up with and debating the ideal noun of assemblage for your chosen topic; such as a “nuisance of mosquitoes” (Paul and I came up with this one while backpacking).
- Once you find the ideal noun of assemblage move on to the next one.
Both this game and the Book Title game can be played simultaneously throughout the day as inspiration hits you, which helps bring some variety into your trail games as you hike.
Contact
3+ players
Contact is one of my personal favorite hiking games and may be familiar to readers.
I’m going to first explain the rules, but it is best understood with an example, which I will include after the rules.
- One player is the word giver. They think of a word and give the first letter. For example, if the word is tent, the word giver says something like “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the letter ‘T.’
- The rest of the players want to work together to discover the word.
- If a player thinks they know the word then they can give a hint of what they think the word may be.
- When another player catches the hint and thinks they know the hinted-at word they shout ”contact.”
- The two players then count down from three and both say the word they are thinking of at the same time, for example, “tea.”
- If the two players say the same word, and it is not the word giver’s chosen word, then the word giver must give the next letter in their word and the game continues.
- However, if the word giver says the hinted-at word before the two players count down to 1, then the word giver does not have to give the next letter. For example, “The word is not Tea!”
- Players can also just guess a full word, though this is not useful until you are quite sure they know the word givers word.
Confused?
Here’s an example:
Let’s say Ned is the word giver and is thinking of the word “Backpacking.”
He will let Paul and Thomas know he has thought of a word and it starts with a B.
Paul thinks Ned’s word might be “baseball” so he hints by asking “is it the American pass time?”
Thomas catches the hint and thinks he knows the alluded-to word and shouts CONTACT.
Thomas and Paul count down from 3 together and both say “baseball” at the same time.
If Ned can also catch the hint and say “it’s not baseball” by the time Paul and Thomas count down and say baseball then he does not have to give the next letter of his word.
If Paul and Thomas do manage to say the word then he must give the next letter. In this case, the second letter would be “A.”
The game continues to get easier for Paul and Thomas until they can guess the word.
- It is advantageous to try and create hints that the word giver will not know, but other players will.
- For example, if Thomas knows that Paul is a fan of the Backstreet Boys and that Ned is not he could ask “is it the best boy band ever?” This way Paul would catch the hint but Ned would not.
We hope this collection of hiking games will keep you entertained on the trail!
With the start of a new year of hiking, we hope this collection of hiking games will keep you entertained on the trail!
Give them a try and let us know what you think!
If you have a hiking game you think we should try we would love to hear about it!
Comment below or send us an email at slowtheparks@gmail.com.