James T. Kirk/Personal interests/Skills and hobbies

Kirk spent a huge portion of his life aboard starships, and consequently relished the times he could spend outdoors. He was an accomplished equestrian, and kept a horse at a mountain cabin that he owned during his first retirement. Another companion at his mountain cabin was , his Great Dane. He sold the cabin sometime after his return to Starfleet. ()
A personal challenge that nearly cost him his life was free-solo climbing the face of El Capitan mountain in Yosemite National Park on Earth. After Spock rescued Kirk from an accidental free fall, Kirk told the Vulcan and McCoy that while falling he knew he would not die because he had always known that he would die alone, and since he, McCoy, and Spock were present during the incident, he could not die. () However, Kirk's prediction eventually proved apparently wrong when he died on Veridian III in the company of Jean-Luc Picard, who was, evidently, an ultimately poor surrogate for Spock and/or McCoy in that particular situation. ()
Beckett Mariner once described herself as a "Kirk-style free spirit", though her mother, Captain Carol Freeman, retorted that Kirk was confident, whereas Mariner was unwilling to risk dropping her defenses to make allies. ()