By Hut2Hut Pilgrimage Editor Amanda Wagstaff
View of the abbey complex on Iona © Amanda Wagstaff 2016
I arrived in Glasgow and immediately realized that I was overdressed. It was only the first of June, but a spell of cloudless summer weather had overtaken the west of Scotland. As I walked across town with my backpack, I could feel sweat dripping down my face and the beginnings of sunburn on my neck. I was a mess by the time I reached Queen Street Station.
In the April 23, 2016 New York Times Ken Ilguna makes a case for implementing “Right to Roam” laws in USA similar to those in England, Sweden, and other European nations. Along the way he provides some useful comparative perspective on how different nations handle right to roam. In the end he acknowledges that right to roam legislation is unlikely to happen in the USA for several reasons, including:
1. the “takings” clause of the Fifth Amendment declares that private property cannot “be taken for public use, without just compensation.”, and
Poet, writer and walker James Lasdun has published a wonderful exploration of the delights and challenges of the famous Via Alpina, and the experience of walking hut-to-hut. Published in the April 11, 2016 issue of the New Yorker magazine, this is a delightful and serious essay on the Via Alpina, a trail that wends its way through 8 nations and has more than 300 huts spaced a days walk apart. He describes parts of the trail, gives glimpses of hut life, and relates his own challenges and observations in walking a portion of the trail in the Triglav National Park in Slovenia. Its not often that an American general interest magazine devotes space to describing the hut-to-hut experience, and this one — humorous, well-written, and informative — is an especially worthy contribution to America’s growing consciousness of the hut experience of long distance walking.
by Amanda Wagstaff, Hut2Hut Pilgrimage Editor
“A pilgrim travels differently. Always in pilgrimage, there is a change of mind and a change of heart.”
– John O’Donohue.
In a roundabout way, John O’Donohue is the reason I am living in Ireland right now. In the summer of 2014, my sister and I travelled to northern Virginia to visit a family friend who was living with cancer. We all knew that it might be our last time together, and indeed, it was the last time that I saw Aunt Ann.
Mathias Eichler, outdoors advocate and editor of the Outdoor Society blog, grew up in the foothills of the Alps. He can’t understand why there are not more huts in USA, his beloved adopted land. He is a great fan of our National Parks and advocate for recreational use of public land. {Featured image courtesy Mathias Eichler}
In two posts (click on titles in excerpts below) he discusses his ideas. In an editorial “Whats next for America’s Public Lands?” he presents a case for more huts on public lands. A separate piece “Eight Huts we need in the Mountains of the American West” presents brief profiles, accompanied by great pictures, of some huts he admires.
The Byrne family has farmed in the Wicklow hills, along the Wicklow Way, for five generations. As a teen Sean helped out just down the road at a guest-house catering to hunters and fishermen on the beautiful Lough Dan. He also worked for his neighbors, the Guinness family, on their estate on the sublime Lough Tay. This farm boy gradually developed a gracious ease in working with people of all walks of life, a strong sense of the traditions of rural hospitality, deep knowledge of the land and the region, and a guiding commitment to preservation of the mountain uplands and way of life. Photo above of Sean and Theresa Byrne.
Understanding Local Perceptions of Management and Values of Long Distance Trails:
Summary of Masters Project, Duke University, 2015
By Julie Judkins,
Director of Education and Outreach, Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Introduction
Trails are built for connecting people to nature: an important first step of building conservation advocates. Long distance trails offer recreational opportunities, economic stimulus for neighboring communities, education and research opportunities, and lifelong activity. They provide connectivity for human passage and can offer an experience of a lifetime, a pilgrimage of reflection or spiritual awakening. Most importantly, the lands that national trails traverse are protective corridors providing ecosystem services, valuable migration pathways, significant natural resources, and help sustain biological diversity. The Appalachian Trail, for example, runs primarily along the ridgelines of the Appalachian Mountain range and Trail lands protect headwater streams for many of the east coast’s watersheds.
Hut to hut in the USA: situation and outlook
by Sam Demas and Wilson Josephson
[Note: This 2015 post is out of date. See our book for more recent analysis of huts in USA. Will update later.]
Sam August 2021
This is a preliminary overview of the 15 hut-to-hut systems in the USA. There are a number of systems under development or expanding, and I’m hoping readers will tip me off to others that should be included. Currently these 15 systems comprise 107 huts, yurts, and cabins, and offer 1,496 beds for long distance hut-to-hut hikers, bikers and skiers. This sketch of hut-to-hut infrastructure in the USA provides an overview by region, and very briefly discusses: business models, recreational uses, staffing, and some. Based on the data presented, it concludes with some musings about the future of hut systems supporting long distance human-powered travelers in the USA. hut to hut in usa
Brief History of the Rendezvous Huts, oldest in the West!
By Sam Demas and Charles Hickenbottom
This is a companion piece to history of the Methow Valley Trails system, which operates hand in glove with Rendezvous Huts and other businesses and organizations in the area. Together they maintain and operate a remarkable Nordic skiing trail and lodging system in the East Cascades, which is based on an unusually high degree of cooperation across the community.
How the Methow Valley become a world-class lodging and trails hub
By Sam Demas
With fabulous ski terrain and a great climate, Winthrop, WA on the east slope of the North Cascades, became a mecca for winter sports enthusiasts in the 1970’s. Attracted by the consistent snow cover, great climate, and stunning natural beauty, young people began to move into the area. So did people representing big alpine ski resorts, with ambitions to create a destination alpine ski resort and to profit from an attendant real estate boom. One could view the modern history of the Methow Valley as a tale of big alpine ski interests vs. environmentalists, with x-country ski enthusiasts, or “soft path” recreationists, as the “middle-path” saviors. While that’s part of it, it oversimplifies the story by painting a black and white picture of conflict and reaction. Instead, it seems that the values and visions of Methow Valley residents — old and new — gradually cohered and prevailed through a parallel effort to create a recreation hub and economic driver without turning Methow Valley into another Aspen.