Category Archives: Essays

Mt. Tahoma — High Hut and MTTA Notes on History and Operations

Spring 2012, Karly Siroky, High Hut Manager.

High Hut Trail Guide Excerpts

Notes kindly compiled by Leyton Jump, Manager of High Hut, Mt. Tahoma Trails Association

OUR MISSION

2005

The Mt. Tahoma Trails Association operates and manages for public use a year-round hut-to-hut trail system adjacent to the slopes of Mt. Rainier, offering trail users of differing skill levels and economic backgrounds a safe and inspirational backcountry experience. MTTA leadership maintains a functional working partnership with all stakeholders (MTTA members, trail users, volunteers, and our host land owners) based on mutual trust and honesty. Volunteers provide labor to achieve this mission.

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More hut-to-hut hiking in USA? Part 2: Challenges

by Sam Demas

Creating more opportunities for people to use huts to support long distance hiking, biking, skiing is a complex undertaking.  If not done well, the potential for doing environmental harm is as great as the potential for doing educational and recreational good.

Part 1 of this article outlined the potential benefits. Part 2 outlines the challenges in thoughtfully regulating, siting, creating, and operating hut systems. Future posts will provide greater detail in many of these areas, and the operational profiles on this site provide information on how specific hut systems handle these challenges.  The audience for this piece is young people planning or dreaming of starting a hut system; it may also interest recreation planners and land managers.

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More hut-to-hut hiking in USA? Part 1: Benefits

More hut-to-hut hiking in USA?

Part 1: Benefits

By Sam Demas, hut2hut.info

Lets have a national conversation about huts

Americans love to hike their 167,00 miles of trails located on federal and state lands. We are building new trails to meet demand, and trail use is projected to continue increasing. But how do Americans feel about placing hut systems on some fraction of their trails? How do we feel as a nation about hut-to-hut hiking, skiing and biking? No one knows. It’s worth talking about.

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“A Hut in the Wild”: essays on huts from down under

Book notice of “Hut in the Wild” by Dianne Johnson, with a link to chapter one “Hut as Inscape“.

Dianne Johnson’s quirky, delightful, and inspiring book Hut in the Wild (http://www.loveofbooks.com.au, 2011) explores the hut as an archetype, “a cabin of the imagination, and inscape, it is redolent of a lost paradise regained, a gleaner’s bliss….and sometimes a place of hospitality.”  Dr. Johnson, an anthropologist, has compiled a series of essays as homage to the hut as a powerful “inscape”, or idea and  archetype. Johnson wrote books on many topics (including Aboriginal social justice and indigenous astronomies), and this little book (97 pages) is a flowering of her love affair with huts and wilderness.

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New journal published: “World of Trails”

The World Trails Network (WTN) has published the first issue of “World of Trails”.  Robert Searns, editor, states in his welcome note:

This publication is the first global resource of its kind, serving trail advocates, designers, planners, trail managers, tourism industry professionals, national economic development agencies and, of course, trail enthusiasts from around the world.  Our goal is to offer, on a regular basis, with this digital magazine, current information about trails, featured trails in many nations, access to trails development resources, a forum for exchange on trail matters and much more.

Check it out for an international perspective on the WTN’s movement to bring advocates and experts together around the world and to promote high quality trails worldwide.

“Wilderness 2.0: what does wilderness mean to the Millenials?”

Authors Kim Smith and Matt Kirby published the results of their investigation of what the concept of wilderness means to people born after 1980.  They were interested to learn how factors such as anthropogenic climate change and a decline in exposure to the outdoors may have changed the meaning of wilderness for 21st century Americans.  They wanted to know: does the wilderness tradition still speak to Millenials?  Their paper “Wilderness 2.0: what does wilderness mean to the Millenials?” was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, April 2015.

Click here to read the article: Wilderness 2.0

“Hiking Trails in America: Pathways to Prosperity” AHS report June 2015

The American Hiking Society has issued a valuable overview report on the status and future of our hiking trails.  Here is the description from their web site:

American Hiking Society is pleased to announce it’s publication of Hiking Trails in America: Pathways to Prosperity, a report that answers the need for a one-stop source for readily understood information about America’s hiking trails and the myriad of benefits these trails offer the nation. Hiking Trails in America provides information about the evolution of hiking trails in the U.S., the trails community, the benefits of trails, and in the 2015 inaugural issue, the economic benefits of trails, which are surprisingly significant.

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“Leaving only footsteps? Think Again” NYTimes opinion piece

Take note of interesting opinion piece “Leaving only footprints? Think Again” reporting on research the impact of walking on wildlife.  Published as an  opinion piece in the New York Times on February 15, 2015 by Christopher Solomon, this piece will make you think again about the impact of humans in the wilderness.

Leading Quality Trails – Best of Europe

By Lis Nielsen, President European Ramblers Association (ERA-EWV-FERP)

Walking is a very popular and growing pastime worldwide. Europe is no exception! All over Europe more and more people tie their bootlaces and set out during their holidays and leisure time to discover a variety of natural beauties on foot. Indeed, Europe offers thousands of kilometers of amazing trails enjoyed by the locals and tourists alike.

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