News: Oregon Bike-Hut Trail Planning

Oregon Bike Trail and Hut System in Planning Stages

Travel Oregon is in the conceptual stage of planning a hut-to-hut single track biking system that they hope will eventually go from the Oregon/California border to the Oregon/Washington border. The initial planning involves coordination with the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the International Mountain Biking Association, as well as a number of Oregon organizations and businesses.  The proposed trail will not go through federally designated wilderness or tribal lands. I’ll report further on this project over time as the concept develops.

– Sam Demas

Book Review: “The Old Ways” by Robert Macfarlane

Book Review by Reidun D. Nuquist

Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (Penguin Books, New York, 2012). 433 pp., $18.00 paperback.

This elegantly written book by Robert Macfarlane is about “how people understand themselves using landscape.” Or put another way, how “we are shaped by the landscape through which we move.”

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HutNews October 2015

(Alaska Huts Logo, used with permission)

INCREASES IN HUT USE REPORTED

Informal reports from the Appalachian Mountain Club Huts, 10th Mountain Division Huts, and San Juan Hut Systems indicate that demand for their services is strong and usage continues to increase.  AMC and 10MD report occupancy rates are up approximately 4%-5% over last year.  AMC huts are experiencing their third year in a row of record occupancy.  they are on track to beat last years record of 43,000 visitors by up to 3,000 more visitors.  AMC and SJH are thinking about how to meet the growing demand, and expansion plans are under consideration.

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State of the Huts – Tenth Mountain Division – 2015

The state of hut operations outlined by Ben Dodge, Executive Director of Tenth Mountain Division Huts, is reprinted from their Summer 2015 Newsletter with permission.  Hut maintenance is featured.  Retiring Hawk Greenaway’s contributions as hutmaster are acknowledged and Morgan Boyles is introduced as his successor.

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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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A “Classic of the Green Mountains”

Benton MacKaye’s 1900 Hike Inspires Appalachian Trail

by Larry Anderson

The Long Trail “is a project that will be logically extended,” forester and conservationist Benton MacKaye prophesied in his pathbreaking October 1921 article, “An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning,” which appeared in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects. “What the Green Mountains are to Vermont the Appalachians are to the eastern United States. What is suggested, therefore, is a ‘long trail’ over the full length of the Appalachian skyline.” When MacKaye first publicly broached his idea for the Appalachian Trail, he thus offered the then-uncompleted Long Trail as a model for his vision of “a series of recreational communities throughout the Appalachian chain of mountains from New England to Georgia, these to be connected by a walking trail.”

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Shikoku Pilgrim Shelters – vernacular hut architecture

Check out these pictures of a form of vernacular architecture for pilgrims!  My acupuncturist friend Kazuhiro Watase returns to Japan every year for a pilgrimage walk.  Turning 60 this year he is treating himself to three walks!  Knowing of my interest in huts and shelters he kindly sent me photographs of some of the very simple shelters along the Shikoku Pilgrimage, where most pilgrims stay in one of the 88 temples visited on the walk, or in local guest houses.  On his next walk he will send pictures of the temples and guest houses.

These simple shelters are for those looking for  free places for resting and sleeping  The are mostly open-air shelters.  Most do not have running water, mattresses, or other amenities, but are perfect for backpackers.  The shelters are cared for by locals and other pilgrims.

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Mountain huts and yurts: Colorado Mechanical Survey Results

Note on Operations:

By Mary Ann DeBoer, Spruce Hole Yurt

Huts and yurts in Colorado and southern Wyoming offer everything from the luxurious to rustic in backcountry, off-the grid living.   A 2014 survey of 25 hut and yurt operators from the Colorado Hut and Yurt Alliance, highlights many creative solutions to the everyday problems of providing water, light, heat, sanitation and communication in remote locations.   The survey represents 56 huts and 10 yurts that operate on either public or private lands.

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Trip Report: Hut to Hut Hiking in the San Juan Huts

Where: San Juan Huts, Ridgway, Colorado, http://sanjuanhuts.com Hiked the Sneffels Traverse in late August, from Last Dollar Hut to Silverton, staying in four huts.

Amenities: The huts are basic, but comfortable. They have good cooking facilities, wood stove (which we didn’t need in August), nice areas for seating outside, and great outdoor settings.

Trip description: Four of us made the delightful 30 mile trek and thoroughly enjoyed hiking day after day at tree-line, circling around Mt. Sneffels though the woodlands and pastures. On the first two days we gathered lots of Chantrelle mushrooms, which enriched our risotto and other meals. We happened to be hiking in parallel with two couples, who were great company. The huts offer basic comfort, conviviality, and a chance to rest and recreate after a nice days walk.

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