Why Walk? – essay by Robert Manning

Why walk, indeed? History can be read as a millennia- long struggle to free ourselves from the need to walk. Freedom from walking has always been highly coveted, coming first to the rich and powerful; slaves carried their masters, knights rode horses, the rich owned carriages, and the upper and now middle classes drive cars. Today, only the less fortunate are forced to walk. Most people prefer to sit and ride rather than walk, or so it’s been.

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Book review: “Walking Distance” by Robert and Martha Manning

Walking Distance: Extraordinary Hikes for Ordinary People, by Robert and Martha Manning, Oregon State University Press, 2013

The message of this beautiful, intelligent, and highly readable book is: long distance walking is within the walking distance of ordinary folks.  Walking Distance makes the unique and primeval pleasures of long distance walking seem accessible to the average healthy person.  Which it is!

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Over-snow Vehicle Rule issued by US Forest Service

Finally!  Conflict on trail use between skiers and snowmobilers has been addressed with a new US Forest Service (USFS) rule: the Over-Snow Vehicle (OSV) Travel Management Rule Revision.  10 years in the making, the final OSV Rule revisions were published in the Federal Register on January 28, 2015.  Also included in this notice are summary responses to some of the 20,000 comments received during the public comment period.

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New model emerging in Adirondacks

Planning is underway for an integrated trails and lodging system in the nation’s largest park and largest state-level protected area .  The Adirondack Community-based Trails and Lodging System (ACTLS) has received a $220,000 grant from the New York State Department of State, with funds provided under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund Act.  This grant will be matched by ACTLS’s.  ALCTS home page states:

the unique assets and amenities of the Adirondack Park can be leveraged to attract a global marked of outdoor recreators and provide recreation opportunities that improve the quality of life for Adirondack residents.  We hope you will join us in planning a world-class trail and lodging system.

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Colorado Hut and Yurt Alliance

Colorado is on a roll!  With about 130 huts and yurts statewide, the owners formed an alliance (the first of its kind in the USA) in 2014 to exchange information and explore common cause.  The alliance has developed a website and meets periodically to work towards increased visibility for the nation’s largest grouping of huts and yurts.  The home page of the Colorado Hut and Yurt Alliance provides a summary statement of the two year old group’s purpose:

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North Country Trail Route Adjustments – support requested

Two proposed adjustments to the route of the North Country Trail (NCT) would: 1. utilize more than 400 miles of existing trails in Minnesota (including the Superior Hiking Trail, the Border Route Trail,  and the Kekekabic Trail), and 2. extend the trail about 40 miles east of its present terminus to link to the Appalachian Trail in Vermont.

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Art on the New England Trail

by Charles Tracy, National Park Service.

In my work on community-based, regional and long-distance trails for the National Park Service, I have found that working with artists is an effective way to draw new visitors and to deepen the experience of current trail users. Connecting with new audiences to national parks and national trails through art is also recognized by the National Park Service as the “Arts Afire” national strategy in our recent “Call to Action”–plan for the NPS Centennial in 2016. The “Arts Afire” strategy is to “showcase the meaning of parks and trails to new audiences through dance, music, visual arts, writing, and social media.

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Book Review: Huts of the Swiss Alpine Club

The Huts of the Swiss Alpine Club

by Marco Volken and Remo Kundert

AS Verlag, 2013.

 WOW.…a comprehensive view of the world’s premier hut-to-hut hiking systems! This is a luscious feast for trip planners, armchair trekkers, architecture mavens, and dreamers and designers of future hut systems in America and elsewhere!

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Book review: “Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America”

In an attempt to prevent foreclosure on the family farm, Helga Estby and her daughter Clara, ages 36 and 18, walked from Spokane, WA to New York City in 1896. They walked over 3,500 miles in 7 months and 18 days. Taking into account stops “aggregating about two months” to work and to recover from injuries and illness, they may have averaged about 20 miles a day, though they often walked considerably faster. Their satchels weighed about 8 pounds and did not include a tent or blankets, but did include lanterns for night walking. By today’s standards, their thin leather ladies shoes and foul weather clothing were shockingly inadequate.

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