The Story of the Trails

Beginning in the 1920s, citizens on both coasts began patching together the groundwork of a national trail system. On the east coast, Benton MacKaye inspired the Appalachian Trail. On the west, the dedicated team of Clinton Clarke and Warren Rogers spearheaded the Pacific Crest Trail.

Clarke was already in his late 50s when the 1930s Depression-era CCC and Forest Service began serious work on Pacific Crest Trail. He actually never stepped foot on the trail to which he dedicated the last years of his life. The much younger, thirty-something Rogers did the scouting and legwork that went into laying the trail. But it was Clarke's expansive vision of"Trails for America" that was later translated into the National Trail System Act of 1968.

The act designated the Appalachian and Pacific Crest as the first two National Scenic Trails, the foundations to the National Trail System. Today the System consists of National Scenic Trails, which are continuous protected scenic corridors for outdoor recreation, as well as two more trail designations that were added later: National Historic Trails and National Recreation Trails. If you nit-pick the different designations, the meanings blur. Many of the National Scenic Trails have strong historical dimensions, and some of the National Recreation Trails can be rather lengthy.

But the basic principal remains. The National Scenic Trails are dedicated to foot travel, generally not allowing mechanized transport. They're long, frequently crossing several state lines. And they highlight the greatest glory of U.S. scenery, whether it be the the crystalline reaches of the Rocky Mountain continental divide or the steamy lushness of wilderness Florida. The eight national scenic trails are the jewels in the crown, the Yosemite and Yellowstone National Park analogs to American hiking trails. Just as few outdoor recreationists of whatever stripe have never visited a national park, few dedicated American hikers have never hiked a portion of at least one National Scenic Trail, whether it be the Pacific Crest or Continental Divide Trail in the west, or the Appalachian or North Country trail in the east.

By being singled out as the best among the great, most National Scenic Trails have developed distinctive cultures, created by partner organizations and by the thousands of hikers who interact with residents and fellow hikers along the way.

Thru-hikers are a special part of the culture of a National Scenic Trail. Thru-hikers are those determined few who hike a long distance trail in a piece. This takes not only dedication, but good planning and good physical condition. Besides putting the rest of their life on hold, including, generally, paid work, a thru-hiker must make arrangements to have food and other supplies shipped to them at pit stops along the way. There is an deep internal—call it psychological, call it spiritual—effect of a long distance hiking trip. A long-distance hiker absorbs the environment, becomes one with it. A special bond, an in-the-body memory, unites hikers who have walked the same long-distance trail. When they finally step off the trail, thru-hikers are invaluable sources of information on trail conditions as well as being conveyers of the more ineffable "what is it like?"

But you don't have to be a thru-hiker to "get into" a National Scenic Trail. All of the National Scenic Trails can be taken in short stretches. If you want, you can cobble the pieces together and perhaps one day claim the honor of having hiked the whole thing. Or you can just hike a favorite stretch near your home town over and over again, really getting to know it at different times of the year and under different weather conditions.

Perhaps the best way to know a stretch of the trail is to help maintain it. Partner organizations are integral to the National Trail System. Besides mapping and monitoring the whole trail, the partner organizations organize teams of volunteers who clear brush and repair the trail, shelters, bridges and the like along trail segments. The volunteers, as much as the the thru-hikers, really create the culture—the legends, the lore, the experience—of the trail.

The benefits of long distance trails for wildlife are not fully known. But it stands to reason that as development encroaches, our protected corridors will benefit animals and plants. It's all about the connecting the isolated dots of our national parks, national forests and other public lands. Our National Scenic Trails are a step towards reincorporating what had been one vast wilderness back into our national life.

Who knows? Maybe one day hiking will be as accomodated a form of transportation as airplanes or cars.

This way to Trail Nation.

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