Long Distance, Single Use Foot Trail

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by Bill Coffin: condensed from the Finger Lakes Trail News, Fall 2009

Single-track trail mileage limited to hikers is the backbone of the Finger Lakes Trail, and it needs better protection from mechanical impact. Last year there was a proposal in Albany for a statewide multiple use trail system, which would be a disappointment to hikers since it fails to recognize the value of single use hiking trails. Something must be fundamentally wrong if conservation does not encompass saving a continuous track solely for the foot traveler.

Seeing nature at its very best, which is a major purpose of hiking, requires a foot trail with a wilderness character. To often the hiking experience gets lumped with other types of trail usage. It is wrong to believe that the woods should look the same to everyone and that multiple use trails are the answer. Wilderness is the experience hikers seek.

The heaviest and fastest trail usage determines the final shape and appearance of a multiple use trail and also dominates the experience of other when they are on the trail. Unfortunately, on multiple use trails the hiking experience comes last.

The FLT [and great portions of the North Country Trail] is a long distance, single track hiking trail, reflecting the only kind of long-distance land travel that existed in North America 500 years ago. The Finger Lakes Trail brings back a semblance of wilderness pre-history. It is a highly valuable conservation and recreation resource that merits protection as a single-use footpath.

Finger Lakes Trail

DYFORYST

Todd McMahon (self-photo)

guest post, submitted by Todd McMahon, "T-Man"

I just wanted to write a story about one of my experiences when I hiked the Kekekabic Trail in late May. I had stopped early and camped at the Aganok Falls campsite. It’s a truly spectacular falls, and I took lots of photos. My plan was to get up early and hike out to the Gunflint Trail the next day.

So I got up the next morning and started hiking by 6am. About 15 minutes after I started hiking I got to a place where the trail goes up a gigantic hill. Now, backpacking up a steep hill is not my most favorite thing to do, but I kept on thinking that maybe there would be some incredible views at the top. Maybe I would be able to take some great photos. Well, I made it to the top of the hill, and I did see some incredible views. They were incredibly bad.

I was in the burn zone and everything I could see going forward was burnt. It was very sad. I did hike out to the Gunflint Trail that day, but the whole hike, all 12 miles of it was in the burn zone. And the next day I hiked the Magnetic Rock Trail which is a burnt up landscape, too.

After I came home from my backpacking trip I decided to find some information about the fire on the internet. The fire is called the Ham Lake Fire because it started at a campsite on Ham Lake. It is suspected that a canoeist had left the campsite with his campfire still smoldering. The Ham Lake Fire burned over 75000 acres, and was the largest fire in the Boundary Waters in more than a century.

The Forest Service recommends that all campfires should be drown with water. All the embers should be completely soaked. After reading all this I came up with an acronym. Here it is, DYFORYST. It is pronounced like Die Forest and stands for “Drown Your Fire Or Ruin Your Special Trail.” It’s not the most catchy acronym in the world but it makes a powerful point: drown your fire or the forest will die and your favorite trail will be ruined. It doesn’t matter if it a canoe trail or a hiking trail, it will be ruined. The acronym DYFORYST might just be different enough or weird enough that people will remember it.

The canoeist in question was an avid outdoorsman who loved the Boundary Waters. Maybe he made a mistake or maybe the fire started some other way. We’ll never know exactly what happened on May 5, 2007 on the shoreline of Ham Lake. But if you remember DYFORYST, maybe you can prevent a big fire on the date of your next outing.

Border Route Trail
Kekekabic Trail

Reaching Out to Young Members

hikers on the NCT (photo by J Young)

based on a news article in the Albany Times-Union, "Hikers take steps to find young blood," by Alan Wechsler, Feb 18, 2009

Last fall, Bruce Matthews, Executive Director of the North Country Trail Association met with hiking volunteers in upstate New York. He commented on the average age of the participants. “It is striking, the paucity of young people attending these events,” said Matthews, while chatting with the group at a Delmar restaurant.

He noted that the average age appeared to be mid-60's. This is a demographic of many outdoor clubs. The Schenectady Wintersports Club is attempting to reach out to younger participants by starting a chapter for 18-30 year olds. A Taconic Hiking Club member, Colin Campbell– age 72, said, ““If you’re in your early 40s, you’re a young member in our club.”.

One problem is that younger people often have less time, juggling work and family responsibilities. Even the Adirondack Mountain Club is working hard to bring in younger members by planning more family-friendly activities. “We’re aging out,” said Deborah Zack, director of membership and development at the ADK.

There are plenty of young people hiking, paddling, rock climbing, skiing, etc. It just seems to be difficult to get them to join existing groups. Some clubs are trying new ways of making contact with people, for example through social sites like Facebook. Young people generally don’t want to have structured meetings, or perhaps even designated leadership roles.

Groups need young members to take up the reins of advocacy for trails as well as building and maintenance of the actual pathways. Yet the differences in outlook can create friction between the groups. The future of trail creation and advocacy depends on bringing the generations together.

“We love these [older] folks — they’ve got expendable income and they’ve got time,” said Matthews.“ But the reality is we have 10 to 15 years left with them. If we had a 20-year-old, we’d have a lifetime.”

What is Landscape- an Ohio Essay

excerpts from the blog Tales of a Bad “Geographer”, "So I'm Procrastinating, Dec 11, 2008, by Luke Badgerow, used with permission

What is Landscape?

I prefer to begin my stories in the middle, this way it gives me latitude to meander forward in the story through the “exciting parts” and fill in what details I need as I need them.

Not Sending weather, but ICE weather

I start with a photo of an element, or portion of a landscape. Not because the photo is the landscape, or that it contains the definitional element that I associate with what a landscape is. But more because of the fact that the image, and its relation to a number of others describes an ordering of reality from different angles.

This particular picture is of my dog, who has been a constant companion on nearly every outing I’ve made in the last six years, but more importantly this image is of the landscape, in the broader, vertical view, of a considerable portion of Southeast Ohio. The specific element or locale here is twenty feet off of the main trail, part of the Buckeye Trail that circumvents [sic] the entire state, but all the same many people don’t venture away from the cliff band and look out over this gully.

In March with four inches of snow and a veneer of veriglass ice on all rock surfaces, the hike to my perch takes around half an hour. In early December before the winter truly reaches into this hollow, the hike takes ten minutes. So time has played an important factor in the definition. Every place, every subject changes as time passes. This is as true for this particular place in the Hocking State Forest as it is for Lower Manhattan.

I draw attention to my perch one more time, only this time I take it from the valley /hollow floor on a day in April of last year as winter finally let go of its hold, but before spring gets complete control, to demonstrate a quick final point about the concept of defining landscape. I make this argument from a particular perspective or perception, but that perception changes, as does the weather, as the fog lifts from the valley floor, you still can’t see my spot… So who’s to say that it’s an actual place, or some fabrication of my mind? But at the same time, what difference does it make?

See So, I'm Procrastinating to read the entire, complex essay on Landscape.