I’m reading Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, a hilarious account of his adventures on the Appalachian Trail (AT). Of his first day on the trail, Bryson writes:
It was hell. First days on hiking trips always are. I was hopelessly out of shape — hopelessly. The pack weighed way to much. Way too much. I had never encountered anything so hard, for which I was so ill prepared. Every step was a struggle. The hardest part was coming to terms with the constant dispiriting discovery that there is always more hill.
The AT is 2,160 miles. It runs from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, traversing 14 states. According to Bryson, 1500 people set out to complete it each year, but only 300 people make it to the end.
Despite Bryson’s eloquent descriptions of the miseries of trudging day after day through endless forests weighed down by a gigantic backpack, I’ve always dreamed of taking an adventure on foot when my son’s older. I love to walk, and I hope I’ll get the opportunity to tackle at least some portion of one of these trails someday.
- The Colorado Trail (CT)
The CT stretches almost 500 miles, from Denver to Durango, traveling through six wilderness areas and eight mountain ranges and rising to 13,334 feet. I’ve done day hikes on many portions of the Colorado Trail, and every part I’ve visited is beautiful. (The below picture is actually from a stretch of the 401 Trail near Crested Butte, Colorado, but it gives you an idea of what makes hiking in Colorado worthwhile.)
- The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)
The PCT zigzags 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. It passes through six of the seven ecozones in North America, including deserts, mountains, and old growth forest. Three hundred hikers attempt the entire trail each year, walking through the Mojave Desert, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite, Crater Lake, and the Columbia River Gorge.
- The North Country Trail (NCT)
The longest hiking trail in the U.S., the NCT stretches 4,200 miles from New York to North Dakota. It spans mountains, forests, and prairies and skirts Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
We have no shortage of long hiking trails in the United States. The National Trails System totals 60,000 miles in all 50 states. It’s longer than the Interstate Highway System. If you’re looking for a place to hike, or just want to dream of your own adventure on foot, you can find lots of information about America’s hiking trails at americantrails.org.
I’d also like to take a hut trip someday. On these adventures, you spend the day walking in the woods. Then instead of sleeping on the ground or on a platform in the outdoors, you sleep on a bed in an inn. Huts range from rustic cabins to grand lodges. Europe abounds with hut hiking adventures. The accommodations in the Alps are supposedly quite luxurious; think: “arugula salad, beef consommé, entrecôte steak, and fine cheeses”. But you can also take hut trips in Colorado, New Hampshire, Georgia, Glacier National Park, Yosemite, and other locations around the U.S. You can learn more about hut hiking here.
Have you ever taken an adventure on foot? Would you like to? I’d love to hear about it.
I’ve read that book (A Walk in the Woods), and there were parts where I literally laughed out loud. My favorite past is where Bill Bryson is talking about what to do if you come face to face with a bear: do you run? Play dead? Scream? Stay completely still?
I read an excerpt on the first evening of a backpacking trip I led into the Sierra Nevada Mts., but for some reason, the other backpackers (most of whom had never backpacked before) were not amused…
I loved that part too. That’s so funny your fellow backpackers were not amused. I think I’m lucky that my husband was with me the only time I ran into a black bear. The bear sauntered into our campground, and I shouted, “Run. Get in the tent. Play dead.” – exactly the things you’re not supposed to do. “No,” my husband said, “Be loud, get tall, bang on pots.” Oh yeah, that’s right. It’s hard to think straight in the moment. Fortunately the bear looked pretty bored by us and lumbered away. I’m really hoping I never run into a cougar.
Hubby listened to Bryson’s book on tape back when he had a stressful daily commute. It helped. I enjoyed it, too.
We seriously considered doing the PCT at one point but never worked out all the details, especially what to do with our dogs. I have CSA friends that regularly do long-distance hiking (and biking) and love it. (They blog about it, too.)
Hope you get a chance to hit the trail!
Thanks for linking to your friends’ blog. I’ll check it out!
Abby, you’d appreciate reading A Long Trek Home. A book also about walking. We reviewed and gave away a copy of the book on our adventure blog months ago.
http://www.adventureinprogress.com/a-long-trek-home
Now the person who won that giveaway is paying it forward and giving it away again.
http://grumpywookie.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/escape-into-an-adventure/
You should check it out.
We take short adventures each weekend but someday hope to thru hike one or more of the trails you’ve listed here. Hut trips sound lovely but are really priced out of reach for our family of 5. Maine has a hut system, as does the Appalachian Mountain Club in New Hampshire.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll definitely check it out.
My husband and I are forever telling our six year old that every day hike we go on is training for the inevitable moment when she becomes a difficult teenager and we all quit life for a year to hike the PCT from top to bottom. Now that we are in Vermont, we might have to make it the AT instead.
That’s so funny. I think I need to start plotting our ‘quitting life because of difficult teenager’ plans.
The only reason that these mega-trails exist is so companies like REI and Columbia can look at the trailhead registries and park permits in order to figure out how to better market their l junk. Somebody figured out that you could sell a $120 pair of organic cotton khakis to some poor chap and have them think they were part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Think of the environmental and social impact of these hordes of yuppies driving hundreds of miles from their city homes and walking around with their hi-tech fabric (it’s all just petroleum) made-in-china gear just to enjoy nature. Where I live if a person wants to go hiking they just grab a can of smoked oysters, strap on a buck knife, and head into the woods. No permits needed! So if you ever hear me saying I am going to hike the Appalachian Trail then I am probably really heading down to Argentina for some real R&R Mark Sanford style.
Sound like fun!
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