Long Trails in North America

An article in the Backpacker Magazine that I got this week (first week of December — so it's the February issue!) reminded me about Ron Strickland. The same magazine had had an article one or a few years ago, about Strickland's dream of a Pacific Northwest Trail, from the Olympic Peninsula to the Northern (US) Rockies (Glacier N.P./Waterton).

My own more modest dream, to actually hike a big loop in the Sierra, connecting the John Muir Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Theodore Solomons Trail, Tahoe Yosemite Trail, Tahoe Rim Trail et al., is documented here.

So this "February" Backpacker article describes the Sea to Sea trail, which is Strickland's longer and more ambitious idea: connect the PNT to the North Country Trail, to make a second east-west trail across the US, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific. (The first one, the American Discovery Trail (ADT), goes from Point Reyes in Marin County to Washington DC. It is a mostly-paved multi-use trail, and does not have anything like the kind of nature-oriented wilderness feel that the most popular National Scenic Trails do.)

The NCT is not complete; I think the PNT is hikable but not really completely signed; the Sea to Sea still needs a fair amount of route-finding. Here's the big picture. Too bad it doesn't show the ADT.

There is a walkable extension of the Appalachian Trail into Canada, called the IAT or International Appalachian Trail (or SIA for Francophones). There is also a trail in Florida (called, unsurprisingly, The Florida Trail) that goes from Key West to the northwest corner of the state.

One hiker, who goes by the trail name "Nimblewill Nomad", has a description of an Eastern Continental Trail, from Key West to the Gaspe Peninusla in Quebec.

I haven't actually gotten to read the whole Backpacker article yet, but a cursory glance saw no mention of either the ADT or the most impressive of all of these dreams: the Trans-Canada Trail. That will be over 18,000 km (over 11,000 miles) and will have both east-west and north-south components.

The C2C does connect with the Continental Divide Trail; the CDT goes from New Mexico to Montana. The CDT has both a CDT alliance and a CDT society, and an extension into Canada called the Great Divide Trail.

There is also a mountain-biking route that sorta parallels the CDT in the US, the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

On shakier ground, I have a pair of books describing a California Coastal Trail (lots of road-walking here), and I have heard of the idea of a north-south route through the Great Basin, from Arizona to Idaho or Washington, but I think that one is pretty sketchy.

I believe that the PCT, AT, CDT, and ADT are all complete at this time. The others can be walked, but each involves some amount of road-walking or route-finding.

Anyway, if all these dreams come to pass, we'll have three east-west walking routes across North America (The Trans-Canada Trail, the ADT, and the C2C); and three main north-south routes (the PCT, CDT, and IAT). It would be pretty cool. I just hope I get the chance to walk more of these places.

Perhaps someday we'll be as civilized as Europe, where there's a whole grid of walking paths.