Trailspace Blog Trails

This sad, and strange, news comes from the CBC News:

A 19-year-old folk singer from Toronto has died after being attacked by two coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Taylor Josephine Stephanie Luciow, who went by the stage name Taylor Mitchell, died overnight at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. She had been on tour in the Maritimes.

Mitchell was hiking on the Skyline Trail when she was attacked Tuesday afternoon. She was taken to the hospital in Cheticamp, then airlifted to Halifax in critical condition.

Park officials said Mitchell was walking the trail alone. They said other hikers managed to scare off the coyotes and call 911.

Full story

via Backpacker

Halloween is approaching, and I’ve been thinking about haunted and spooky hiking trails and mountains. Here are a few tales and sources to get you started, in case you want to add some excitement to story time around camp. Share your own tales below.

Beware of mountain spirit Pamola — or your own peak’s “der berggeist” — while hiking Maine’s Katahdin.

Starting locally — because all good ghost stories are local — Mainer Stephen King has plenty of horror novels, but for an outdoor fix consider his psychological novella The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. In it a 9-year-old girl gets lost on a family hiking trip on the AT and fears she’s being hunted by “The God of the Lost.”

The presence of a mountain spirit or ghost (der berggeist in German) is longstanding and appears across cultures. In Maine we have Pamola, an Abanaki spirit (half moose, half eagle) who lives on and protects Mount Katahdin. According to the Penobscots, Pamola did not welcome mortals on the mountain and it was taboo to climb the peak. Pamola would cause bad weather—snow, ice, wind, and fog—to confuse those who dared climb its mountain.

Over in New Hampshire, Mount Washington has its own summit presence and ghosts, as well as haunted AMC huts and apparitional hikers, all covered in Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire by Marianne O’Connor. (Also read “Slamming Doors, Cries for Help” in the AMC’s Appalachia, Winter/Spring 2009. The mental image of faces in hut windows freaks me out.)

For a broader scope, Haunted Hikes: Spine-Tingling Tales and Trails from North America’s National Parks was written by former park ranger Andrea Lankford. It has tales of a crying ghost in Yosemite, a 4-year-old from 1891 haunting the AT near Bluff Mountain in Virginia, mischievous “jumby” spirits in the Virgin Islands, and “flying saucer hot spot” Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. (www.hauntedhiker.com)

You don’t have to believe in ghosts or “hard-to-explain” events to have a spooky hike:

Margie Cohen of the American Hiking Society told me the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama is particularly spooky to her. Part of the trail is on a severe ridge in a designated Wilderness Area. Due to the ridge’s hydraulics there have been some small plane crashes, but because it is a designated Wilderness Area (no mechanization), the Forest Service does not remove the crashed planes. “So, while you’re hiking, you can come along a plane wreck that has been there for many years,” said Cohen. “I think that is pretty spooky.”

So, what spooks you on the trail? Share your own spooky hiking or backpacking story here.

I’ve ordered my own copies of the haunted hiking books mentioned above, but will probably stick to reading them while off the trail.

I like maps. Here’s a nice one of scenic and historic National Trails in the United States.

The original PDF version is much bigger (23" x 16.4"). I’d love to print it out and put it on my wall. You can download the PDF from the U.S. Forest Service website or by clicking on the map above.

Unfortunately, I can’t recall where I came across this map, but thanks to whomever pointed it out first.

If you want to help protect National Scenic Trails, read about the American Hiking Society’s support of a new bill, HR 1912, the Complete America’s Great Trails Act.

A grizzly bear fishes for salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, in another great shot from The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Ken Burns’s upcoming documentary debuts September 27 on PBS.

The above photo is by Craig Mellish of Florentine Films. You can download it and other inspiring images to use as wallpaper on the PBS site.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Festival and Biennial, a week of celebrating and learning about the 2,170-mile Appalachian Trail, will be held July 17-24 at Vermont’s Castleton State College.

Events include more than 60 guided hikes, workshops on subjects from hiking the AT to natural history to LNT, trail work, exhibits, evening speakers and entertainment, and a keynote speech and preview by Dayton Duncan, co-producer and writer of the upcoming Ken Burns/Florentine Films series, “The National Parks: America's Best Idea.”

Register or see the full schedule of events at www.vermont2009.org

June is Great Outdoors Month, and here's the latest effort to get people outside and active:

The second annual National Get Outdoors Day will be held this Saturday, June 13, with events across the country. Events are open to all, but especially target urban families and youth who rarely engage in outdoor activities, and other first-time visitors to public lands and waters.

Families and kids can try activities like orienteering with a map and compass, geocaching, casting, pitching a tent, and testing sleeping bags. Participants will be invited to follow-up events this summer, including wildlife hikes with rangers, introductions to mountain biking and fly-fishing, and kayaking and rafting. Any equipment needed will be provided.

National Get Outdoors Day event sites are located across the country, including metropolitan city parks, where access by public transportation and walking is widely available.

Information about volunteerism on public lands and job opportunities through AmeriCorps and Forest Service hot-shot fire crews also will be available.

For more information: www.nationalgetoutdoorsday.org

Today—Saturday, June 6—is National Trails Day.

Find local events, like the one below, at the American Hiking Society’s website.

Cranberry Glades Naturalist Hike
Richwood, West Virgina

The event will consist of a nature hike on the Cow Pasture trail which borders the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area and the Cranberry Wilderness.

The 7.8 mile Cow Pasture trail loop is of moderate difficulty and the terrain is characterized by birch and hemlock forest, old pasture, and river crossings. There will be a brief history about the glades, and while hiking we will do some easy trail maintenance (removing limbs and brush from the trail). (U.S. Forest Service)

For more info and events: www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

Saturday, June 6, is National Trails Day.

Find local events, like the one below, at the American Hiking Society’s website.

Bus Trail Re-Route
Fairbanks, Alaska

Clear trees and brush to re-route a trail from private land to State of Alaska DNR land. Wear work clothing, sturdy boots, and gloves. Bring tree and brush cutting tools. If you bring a chainsaw, please bring safety equipment such as hard hat, safety glasses or face shield, and protective chaps. The work site is about one mile from the trailhead. (Interior Trails Preservation Coalition)

For more info and events: www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

Saturday, June 6, is National Trails Day.

Find local events, like the one below, at the American Hiking Society’s website.

Dawn and Dusk Trail Walks
Cerrillos Hills, New Mexico

Two cool guided trail walks. The first will be an early morning trail hike, concentrating on the beautiful flora that grace the hills, but also watching for early birds and late moths.

Then join us for a twilight-to-night walk in the hills. We'll 'listen' for bats with a special device and use our five senses to discover the nightlife in the hills and the heavens above. (New Mexico State Parks)

For more info and events: www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

It’s National Running Day today.

Want to participate? Lace (or Boa) up your trail runners and get out for a trail run. Goal accomplished.

For more info: www.runningday.org

Saturday, June 6, is National Trails Day.

Find local events, like the one below, at the American Hiking Society’s website.

Making Maps with GPS and GIS
Cumberland, Maine

Learn to use the equipment of GPS and GIS at one of three locations. Led by experts from the Center for Community GIS, the trainings will offer indoor and outdoor hands-on experiences. Data you gather will help our trail mapping efforts. (Chebeague and Cumberland Land Trust)

For more info and events: www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

Mark your calendars for this coming weekend. Saturday, June 6, is National Trails Day.

Nearly 1,500 events will take place around the country and most are free and open to the public. Whether you like hiking, trail running, walking, paddling, biking, horseback riding, trail maintenance, or nature walks, there is outdoor fun for every age.

You can find local events at the American Hiking Society’s website. I just counted more than 50 events happening here in Maine, including trail maintenance projects, informative nature walks, and a map making event, in addition to many hikes.

(Some events may take place on dates other than June 6. So visit the website to find out about your local happenings.)

If you’re planning an event on National Trails Day, be sure to register it on the AHS site for other folks to find.

For more info: www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx

It’s spring. So, here’s a spring book recommendation, whether you’re knee deep in mud season and can’t hit your favorite trails yet, or you need a good book for reading in the tent.

Walking with Spring by Earl Shaffer

Walking with Spring, Earl Shaffer’s memoir of completing the first continuous Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 1948, is a very enjoyable book. I’ve read a number of on-the-trail memoirs, but this is one of my favorites. Shaffer’s writing—like his hiking—is straightforward, unassuming, and evocative of why many of us hike in the first place—simplicity.

That’s not to say his trek was easy. Shaffer completed the hike solo over a trail that had been neglected during the WWII years, lacked a lot of signage, was partially rerouted in sections, and had had a large section lost to a New England hurricane. For some sections he only had a road map.

Shaffer and a close friend originally planned the hike as a way to help recover from their wartime service, but Shaffer ended up going solo after his hiking partner died in the war. And yet, his story avoids navel-gazing and he never seems to complain.

Reading Walking with Spring feels like following a good friend down the trail. Shaffer's story made me want to get down to Georgia and start hiking homeward today.

You can celebrate National Park Week April 18-26 at a national park, historic site, or monument across the country. Events include Junior Ranger Day activities for children and families, ranger-guided hikes and presentations, bird watching, history talks, trailside scavenger hunts, and trail work.

Visit the National Park Service’s Schedule of Events to learn more about what’s happening at a national park near you: www.nps.gov/npweek/sched.htm

Hey, kids! The National Park Foundation is asking kids across the nation to share ideas on how to protect and preserve America's National Parks. Kids aged 9 to 12, with the help of a parent or guardian, have through May 1 to submit an essay of no more than 500 words answering this question: Why are our national parks important to you and what is your best idea to protect our parks for the future?

The first prize winner will receive a $1,000 Visa gift card and the opportunity to direct a $5,000 contribution from the National Park Foundation to his or her favorite national park. The funds will be used by the park to put into action big ideas like those included in the winning essay. The top three essays will be featured in the Junior Ranger Gazette and on the National Park Foundation website.

• To submit an entry online and view the official rules visit: www.nationalparks.org/get-involved/essay-contest/
• For info on the National Park Service's Junior Ranger program visit: www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.htm