Interesting topic that I haven't thought much about! Over the last few years, the Peter Wolfe Chapter of the NCT has moved quite a number of these miles onto forested trails so your account has provided me an even greater appreciation for being involved with that effort!
The JMT is very scenic, just not designated as National Scenic Trail (which requires an act of Congress)! My guess is that it isn't designated as such because it shares so many miles with the Pacific Crest Trail, which IS designated as a NST.
In my ideal world, I would never have to walk another road walk ever again in my life, but until all the gaps get filled in the long distance trail corridors, I'm trying to make the best of it!
Fantastic post! We have some interesting connecting routes between some of the state /county parks trail system here in Missouri. They are always an experience - sometimes great and sometimes swearing at cars. But I have to confess… the Michicot reference made my day. We played them in high school and my first thought was “huh, figures” 😀
To give Mishicot fair credit, I did also have an amazing bowl of soup when I was backpacking through there. The Ice Age Trail goes through town (on purpose, not as a connecting route) and when we saw the SOUP sign in front of The Crow Bar at 11:15am, we couldn't resist. The terrible connecting route that followed would have been magnitudes worse if I didn't have soup in my stomach!
I’ve been trying to think about trails like I think about books—there are so many out there and so many that I would enjoy, but I know that it is impossible to hike or read them all, so I try to just enjoy the ones I have available now and try not to think about all the ones I will inevitably miss. It doesn’t completely cure my FOMO (I keep running lists of both the books I want to read and trails I want to hike), but it keeps it in check!
Interesting topic that I haven't thought much about! Over the last few years, the Peter Wolfe Chapter of the NCT has moved quite a number of these miles onto forested trails so your account has provided me an even greater appreciation for being involved with that effort!
You haven't sold me on it! John Muir Trail presumably not 'scenic' then as it had zero road walking. (About the only one I've done in the US.)
The JMT is very scenic, just not designated as National Scenic Trail (which requires an act of Congress)! My guess is that it isn't designated as such because it shares so many miles with the Pacific Crest Trail, which IS designated as a NST.
In my ideal world, I would never have to walk another road walk ever again in my life, but until all the gaps get filled in the long distance trail corridors, I'm trying to make the best of it!
Fantastic post! We have some interesting connecting routes between some of the state /county parks trail system here in Missouri. They are always an experience - sometimes great and sometimes swearing at cars. But I have to confess… the Michicot reference made my day. We played them in high school and my first thought was “huh, figures” 😀
To give Mishicot fair credit, I did also have an amazing bowl of soup when I was backpacking through there. The Ice Age Trail goes through town (on purpose, not as a connecting route) and when we saw the SOUP sign in front of The Crow Bar at 11:15am, we couldn't resist. The terrible connecting route that followed would have been magnitudes worse if I didn't have soup in my stomach!
I wish I’d liked hiking back when I lived up there - I regret never even knowing, let alone hiking, the Ice Age Trail back then.
I’ve been trying to think about trails like I think about books—there are so many out there and so many that I would enjoy, but I know that it is impossible to hike or read them all, so I try to just enjoy the ones I have available now and try not to think about all the ones I will inevitably miss. It doesn’t completely cure my FOMO (I keep running lists of both the books I want to read and trails I want to hike), but it keeps it in check!