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Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve Road, BC Backpacking Backpacking is traveling long distances with a backpack. Two forms can be distinguished. Backpacking is the most thorough combination of hiking and camping. It is usually done for recreation, to explore a place that the backpacker considers beautiful and fascinating. A backpacker camps in one place, then packs all of his or her gear into a backpack and hikes off to a different location. This gear must include food, water, and shelter or the means to obtain them, but very little else, and often in a more compact and simpler form than one would use for stationary camping. Long-distance backpacking trips may be done lasting weeks or months, sometimes aided by prearranged food and supply drops. Overnight stays may be out of doors (under the stars or in a tent), or in some sort of permanent shelter such as in a hostel or with members of hospitality services. Hiking and walking trails cover all types of terrain and range in location from semi-developed areas to complete wilderness. The main advantage of backpacking over day hiking is that it allows the hiker to see remote areas, almost entirely devoid of people or their effects, that are otherwise inaccessible. The main disadvantages are that the encumbrance of the backpack itself substantially reduces the hiking pace, so that less ground can be covered in a day, that the backpack is something of a nuisance and a distraction to enjoying the scenery, and that camping-related activities use up a considerable amount of time every day. Backpacking camps are more spartan than ordinary camps. In areas with comparatively high use, a hike-in camp might have a fire ring and a small wooden bulletin board with a map and some warning signs regarding wildlife, campfire safety, and the like. In truly remote areas, a hike-in camp is no more than a level patch of ground without undergrowth. A large industry has developed to provide lightweight gear and food for backpackers. The gear includes the backpacks themselves, as well as ordinary camping equipment modified to reduce the weight, by either reducing the size, reducing the durability, or using lighter materials such as special plastics and alloys of aluminium. Designers of portable stoves and tents have been particularly ingenious. The food is typically highly packaged, dehydrated fare that can be reconstituted by adding hot water. Some backpacking meals are pre-cooked and vacuum-packed without being dehydrated, and reheated when needed by a chemical reaction, allowing the backpacker to avoid carrying a stove and fuel. (This technology was originally developed for military purposes.) However, meals of this type are heavier, and if the backpacker carries more than two or three, there is typically no weight savings. The Scouting movement has traditionally been very involved in backpacking. Backpacking is also a subculture of generally youthful travellers exploring the planet on a limited budget. They refer to themselves as backpackers because they can be roughly defined as travellers that travel with a rucksack (a large backpack) instead of a suitcase. They often go hiking and camping, backpacking in the other sense, but they more often explore more urban settings. United in having slim wallets as well as a passion for the exotic, they seek out low-cost options such as standby flights (or if backpacking trip is circumglobal, a relatively cheap round-the-world air ticket which permits numerous stops), youth hostels, free hospitality services and buying food at supermarkets abroad instead of going to restaurants. They often collect in beautiful places with low costs of living such as Goa (India), Essaouira (Morocco), or Thailand. They are generally very social, and a highlight for many backpackers is meeting others on the road. They are quick to share advice on great sites, cheap accommodations, and e-mail addresses. Many strive to meet locals wherever they visit but find that the loose network of backpackers makes them feel at home instantly in a foreign country. Many backpackers gain temporary work (usually low-paid, unskilled, casual, and sometimes in violation of local labor laws) in the countries they visit. For instance, London's pubs are well known for the number of Australian bartenders working in them; "Irish pubs" the world over hire Irish backpackers. Novels about backpackers include William Sutcliffe´s Are You Experienced (India), Alex Garland´s The Beach (Thailand) and Emily Barr's Backpack (India, Vietnam, China). See also: YHA, Tourism, Hospitality Services. Appalachian Trail The trail is currently protected along more than 99 percent of its course by federal or state ownership of the land or by rights-of-way. Annually, more than 4,000 volunteers contribute over 175,000 hours of effort on the Appalachian Trail, possibly the largest volunteer effort on Earth, coordinated in most part by the Appalachian Trail Conference organization. In the course of its journey, the trail crosses the tops of several of the Appalachian Mountains, running, with only a few exceptions, almost continuously through the wilderness. Trail hikers who complete the entire trail in a single season are termed "through-hikers" (commonly spelled "thru-hikers"). Completion of the trail generally requires five to seven months, although some unusual individuals have done it in shorter periods. Because of the trail's rugged terrain and cold weather conditions during the spring and fall, through-hiking is a fairly demanding experience. In addition, Baxter State Park, in which the Maine terminus of the trail is located, closes from October 15 to May 15 each year. Only about 20% of those who make the attempt actually succeed in completing the entire trail. Some hikers and naturalists believe that the emphasis on hiking the entire length of the trail is misplaced. Nearly all of the trail is open to local use, although there are some rules and regulations that favor "through-hikers." The trail was originally conceived by Benton MacKaye, a forester who wrote his original plan shortly after the death of his wife in 1921. MacKaye's utopian idea detailed a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers. In 1923, the first section of the trail was opened by groups of enthusiastic volunteers. To maintain forward momentum, MacKaye called for a two-day Appalachian Trail conference to be held in March of 1925 in Washington, D.C. Although this conference resulted in the formation of the Appalachian Trail Conference organization, little progress was made on the trail for several years. At the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s, a retired judge named Arthur Perkins and his younger associate Myron H. Avery took up the cause. Avery, who soon took over the ATC, adopted the more practical goal of building a simple hiking trail. He and MacKaye clashed over the ATC's response to a major commercial development along the trail's path (Avery was willing to simply reroute the trail), and MacKaye left the organization. In August of 1937, the trail was completed to Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. The ATC shifted its focus toward protecting the trail lands and mapping the trail for hikers. From 1938 to the end of World War II, the trail suffered a series of natural and man-made setbacks. It is said that a group of Boy Scouts from the New York metropolitan area, with exceptional support such as trucked-in supplies, covered the whole trail (at least among them) some time in this period. It may not be clear whether any individual covered the whole route, nor whether contemporaneous records exist, and it appears any surviving participants are not pursuing credit. At the end of the war, the damage to the trail was repaired, and the first documented through-hike, by Earl Shaffer of York, Pa, brought a great deal of attention to the project. In the 1960s, the ATC made real progress toward protecting the trail from development thanks to a number of sympathetic politicians and officials. The "National Trails System Act" of 1968, paved the way for a series of "national scenic trails" within the national park and national forest systems. Trail volunteers worked with the National Park Service to map a permanent route for the trail, and by 1971 a permanent route had been marked (though minor changes continue to this day). By the close of the 20th century, the Parks Service had completed the purchase of all but a few miles of the trail's span. Completion of all purchases is currently scheduled to occur in 2004. External links: |
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