PHILSCHERMEISTER
Another is to invite new constituencies to the
planning table. Trail groups are forging imaginative
partnerships with health organizations such as the
Epilepsy Foundation, as well as with the Urban League,
Elderhostel, and numerous city parks departments. In
addition, concern about the nation’s physically inactive
and nature-deprived children is fueling exciting new
programs like Trail to Every Classroom, which engages
Appalachian youth in both trail use and service learning
close to their communities.
“Our trails offer a route to something bigger; they
are so much more than simply a path through the
woods,” says PNTS’s Werner. “They tie people to the
landscape they are tending and the stories that the
land holds.”
Tallahassee-based nature writer and activist Susan
Cerulean is the author or editor of six books on Florida’s
wild places and wildlife—including, most recently, Tracking
Desire: A Journey after Swallow-tailed Kites. More information about her books and speaking engagements can
be found on her website: www.susancerulean.com.
PACIFIC CREST NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL
Authorized by the passage of the 1968 National Trails
Act, the Pacific Crest Trail is (with the Appalachian
Trail) one of the two original components of the
National Trails System. Open to public hiking and
horseback riding over its entire authorized length of
2,650 miles, the trail stretches from California’s border
with Mexico to Canada. It has the greatest elevation
range of any of the six national scenic trails, tracing
searing desert valleys, dense old-growth rainforests,
and lofty mountaintops. Some of the West’s iconic land-
scapes are found along the trail, including Mt. Whitney,
the tallest point in the contiguous United States;
Oregon’s Crater Lake; the Columbia River Gorge; and
the remote North Cascades of Washington. TPL has
protected land along the length of the trail, includ-
ing, over the last few years, lands near Lookout
Mountain in Southern California, at Barker Pass in the
northern Sierra overlooking Lake Tahoe, and at
Washington’s Stampede Pass, which offers one of the
most striking views in the central Cascades. For trail
maps and more information, visit the Pacific Crest
Trail Association website at www.pcta.org.
