American Hiking Society's National Trail Day®

From a email I got....

 

 

American Hiking Society's (AHS) National Trail Day® is this 

Saturday, June 1st, 2019 

and we (AHS) have ten tips to make your experience exceptional.

1. Make History:

Take the Pledge to help us set the world record for the most people improving trails in a single day. It's easy. Clean up a local trail or join a trail service project.

2. Adventures are meant to be shared:

You can sign the pledge and improve a trail on your own, but we encourage everyone to join the National Trails Day® party by participating in one of the thousands of events all across the country. Find an event near you.

3. Take photos of your experience:

Capture the spirit of your National Trails Day® experience with a photo and you could win a gear prize package. Share you photos with us on Instagram by using #NationalTrailsDay and tag @AmericanHiking to enter your best photos from the trail. Tag your photos by June 9 for a chance to win.

4. Wear Your Love of Trails:

Don’t let the National Trails Day® experience fade. Buy the special edition National Trails Day® shirt, and each time you wear it, you’ll reminisce and feel great about leaving the trail better than you found it.

5. No Trash Left Behind:

What's the most odd piece of trash you will remove from the trail? Throw a couple ziplocks or trash bags in your pack along with some cheap disposable gloves and you'll get extra cred for packing out the trash others avoid.

6. Up Your Trail Cred:

Join our team, get out, and give back in honor of National Trails Day®. Ask your friends and family to help you protect the places you love to hike by giving $5 for each mile you help improve, or $10 for each year you have hiked, or $20 for every trail you have set foot on!

7. Join our family:

Help us preserve trails through stewardship; advocate to protect natural spaces for hiking, both rural and urban; and promote the creation of new trails and trail users. Your membership to American Hiking Society ensures public lands will still be here for future generations to explore and enjoy.

Thank you for getting out and giving back on National Trails Day®. Together we'll improve 2,802 miles of trail and leave a legacy for the people who follow in our footsteps, bike tracks, and the like.

8. Pack the essentials:

As you gear up for your day on the trail make sure you are ready for whatever you may face on the trail. Check out our list of the ten essentials of hiking to help you pack all the right items for a great day on the trail.

See you on the trail on June 1! 

For more info, visit AHS.

Bricks

yes, you read that right, Bricks. I mean you can tell a lot about the history of an area if you research the bricks.  Find out when and where these bricks were manufactured.  Hint, they are found on National Park lands so do not steal them.  Brick are historic treasures.

Traffic jam on Everest

Despite the danger, climbers still head to Everest.  Check out this photo of the queue of climbers waiting in line to summit the peak.

And I thought Monadnock was crowded!

What to watch now?

Now that Game of Thrones is over, what is there to watch?

Try this.

Named Tropical Cyclones

The list for 2019 is out.  And this is official, unlike the one that we find on the TV channel that now names all storms.

I would everyone to start naming every weather event.  If it is a bad storm, like the one that killed 3 people in Missouri yesterday, you might name it after someone you dislike (surely today, there is someone you dislike). 

But more optimistically, if the weather is nice, name the day after a friend or pet.  Yesterday for example was a Bubba-Doo kind of day.  Spunky, friendly and a great companion.

For the ones on that TV station, refuse to use their name and use the one you want to use.

Safety for Bicyclists

This is a great idea for those bikers how need to share the road with cars.  Form my experience, most car drivers are good about sharing the road, but there are some a@#%^*#s that don't.

Friends, give bikes a wide berth as you slowly pass.

Cyclists, go single file on busy roads.

thanks.

Stone walls in Massachusetts

Nothing more intrigues me when I am hiking in the woods and I come across a stone wall.  I begin to wonder about the people that built these walls.  Some estimates suggest nearly 260,000 miles in New England.  I wrote about some walls here in Westfield back in March, so I will try to not duplicate those pictures below.  The first batch ...

More recent shots follow and include some foundations ...

Man arrested for Murder on the Appalachian Trail

I am saddened to hear about the murder and wounding of AT hikers this past weekend.  My heart goes out to their family and friends.

From CNN:

"A man who allegedly attacked two hikers on a remote stretch of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, killing a man, will make his first appearance in court on Monday, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia.

James Jordan, 30, of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, was arrested Saturday morning and charged with one count of murder and one count of assault with the intent to murder, the office said. Charges will be formally filed in US District Court in Abingdon.

Authorities in Wythe County in southwest Virginia, where where the slain man was found, said a machete was used in the attack. A woman survived the attack and is receiving medical treatment, authorities said."

Community Preservation Act needs money

The Community Preservation Act (CPA) is a smart growth tool that helps communities preserve open space and historic sites, create affordable housing, and develop outdoor recreational facilities. CPA also helps strengthen the state and local economies by expanding housing opportunities and construction jobs for the Commonwealth's workforce, and by supporting the tourism industry through preservation of the Commonwealth’s historic and natural resources. (https://www.communitypreservation.org/)

Current map showing communities that have saved nearly 30,000 acres of open space.

I wrote about this in 2016 and earlier here.