filed under: international trails


Thinking Beyond Borders

The creation of the International Appalachian Trail

This presentation chronicles the growth of the International Appalachian Trail.

Speaker: Don Hudson, Co-founder and President, Maine Chapter International Appalachian Trail

On April 22, 1994 – Earth Day – Governor Joseph Brennan proposed the establishment of a trail to connect the three highest points of Maine, New Brunswick and Quebec. This original vision aimed to connect people of a common landscape and culture, and it has since grown significantly beyond a hiking path to link Katahdin, Mt. Carleton and Mt. Jacques Cartier. Phase I was completed in 2000. The same impulse that inspired Benton MacKaye to propose the creation of the Appalachian Trail in 1921 – rural economic development and the celebration of open space and a shared mountain landscape – has propelled the IAT to all of Atlantic Canada (Phase II) and across the broad expanse of the North Atlantic to Greenland, Iceland, the Farôe Islands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, France and Spain – with Portugal and Morocco pending (Phase III). This presentation will chronicle the growth of the IAT with particular attention to diversity of organization, use of technology and funding, as well as the singular, unwavering attention to a bit of geologic history to galvanize a 20,000-mile trail network that will soon ring the North Atlantic.

View This Presentation Online

More Articles in this Category

Minimizing Risk and Liability

This document is a best practices manual intended to give guidance and direction on minimizing risk and liability for persons with an interest in operating and maintaining trails. Specifically, it seeks to help trail operators, managers and owners, mitigate risk and reduce liability, that can arise from trail design, trail use and maintenance operations. The techniques discussed here are intended to be applied with prudence and due consideration of the particular circumstances of each trail.

State of Victoria’s Guidelines for trail planning, design and management

The State of Victoria’s Guidelines for Trail Planning, Design and Management aims at “development of exceptional trail experiences. A useful feature is a trail planning and design checklist. The book also covers management models, marketing and brand- ing, community and stakeholder engagement, and monitoring and review.

Walkable Edmonton Toolkit promotes a more active community

Here you’ll find a menu of advocacy ideas, design concepts and walkability tools, each with links to numerous other resources. You’ll discover interesting destinations and group efforts that make walking in Edmonton interesting and fun. You’ll learn about civic initiatives that may dovetail with your interests. You’ll read success stories that prove you and your community can make a difference.

Shannon Region Trails Programme in Ireland

The Shannon Region Trails Programme is a Shannon Development-led initiative which aims to establish the Shannon Region as a world-class destination for walking, cycling, water-based and other outdoor activity pursuits during the period 2007-2010.