Editing Hiking (section)

==History==
[[File:Hiking fashion, 11 July 1932 slnsw.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Hiking fashion, 11 July 1932]]

The poet [[Petrarch]] is frequently mentioned as an early example of someone hiking. Petrarch recounts that on April 26, 1336, with his brother and two servants, he climbed to the top of [[Mont Ventoux]] ({{convert|1912|m|ft|sp=us}}), a feat which he undertook for recreation rather than necessity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nicolson |first=Marjorie Hope |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1031245016 |title=Mountain Gloom and Mountain Hlory; The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. [1963, c1959] |page=49 |oclc=1031245016}}</ref> The exploit is described in a celebrated letter addressed to his friend and confessor, the monk [[Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro]], composed some time after the fact. However, some have suggested that Petrarch's climb was fictional.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cassirer |first=Ernst |date=January 1943 |title=Some Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance |journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]] |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=49–74 |doi=10.2307/2707236 |jstor=2707236}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Halsall |first=Paul |date=August 1998 |title=Petrarch: The Ascent of Mount Ventoux |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/petrarch-ventoux.asp |access-date=5 March 2014 |website=fordham.edu |publisher=Fordham University |archive-date=8 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108135452/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/petrarch-ventoux.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Jakob Burckhardt]], in ''[[The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy]]'' (in German in 1860) declared Petrarch "a truly modern man", because of the significance of nature for his "receptive spirit"; even if he did not yet have the skill to describe nature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civilization'', Part IV §3, beginning |url=http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/4-3.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203015126/http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/4-3.html |archive-date=February 3, 2007}}</ref> Petrarch's implication that he was the first to climb mountains for pleasure, and Burckhardt's insistence on Petrarch's sensitivity to nature have been often repeated since. There are also numerous references to Petrarch as an "alpinist",<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cassirer |first1=Ernst |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226149790.001.0001 |title=The Renaissance Philosophy of Man |last2=Kristeller |first2=Paul Oskar |last3=Randall |first3=John Herman |date=1956 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-09604-9 |page=28|doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226149790.001.0001 }}</ref> although [[Mont Ventoux]] is not a hard climb, and is not usually considered part of the Alps.<ref>Bishop, p.102,104</ref> This implicit claim of Petrarch and Burckhardt, that Petrarch was the first to climb a mountain for pleasure since antiquity, was disproven by [[Lynn Thorndike]] in 1943.<ref name=Thorndike/>{{rp|69–74}} Mount Ventoux was climbed by [[Jean Buridan]], on his way to the papal court in [[Avignon]] before the year 1334, "in order to make some meteorological observations".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moody |first=Ernest A. |title=Jean Buridan |url=http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/scholastic/Dictionary%20of%20Scientific%20Biography/08.%20Buridan%20b.%20ca.%201295%20(Moody).pdf |website=Dictionary of Scientific Biography |access-date=2020-11-24 |archive-date=2021-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213173420/http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/scholastic/Dictionary%20of%20Scientific%20Biography/08.%20Buridan%20b.%20ca.%201295%20(Moody).pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kimmelman |first=Michael |date=1999-06-06 |title=NOT Because it's There |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/magazine/not-because-it-s-there.html |access-date=2023-01-02 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2023-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102021248/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/magazine/not-because-it-s-there.html |url-status=live }}</ref> There were ascents accomplished during the [[Middle Ages]];<ref>{{cite book|last=Burckhardt|first=Jacob|url=https://archive.org/details/civilisationren02middgoog|title=The Civilisation of the Period of the Renaissance in Italy|orig-year=1860|translator-first=SGC|translator-last=Middlemore|publisher=[[Swan Sonnenschein]]|year=1904|pages=301–302}}</ref><ref name=Thorndike>{{cite journal|author-link=Lynn Thorndike|first=Lynn|last=Thorndike|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707236|title=Renaissance or Prenaissance|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=4|number=1|date=Jan 1943|jstor=2707236 }} [[JSTOR]] link to a collection of several letters in the same issue.</ref>{{rp|69–74}} Lynn Thorndike mentions that "a book on feeling for nature in Germany in the tenth and eleventh centuries, noted various ascents and descriptions of mountains from that period", and that "in the closing years of his life archbishop [[Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne]] (c. 1010 – 1075) climbed his beloved mountain oftener than usual".<ref name=Thorndike/>{{rp|71–72}}

Other early examples of individuals hiking or climbing mountains for pleasure include the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, who ascended Mount Etna during a return trip from Greece in 125 CE. In 1275, Peter III of Aragon claimed to have reached the summit of Pic du Canigou, a 9134-foot mountain located near the southern tip of France. The first ascent of any technical difficulty to be officially verified took place on June 26, 1492, when Antoine de Ville, a chamberlain and military engineer for Charles VIII, King of France, was ordered to ascend Mont Aiguille. Because ropes, ladders and iron hooks were used during the ascent, this event is widely recognized as being the birth of mountaineering. Conrad Gessner, a 16th Century physician, botanist and naturalist from Switzerland, is widely recognized as being the first person to hike and climb for sheer pleasure.<ref name="Doran 2023">{{Cite book |last=Doran |first=Jeffrey J. |title=Ramble On: How Hiking Became One of the Most Popular Outdoor Activities in the World |year=2023 |publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC – Kdp |isbn=979-8373963923}}</ref>

However, the idea of taking a walk in the countryside only really developed during the 18th century in Europe, and arose because of changing attitudes to the landscape and nature associated with the [[Romanticism|Romantic movement]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Norton Anthology of English Literature |year=2000 |isbn=9780393963380 |editor-last=Abrams |editor-first=MH |edition=7th |volume=2 |pages=9–10}}</ref> In 1790 [[William Wordsworth]] set off on an extended [[Walking tour|tour]] of France, Switzerland, and Germany, which he describes in his autobiographical poem ''[[The Prelude]]'' (1850).  Walking tours were popular in the 19th century,
In earlier times walking generally indicated poverty and was also associated with vagrancy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Solnit |first=Rebecca |title=Wanderlust: A History of Walking |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2000 |isbn=0670882097 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|pp=83,297}} In previous centuries long walks were undertaken as part of religious pilgrimages and this tradition continues throughout the world.

=== Pilgrimages ===
{{Further|Category:Japanese pilgrimages}}
In earlier times people mainly hiked for practical reasons, or on religious [[pilgrimage]]s. Numerous modern hiking trail follow such ancient routes. The British [[National Trail]] the [[North Downs Way]] closely follows that of the [[Pilgrims' Way]] to [[Canterbury]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-07-28 |title=North Downs Way National Trail &#124; Paths by name &#124; Ramblers, Britain's Walking Charity |url=http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/paths/name/n/northdowns |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728131235/http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/paths/name/n/northdowns |archive-date=2012-07-28 |access-date=2023-01-02}}</ref>
 
[[File:Spain Santiago de Compostela - Cathedral.jpg|left|thumb| [[Santiago de Compostela Cathedral|The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela]]]]
The ancient pilgrimage, the [[Camino de Santiago]], or Way of St. James, has become more recently the source for a number of long-distance hiking routes. This is a network of [[pilgrims' way]]s leading to the shrine of the [[Twelve Apostles|apostle]] [[James, son of Zebedee|Saint James the Great]] in the [[cathedral of Santiago de Compostela]] in [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] in northwestern Spain. Many follow its routes as a form of spiritual path or retreat for their spiritual growth.

The [[French Way]] is the most popular of the routes and runs from [[Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port]] on the French side of the [[Pyrenees]] to [[Roncesvalles]] on the Spanish side and then another {{convert|780|km}} on to Santiago de Compostela through the major cities of [[Pamplona]], [[Logroño]], [[Burgos]] and [[León, Spain|León]]. A typical walk on the ''Camino francés'' takes at least four weeks, allowing for one or two rest days on the way. Some travel the Camino on bicycle or on horseback. Paths from the cities of [[Tours]], [[Vézelay]], and [[Le Puy-en-Velay]] meet at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.<ref name="Starkie">{{Cite book |last=Starkie |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xJGrnvuNW4C |title=The Roads to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James |publisher=University of California Press |year=1965 |author-link=Walter Starkie |orig-year=1957}}</ref> The French long-distance path [[GR 65]] (of the [[GR footpath|Grande Randonnée]] network), is an important variant route of the old [[Christians|Christian]] [[pilgrimage]] way.

The [[Abraham Path]] is a cultural route believed to have been the path of [[Islamic]], [[Christianity|Christian]], and [[Jewish]] patriarch [[Abraham]]'s ancient journey across the [[Ancient Near East]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Abraham Path {{!}} a cultural route connecting the storied places associated with Abraham's ancient journey. |url=http://abrahampath.org/ |access-date=2017-05-16 |website=abrahampath.org |language=en-US |archive-date=2017-05-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517044116/http://abrahampath.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The path was established in 2007 as a pilgrimage route between [[Urfa|Urfa, Turkey]], possibly his birthplace, and his final destination of the desert of [[Negev]].
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=== German-speaking world ===
The Swiss scientist and poet [[Albrecht von Haller]]'s poem ''Die Alpen'' (1732) is an historically important early sign of an awakening appreciation of the mountains, though it is chiefly designed to contrast the simple and idyllic life of the inhabitants of the [[Alps]] with the corrupt and decadent existence of the dwellers in the plains.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=855}}

Numerous travellers explored Europe on foot in the last third of the 18th century and recorded their experiences. A significant example is [[Johann Gottfried Seume]], who set out on foot from [[Leipzig]] to Sicily in 1801, and returned to Leipzig via Paris after nine months.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krüger |first=Arnd |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/889248430 |title=Wandertourismus: Kundengruppen, Destinationsmarketing, Gesundheitsaspekte |date=2010 |isbn=978-3-486-70469-3 |editor-last=Menzel |editor-first=Anne |location=München |oclc=889248430 |editor-last2=Endress |editor-first2=Martin |editor-last3=Hedorfer |editor-first3=Petra |editor-last4=Antz |editor-first4=Christian}}</ref>

===United Kingdom===
[[File:Claife Station.jpg|right|thumb|Claife Station, built at one of [[Thomas West (priest)|Thomas West]]'s 'viewing stations', to allow visiting tourists and artists to better appreciate the picturesque [[Lake District]], [[Cumbria]], England.]]
{{main|Walking in the United Kingdom|Walking in London}}
[[Thomas West (priest)|Thomas West]], a Scottish priest, popularized the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the Lake District of 1778. In the introduction he wrote that he aimed <blockquote>to encourage the taste of visiting the lakes by furnishing the traveller with a Guide; and for that purpose, the writer has here collected and laid before him, all the select stations and points of view, noticed by those authors who have last made the tour of the lakes, verified by his own repeated observations.<ref name="West2">{{Cite book |last=West |first=Thomas |title=A Guide to the Lakes |year=1780 |isbn=9780371947258 |page=2|publisher=HardPress }}</ref> </blockquote> To this end he included various 'stations' or viewpoints around the lakes, from which tourists would be encouraged to enjoy the views in terms of their aesthetic qualities.<ref name="development">{{Cite web |title=Development of tourism in the Lake District National Park |url=http://www.lakedistrict.uk7.net/tourist_development.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011064752/http://www.lakedistrict.uk7.net/tourist_development.html |archive-date=October 11, 2008 |access-date=2008-11-27 |publisher=Lake District UK}}</ref> Published in 1778 the book was a major success.<ref name="NPA">{{Cite web |title=Understanding the National Park &mdash; Viewing Stations |url=http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/learning/lakedistrictfacts/archaeologyhistory/archaeologydiscoveryzone/archaeologyindepth/archaeologyviewing-stations-2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104212541/http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/learning/lakedistrictfacts/archaeologyhistory/archaeologydiscoveryzone/archaeologyindepth/archaeologyviewing-stations-2 |archive-date=2014-01-04 |access-date=2008-11-27 |publisher=Lake District National Park Authority}}</ref>
 
[[File:Travels-map.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Map of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s walking route in the [[Cévennes]], France, taken from ''[[Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes]]'' (1879), a pioneering classic of [[outdoor literature]].]]
Another famous early exponent of walking for pleasure was the English poet [[William Wordsworth]]. His famous poem ''[[Tintern Abbey (poem)|Tintern Abbey]]'' was inspired by a visit to the [[Wye Valley]] made during a [[walking tour]] of [[Wales]] in 1798 with his sister [[Dorothy Wordsworth]]. Wordsworth's friend [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]] was another keen walker and in the autumn of 1799, he and Wordsworth undertook a three-week tour of the Lake District. [[John Keats]], who belonged to the next generation of [[Romantic poets]] began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland, and the Lake District with his friend [[Charles Armitage Brown]].

More and more people undertook walking tours through the 19th century, of which the most famous is probably [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s journey through the [[Cévennes]] in France with a donkey, recorded in his ''[[Travels with a Donkey]]'' (1879). Stevenson also published in 1876 his famous essay "Walking Tours". The subgenre of [[travel writing]] produced many classics in the subsequent 20th century. An early American example of a book that describes an extended walking tour is naturalist [[John Muir]]'s ''A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf'' (1916), a posthumously published account of a long botanizing walk, undertaken in 1867.

Due to [[Industrial Revolution|industrialisation]] in England, people began to migrate to the cities where living standards were often cramped and unsanitary. They would escape the confines of the city by rambling about in the countryside. However, the land in England, particularly around the urban areas of [[Manchester]] and [[Sheffield]], was privately owned and [[trespass]] was illegal. Rambling clubs soon sprang up in the [[North of England|north]] and began politically campaigning for the legal '[[right to roam]]'. One of the first such clubs was 'Sunday Tramps' founded by Leslie White in 1879. The first national grouping, the Federation of Rambling Clubs, was formed in London in 1905 and was heavily patronized by the [[peerage]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephenson |first=Tom |url=https://archive.org/details/forbiddenlandstr0000step |title=Forbidden Land: The Struggle for Access to Mountain and Moorland |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1989 |isbn=9780719028915 |page=[https://archive.org/details/forbiddenlandstr0000step/page/78 78] |access-date=2013-02-07 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Access to Mountains [[bill (proposed law)|bill]]s, that would have legislated the public's 'right to roam' across some private land, were periodically presented to [[Parliament]] from 1884 to 1932 without success. Finally, in 1932, the Rambler's Right Movement organized a [[Mass trespass of Kinder Scout|mass trespass]] on [[Kinder Scout]] in [[Derbyshire]]. Despite attempts on the part of the police to prevent the trespass from going ahead, it was successfully achieved due to massive publicity. However, the Mountain Access Bill that was passed in 1939 was opposed by many walkers' organizations, including [[The Ramblers]], who felt that it did not sufficiently protect their rights, and it was eventually repealed.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Stephenson |first1=T. |url=https://archive.org/details/forbiddenlandstr0000step |title=Forbidden Land: The Struggle for Access to Mountain and Moorland |last2=Holt |first2=A. |last3=Harding |first3=M. |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-7190-2966-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/forbiddenlandstr0000step/page/165 165] |chapter=The 1939 Access to Mountains Act |url-access=registration}}</ref>

The effort to improve access led after World War II to the [[National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949]], and in 1951 to the creation of the first [[national park]] in the UK, the [[Peak District National Park]].<ref>{{Cite web |year=2011 |title=Quarrying and mineral extraction in the Peak District National Park |url=http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/79227/factsheet4-quarrying.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127055057/http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/79227/factsheet4-quarrying.pdf |archive-date=27 January 2012 |access-date=17 April 2012 |publisher=Peak District National Park Authority}}</ref> The establishment of this and similar national parks helped to improve access for all outdoors enthusiasts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kinder Trespass. A history of rambling |url=http://nowthenmagazine.com/issue-52/kinder-trespass/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708235247/http://nowthenmagazine.com/issue-52/kinder-trespass/ |archive-date=2012-07-08 |access-date=2013-12-17}}</ref> The [[Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000]] considerably extended the [[right to roam]] in England and Wales.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Open access land: management, rights and responsibilities |url=https://www.gov.uk/guidance/open-access-land-management-rights-and-responsibilities |access-date=2021-03-09 |website=GOV.UK |language=en |archive-date=2021-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310131952/https://www.gov.uk/guidance/open-access-land-management-rights-and-responsibilities |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/37/contents |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=legislation.gov.uk |archive-date=2023-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424163854/https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/37/contents |url-status=live }}</ref>

===United States===
[[File:Abbey and the mountain.JPG|thumb|[[Thoreau]] walked {{convert|34|mi|km}} to [[Mount Wachusett]], shown here.]]
{{Further|Category:Hiking in the United States}}
An early example of an interest in hiking in the United States is [[Abel Crawford]] and his son Ethan's clearing of a trail to the summit of [[Mount Washington, New Hampshire]] in 1819.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Condensed Facts About Mount Washington |publisher=Atkinson News Co |year=1912}}</ref> This 8.5-mile path is the oldest continually used hiking trail in the United States. The influence of British and European [[Romanticism]] reached North America through the [[transcendentalist movement]], and both [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] (1803–82) and [[Henry David Thoreau]] (1817–62) were important influences on the outdoors movement in North America. Thoreau's writing on nature and on walking include the posthumously published "Walking" (1862)".<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Thoreau |first=Henry David |title=Walking |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1862/06/walking/304674/ |magazine=The Atlantic |issue=June 1862 |access-date=24 July 2017 |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013223718/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1862/06/walking/304674/ |url-status=live }}</ref> His earlier essay  "[[A Walk to Wachusett]]" (1842) describes a four-day [[walking tour]] Thoreau took with a companion from Concord, Massachusetts to the summit of [[Mount Wachusett]], [[Princeton, Massachusetts]] and back. Established in 1876, the [[Appalachian Mountain Club]] has the distinction of being the oldest hiking club in America. It was founded to protect the trails and mountains in the northeastern United States. Prior to its founding, four other hiking clubs had already been established in America. This included the very short-lived (first) Rocky Mountain Club in 1875, the White Mountain Club of Portland in 1873, the Alpine Club of Williamstown in 1863, and the Exploring Circle, which was established by four men from Lynn, Massachusetts in 1850. Although not a hiking club in the same sense as the clubs that would emerge later, the National Park Service recognizes the Exploring Circle as being "the first hiking club in New England."<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 July 2020 |title=Lynn Woods Historic District |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/lynn-woods-historic-district.htm |website=NPS |access-date=28 May 2023 }}</ref> All four of these clubs would disband within a few years of their founding.<ref name="Doran 2023"/>

Despite clubs such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, hiking during the early twentieth century was still primarily in New England, [[San Francisco]], and the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, there were similar clubs formed in the Midwest and following the Appalachian range. As interest grew hiking culture was spread throughout the nation.<ref name=":0" />

The Scottish-born, American naturalist [[John Muir]] (1838 –1914), was another important early advocate of the preservation of wilderness in the United States. He petitioned the [[U.S. Congress]] for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. The [[Sierra Club]], which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings inspired others, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large areas of undeveloped countryside.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Life and Contributions of John Muir |url=http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/ |access-date=October 23, 2009 |publisher=Sierra Club |archive-date=March 31, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331043927/http://sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Barbara Kiely |title=John Muir |publisher=Gareth Stevens |year=2008 |isbn=978-0836883183 |page=10}}</ref> In 1916, the National Park Service was created to protect national parks and monuments.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quick History of the National Park Service (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/quick-nps-history.htm |access-date=2021-03-09 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en |archive-date=2021-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309170544/https://www.nps.gov/articles/quick-nps-history.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=National Park Service |url=https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/national-park-service |access-date=2021-03-09 |website=HISTORY |date=21 August 2018 |language=en |archive-date=2021-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305201515/https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/national-park-service |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-25 |title=Congress Creates the National Park Service |url=https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/national-park-service |access-date=2021-03-09 |website=National Archives |language=en |archive-date=2021-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326020016/https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/national-park-service |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1921, [[Benton MacKaye]], a forester, conceived the idea of what would become America's first National Scenic Trail, the [[Appalachian trail]] (AT). The AT was completed in August 1937, running from Maine to Georgia. The [[Pacific Crest Trail]] ("PCT") was first explored in the 1930s by the [[YMCA]] hiking groups and was eventually registered as a complete border to border trail from Mexico to Canada.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Top 10 Hiking Trails in the US |url=http://www.e2e.com/featured/the-top-10-hiking-trails-in-the-us/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223095352/http://www.e2e.com/featured/the-top-10-hiking-trails-in-the-us |archive-date=2014-02-23 |access-date=2014-02-12 |publisher=e2e.com}}</ref>