Snowshoe
A snowshoe, earlier called a racket, is footwear for walking over the snow. Snowshoes work by distributing the weight of the person over an area so that the persons foot does not sink completely into the snow. Snowshoeing is a form of hiking, traditional snowshoes have a hardwood frame with rawhide lacings. Some modern snowshoes are similar, but most are made of such as lightweight metal, plastic. In addition to distributing the weight, snowshoes are generally raised at the toe for maneuverability and they must not accumulate snow, hence the latticework, and require bindings to attach them to the feet. However, snowshoes are mainly used today for recreation, primarily by hikers and runners who like to continue their hobby in wintertime, Snowshoeing is easy to learn and in appropriate conditions is a relatively safe and inexpensive recreational activity. However, snowshoeing in icy, steep terrain can be more dangerous, before people built snowshoes, nature provided examples. Several animals, most notably the snowshoe hare, had evolved over the years with oversized feet enabling them to more quickly through deep snow.
The origin and age of snowshoes are not precisely known, although historians believe they were invented from 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, probably starting in Central Asia. British archaeologist Jacqui Wood hypothesized that the equipment interpreted to be the frame of a backpack of the Chalcolithic mummy Ötzi was actually part of a snowshoe. Strabo wrote that the inhabitants of the Caucasus used to attach flat surfaces of leather under their feet, the traditional webbed snowshoe as we know it today had direct origins to North American indigenous people, e. g. the Huron, and so forth. Two groups of snowshoe pioneers diverged early on, setting patterns that can still be seen today, one group abandoned the snowshoe as it migrated north to what is now Scandinavia, eventually turning the design into the forerunners of the Nordic ski. The other went northeast, eventually crossing the Bering Strait into North America, in 2016, Italian scientists reported the oldest snowshoe in the world discovered in the Dolomites and dated to between 3800 and 3700 B. C.
The indigenous people of North America developed the most advanced and diverse snowshoes prior to the 20th century, nearly every North American aboriginal culture developed its own particular shape of shoe, the simplest and most primitive being those of the far north. The Inuit have two styles, one being triangular in shape and about 18 inches in length, and the other almost circular, both reflecting the need for high flotation in deep and powdery snow. Southward the shoe becomes gradually narrower and longer, the largest being the hunting snow-shoe of the Cree, even smaller models, developed most notably by the Iroquois, are narrower and shorter, reflecting the need for maneuverability in forested areas. The Plains Indians wore snowshoes on their winter season bison hunts before horses were introduced. Despite their great diversity in form, snowshoes were, in fact, one of the few cultural elements common to all tribes that lived where the winters were snowy, in particular, the Northern regions
Backpacking (wilderness)
Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on ones back, while hiking for more than a day. It is often but not always an extended journey, and may or may not involve camping outdoors, in North America tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain huts found widely in Europe are rare. In New Zealand, tramping is an equivalent term though overnight huts are frequently used, hill walking is the equivalent in Britain, though backpackers make use of all kinds of accommodation, in addition to camping. Backpackers use simple huts in South Africa, similar terms used in other countries are trekking and bushwalking. Backpacking as a method of travel is a different activity, which mainly utilizes public transport during a journey which can last months, backpacking is an outdoor recreation where gear is carried in a backpack. This can include food, bedding, clothing, backpacking trips consist of at least one night and can last for weeks or months, sometimes aided by planned resupply points or drops.
A skilled backpacker minimizes their impact on the environment, including staying on established trails, not disturbing vegetation, the Leave No Trace movement ethos is direct, Leave nothing but footprints. Backpackers must always be prepared for difficulties, whether mishaps are experienced or not, the remoteness of backpacking locations can exacerbate any mishap. Survival gear and the skills to use it are paramount, backpacking camps are usually more spartan than campsites where gear is transported by car or boat. In areas with heavy traffic, a hike-in campsite might have a fire ring, an outhouse. Many hike-in camps are no more than level patches of free of underbrush. In remote wilderness areas hikers must choose their own site, established camps are rare and the ethos is to leave no trace when gone. In some regions, varying forms of accommodation exist, from simple log lean-tos to staffed facilities offering escalating degrees of service, beds and even drinks may be had at Alpine huts scattered among well-traveled European mountains.
In the more parts of Great Britain, especially Scotland. On the French system of long distance trails, Grande Randonnées, backpackers can stay in gîtes detapes, there are some simple shelters and occasional mountain hut provided in North America, including on the Appalachian trail. Another example is the High Sierra Camps in the Yosemite National Park, long distance backpacking trails with huts exist in South Africa, including the 100 km plus Amatola Trail, in the Eastern Cape Province. Backpacking is popular in the Himalayas, where porters and pack animals are often used, backpacking gear begins with a suitable backpack, proper both in size and fit. Next is clothing and footwear appropriate for expected conditions, third is an adequate amount and type of food
Inyo County, California
Inyo County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,546, Inyo County is on the east side of the Sierra Nevada and southeast of Yosemite National Park in Central California. It contains the Owens River Valley, it is flanked to the west by the Sierra Mountains and to the east by the White Mountains, Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Contiguous United States, is on Inyo Countys western border. The Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, the lowest place in North America, is in eastern Inyo County. The two points are not visible from other, but both can be observed from the Panamint Range on the west side of Death Valley, above the Panamint Valley. It has the biggest elevation difference of all of the counties, with an area of 10,192 square miles, Inyo County is the second-largest county by area in California, after San Bernardino County. Almost one-half of that area is within Death Valley National Park, with a population density of 1.8 people per square mile, it has the lowest population density of any county in California.
Present day Inyo county has been the homeland for thousands of years of the Mono tribe, Coso people, Timbisha. They spoke the Timbisha language and the Mono language with Mono traditional narratives, the descendants of these ancestors continue to live in their traditional homelands in the Owens River Valley and in Death Valley National Park. Inyo County was formed in 1866 from the territory of the unorganized Coso County created on April 4,1864 from parts of Mono and it acquired more territory from Mono County in 1870 and Kern County and San Bernardino County in 1872. For many years it has been believed that the county derived its name from the Mono tribe of Native Americans name for the mountains in its former homeland. The local Paiutes responded that that was the land of Inyo and they meant by this that those lands belonged to the Shoshone tribe headed by a man whose name was Inyo. Indian George, a fixture of many of the stories of early Death Valley days, was Inyos son, in order to provide water needs for the growing City of Los Angeles, water was diverted from the Owens River into the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913.
The Owens River Valley cultures and environments changed substantially, from the 1910s to 1930s the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power purchased much of the valley for water rights and control. In 1941 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power extended the Los Angeles Aqueduct system further upriver into the Mono Basin, Inyo County is host to a number of natural superlatives. Among them are, Mount Whitney, with an elevation of 14,505 feet, is the highest point in the contiguous United States, the 12th highest peak in the U. S. and the 24th highest peak in North America. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 10,227 square miles. It is the second-largest county by area in California and the ninth-largest in the United States, Death Valley National Park Inyo National Forest Manzanar National Historic Site There are 22 official wilderness areas in Inyo County that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System
Golden trout
The California golden trout, or simply the golden trout, is a subspecies of the rainbow trout native to California. The golden trout is native to Golden Trout Creek, Volcano Creek, the California golden trout is closely related to two other rainbow trout subspecies. The Little Kern golden trout, found in the Little Kern River basin, these three trout form what is sometimes referred to as the golden trout complex. FishBase and the Catalog of Fishes however now list O. aguabonita as an independent species rather than as subspecies of O. mykiss. Likewise, while ITIS lists O. m. whitei and O. m. gilberti as subspecies of O. mykiss, O. aguabonita instead is listed as a full species. The golden trout has golden flanks with red, horizontal bands along the lines on each side and about 10 dark. Dorsal and anal fins have white leading edges, in their native habitat, adults range from 6 to 12 inches long. Fish over 12 inches are considered large, Golden trout that have been transplanted to lakes have been recorded up to 11 pounds.
The golden trout should be distinguished from the similarly named golden rainbow trout, the golden rainbow is a color variant of the rainbow trout. The golden trout is found at elevations from 6,890 feet to 10,000 feet above sea level. Preferred water temperature is 58 to 62 °F but they can tolerate temperatures in degraded streams on the Kern Plateau as high as 70 °F so long as those waters cool during the night. The only other species of indigenous to the native range of California golden trout is the Sacramento sucker. The Wyoming Game & Fish Department state record golden trout measured 28 in and weighed 11.25 lb, caught in Cook Lake, the IGFA All-Tackle Length Record for O. m. aguabonita measured 21 in caught in Golden Lake, Wyoming in 2012. O. m. aguabonita is native to the southern Sierra Nevada, including the reach and tributaries of the South Fork of the Kern River. In 1892 the California golden trout was described by David Starr Jordan. The fish was named after the Agua Bonita Waterfall where the first specimens were collected, at the mouth of Volcano Creek, a century they were listed as Oncorhynchus mykiss aguabonita in Behnkes Native trout of western North America.
In 1904 Stewart Edward White communicated to his friend President Theodore Roosevelt, in Whites novel The Mountains, he wrote about the threatened golden trout on California’s Kern Plateau. Roosevelt shared White’s concern and, through U. S. Fish Commissioner George M. Bowers, in 1906 Evermann published The Golden Trout of the Southern High Sierras
Porterville, California
Porterville is a city in the San Joaquin Valley, in Tulare County, United States. It is part of the Visalia-Porterville metropolitan statistical area, since its incorporation in 1902, the citys population has grown dramatically as it annexed nearby unincorporated areas. The citys July 2014 population was estimated at 55,466, Porterville serves as a gateway to a vast wonderland and recreational area, the Sequoia National Forest, the Giant Sequoia National Monument and Kings Canyon National Park. During Californias Spanish period, the San Joaquin Valley was considered a region of little value. Emigrants skirted the eastern foothills in the vicinity of Porterville as early as 1826, swamps stretched out into the Valley floor lush with tall rushes or tulares as the Indians called them. Gold discovered in 1848 brought a tremendous migration to California, starting in 1854, Peter Goodhue operated a stopping place on the Stockton - Los Angeles Road on the bank of the Tule River. Wagon trains of gold seekers passed through the village, but other travelers found the land rich, a store was set up in 1856 to sell goods to miners and the Indians, who lived in tribal lands along the rivers.
From 1858 to 1861 it was the location of the Tule River Station of the Butterfield Overland Mail, royal Porter Putnam came to the village in 1860 to raise cattle and hogs. Putnam bought out Goodhue in 1860, turning the station into a stopping place. He bought 40 acres of land and built a store and a hotel on the highest point of the swampy property. The town of Porterville was founded there in 1864, the town took its name from the founders given name because another Putnam family lived south of town. In 1862,20.8 inches of rain fell in the area causing the change of course of the Tule River, putnams acres drained, and he had his property surveyed, staking out lot lines and establishing streets. Settlers were offered a lot for every one purchased. Needs of a burgeoning California population for food gave the impetus which led to permanent development of the east side southern San Joaquin Valley, the long, hot summer prompted irrigation of the lands. In 1888, the Southern Pacific Railway brought in the line from Fresno.
The Pioneer Hotel and Bank were built by businessmen from San Francisco, the town incorporated in 1902, as miners moved into the area to extract magnetite ore, and the Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1907. A City Manager-Council form of government was adopted in 1926, the City has grown from a community of 5,000 people in 1920. Agriculture supplemented by the Central Valley Water Project has been the source of economic growth in the area
Sequoia National Forest
Sequoia National Forest is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The U. S. National Forest is named for the majestic Giant Sequoia trees which populate 38 distinct groves within the boundaries of the forest, the Giant Sequoia National Monument is located in the national forest. Other notable features include glacier-carved landscapes and impressive granite monoliths, the Needles are a series of granite spires atop a narrow ridge above the Kern River. Forest headquarters are located in Porterville, there are local ranger district offices in Dunlap, Lake Isabella, and Springville. The Sequoia National Forest covers 1,193,315 acres and its Giant Sequoia groves are part of its 196,000 acres of old growth forests. Other tree species include, Jeffrey Pine Red Fir Coast Douglas-fir Ponderosa Pine White Fir Lodgepole Pine The Needles are a series of granite atop a narrow ridge above the Kern River. There are six areas within Sequoia NF that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Some of these extend into neighboring National Forests, as indicated, two of them extend into land that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The forest is adjacent to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Sequoia National Forest was established on July 1,1908 from a portion of Sierra Forest Reserve. On March 2,1909 Theodore Roosevelt added land by Presidential Proclamation, on July 1,19101,951,191 acres was removed from the forest to create the Kern National Forest. This land was returned to Sequoia National Forest on July 1,1915, the Sequoia National Forest has 34 giant sequoia groves. It can be accessed by paved roads, the grove contains many young sequoias approaching diameters of up to 10 feet. Once the second-largest grove, but much logged around 1890-1900, nearly 100 widely scattered old-growth Giant Sequoias remain, good regrowth of younger trees. Home of the Boole Tree, which the loggers spared as it was by far the largest tree in the grove and is now identified as the sixth-largest tree by volume.
Although not among the very largest Giant Sequoias, the General Noble Tree was perhaps among the top 30 largest Giant Sequoias before it was cut, immediately north of the Agnew Grove, near Monarch Wilderness boundary. 36°48N 118°4930W 2050–2250 m. Agnew & Deer Meadow Grove, located between Converse Basin Grove and General Grant Grove, near McGee Overlook. Cherry Gap Grove is a sequoia grove of about thirty-five acres in Sequoia national forest. Listed by Rundel and Flint, very small, too few trees to qualify as a grove according to Willard, contains the 13th largest giant sequoia in the world, The Ishi Giant
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild, techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, netting and trapping. Fishing may include catching aquatic animals other than fish, such as molluscs, crustaceans, the term is not normally applied to catching farmed fish, or to aquatic mammals, such as whales where the term whaling is more appropriate. According to United Nations FAO statistics, the number of commercial fishermen. Fisheries and aquaculture provide direct and indirect employment to over 500 million people in developing countries, in 2005, the worldwide per capita consumption of fish captured from wild fisheries was 14.4 kilograms, with an additional 7.4 kilograms harvested from fish farms. In addition to providing food, modern fishing is a recreational pastime, Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to at least the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago. Isotopic analysis of the remains of Tianyuan man, a 40.
Archaeology features such as middens, discarded fish bones, and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for survival. During this period, most people lived a lifestyle and were, of necessity. However, where there are examples of permanent settlements such as those at Lepenski Vir. The British dogger was a type of sailing trawler from the 17th century. The Brixham trawler that evolved there was of a build and had a tall gaff rig. They were sufficiently robust to be able to tow large trawls in deep water, the great trawling fleet that built up at Brixham, earned the village the title of Mother of Deep-Sea Fisheries. The small village of Grimsby grew to become the largest fishing port in the world by the mid 19th century, an Act of Parliament was first obtained in 1796, which authorised the construction of new quays and dredging of the Haven to make it deeper. It was only in the 1846, with the expansion in the fishing industry. The foundation stone for the Royal Dock was laid by Albert the Prince consort in 1849, the dock covered 25 acres and was formally opened by Queen Victoria in 1854 as the first modern fishing port.
The elegant Brixham trawler spread across the world, influencing fishing fleets everywhere, by the end of the 19th century, there were over 3,000 fishing trawlers in commission in Britain, with almost 1,000 at Grimsby. These trawlers were sold to fishermen around Europe, including from the Netherlands, twelve trawlers went on to form the nucleus of the German fishing fleet
Skiing
Skiing is a mode of transport, recreational activity and competitive winter sport in which the participant uses skis to glide on snow. Many types of skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Skiing has a history of almost five millennia, although modern skiing has evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, it may have been practiced as early as 600 BC in what is now China. The word ski is one of a handful of words Norway has exported to the international community and it comes from the Old Norse word skíð which means split piece of wood or firewood. Asymmetrical skis were used at least in northern Finland and Sweden until the late 19th century, on one leg the skier wore a long straight non-arching ski for sliding, and on the other a shorter ski for kicking. Early skiers used one long pole or spear, the first depiction of a skier with two ski poles dates to 1741. Until the mid-19th century skiing was primarily used for transport, and since has become a recreation, military ski races were held in Norway during the 18th century, and ski warfare was studied in the late 18th century.
As equipment evolved and ski lifts were developed skiing evolved into two main genres during the late 19th and early 20th century and Nordic, called downhill skiing, alpine skiing typically takes place on a piste at a ski resort. It is characterized by fixed-heel bindings that attach at both the toe and the heel of the skiers boot, because alpine equipment is somewhat difficult to walk in, ski lifts, including chairlifts, bring skiers up the slope. Backcountry skiing can be accessed by helicopter, hiking, facilities at resorts can include night skiing, après-ski, and glade skiing under the supervision of the ski patrol and the ski school. Alpine skiing branched off from the older Nordic skiing around the 1920s, Alpine equipment specialized to where it can only be used with the help of lifts. The Nordic disciplines include cross-country skiing and ski jumping, which share in common the use of binding that attach at the toes of the skiers boots, cross-country skiing may be practiced on groomed trails or in undeveloped backcountry areas.
Ski jumping skiing is practiced at certain areas that are deemed for ski jumping only, Telemark skiing is a ski turning technique and FIS-sanctioned discipline. It is named after the Telemark region of Norway, using equipment similar to nordic skiing, the ski bindings having the ski boot attached only at the toe. This allows the skier to raise his/her heel throughout the turn, the following disciplines are sanctioned by the FIS and USSA. Many have their own cups and are in the Winter Olympic Games. Cross-country, The sport encompasses a variety of formats for cross-country skiing races over courses of varying lengths, such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic and free-style events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. Alpine skiing discliplines include combined, slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, one run of each even like one run of Super-G and one run of Slalom skiing this is called a Super Combined
Swimming
Human swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water or another liquid, usually for recreation, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as an evolutionary response. Swimming is consistently among top public recreational activities, and in some countries, as a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local and international competitions, including every modern summer Olympics, which takes place every four years. Swimming relies on the buoyancy of the human body. On average, the body has a density of 0.98 compared to water. However, buoyancy varies on the basis of body composition and the salinity of the water. Higher levels of fat and saltier water both lower the relative density of the body and increase its buoyancy. Since the human body is slightly less dense than water, water supports the weight of the body during swimming.
As a result, swimming is “low-impact” compared to land such as running. The density and viscosity of water create resistance for objects moving through the water, Swimming strokes use this resistance to create propulsion, but this same resistance generates drag on the body. Hydrodynamics is important to stroke technique for swimming faster, and swimmers who want to swim faster or tire less try to reduce the drag of the motion through the water. Just before plunging into the pool, swimmers may perform such as squatting. Squatting helps in enhancing a swimmer’s start by warming up the thigh muscles, human babies demonstrate an innate swimming or diving reflex from newborn until the age of approximately 6 months. Other mammals demonstrate this phenomenon, Swimming can be undertaken using a wide range of styles, known as strokes, and these strokes are used for different purposes, or to distinguish between classes in competitive swimming. It is not necessary to use a stroke for propulsion through the water.
There are four main strokes used in competition and recreation swimming, the front crawl, known as freestyle, the breaststroke, the backstroke, competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using the breaststroke. In 1873, John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times, and the earliest records of swimming date back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC, some of the earliest references include the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible and other sagas
Tulare County, California
Tulare County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 442,179, the county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. Drained for agricultural development, the site is now in Kings County, Tulare County comprises the Visalia-Porterville, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is located south of Fresno, spanning from the San Joaquin Valley east to the Sierra Nevada. Sequoia National Park is located in the county, as are part of Kings Canyon National Park, in its northeast corner, as of the 2010 census, the population was 442,179, up from 368,021 at the 2000 census. The land was occupied for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples, beginning in the eighteenth century, Spain established missions to colonize California and convert the American Indians to Christianity. Comandante Pedro Fages, while hunting for deserters in the Central Valley in 1772, discovered a lake surrounded by marshes and filled with rushes.
It is from this lake that the county derives its name, the root of the name Tulare is found in the Nahuatl word tullin, designating cattail or similar reeds. After Mexico achieved independence, it continued to rule California, after the Mexican Cession and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the area became part of the United States. Tulare County was soon formed from parts of Mariposa County only 4 years in 1852, there were two early attempts to split off a new Buena Vista County in 1855, and Coso County in 1864, but both failed. Parts of the territory were given to Fresno County in 1856, to Kern County and to Inyo County in 1866. The infectious disease Tularemia caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis is named after Tulare County, in 1908 Colonel Allen Allensworth and associates founded Allensworth as a black farming community. They intended to develop a place where African Americans could thrive free of white discrimination and it was the only community in California founded and governed by African Americans.
While its first years were successful, the community encountered environmental problems from dropping water tables which eventually caused it to fail. Today the historic area is preserved as the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,839 square miles. It was established in 1890 as the second U. S. national park, the park is south of and contiguous with Kings Canyon National Park, the two are administered by the National Park Service as one unit, called Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. State Route 43 State Route 63 State Route 65 State Route 99 State Route 180 State Route 190 State Route 198 Tulare County Transit provides a bus service linking the population centers
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. Some governments establish them by law or administrative acts, usually in land tracts that have not been modified by human action in great measure, the main feature of them is that human activity is restricted significantly. These actions seek not only to preserve what already exists, but to promote and advance a natural expression, Wilderness areas can be found in preserves, conservation preserves, National Forests, National Parks and even in urban areas along rivers, gulches or otherwise undeveloped areas. These areas are considered important for the survival of species, ecological studies, solitude. Wilderness is deeply valued for cultural, moral, some nature writers believe wilderness areas are vital for the human spirit and creativity. They may preserve historic genetic traits and provide habitat for flora and fauna that may be difficult to recreate in zoos. The word wilderness derives from the notion of other words.
The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being wilderness, many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered wild. This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without human interference, the WILD Foundation states that wilderness areas have two dimensions, they must be biologically intact and legally protected. The World Conservation Union classifies wilderness at two levels, Ia and Ib, activities on the margins of specific wilderness areas, such as fire suppression and the interruption of animal migration affect the interior of wildernesses. Especially in wealthier, industrialized nations, it has a legal meaning as well. Many nations have designated wilderness, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, looked at through the lens of the visual arts and wildness have been important subjects in various epochs of world history. An early tradition of landscape art occurred in the Tang Dynasty, the tradition of representing nature as it is became one of the aims of Chinese painting and was a significant influence in Asian art.
In the 13th century, Shih Erh Chi recommended avoiding painting scenes lacking any places made inaccessible by nature, for most of human history, the greater part of the Earths terrain was wilderness, and human attention was concentrated in settled areas. The first known laws to protect parts of nature date back to the Babylonian Empire, the Great Mauryan King, defined the first laws in the world to protect flora and fauna in Edicts of Ashoka around 3rd Century B. C. In the Middle Ages, the Kings of England initiated one of the world’s first conscious efforts to natural areas. They were motivated by a desire to be able to hunt wild animals in private hunting preserves rather than a desire to protect wilderness, nevertheless, in order to have animals to hunt they would have to protect wildlife from subsistence hunting and the land from villagers gathering firewood. Similar measures were introduced in other European countries, the idea of wilderness having intrinsic value emerged in the Western world in the 19th century
Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail is 2,659 mi long and ranges in elevation from just above sea level at the Oregon–Washington border to 13,153 feet at Forester Pass in the Sierra Nevada. The route passes through 25 national forests and 7 national parks and its midpoint is near Chester, where the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges meet. It was designated a National Scenic Trail in 1968, although it was not officially completed until 1993, the PCT was conceived by Clinton Churchill Clarke in 1932. It received official status under the National Trails System Act of 1968 and it is the westernmost and second longest component of the Triple Crown of Hiking and is part of the 6, 875-mile Great Western Loop. The route is mostly through National Forest and protected wilderness, the trail avoids civilization and covers scenic and pristine mountainous terrain with few roads. A parallel route for bicycles, the Pacific Crest Bicycle Trail is a 2, the PCT and PCBT cross in about 27 places along their routes. The Pacific Crest Trail was first proposed by Clinton C, Clarke, as a trail running from Mexico to Canada along the crest of the mountains in California and Washington.
The original proposal was to link the John Muir Trail, the Tahoe-Yosemite Trail, the Skyline Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail System Conference was formed by Clarke to both plan the trail and to lobby the federal government to protect the trail. The conference was founded by Clarke, the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, from 1935 through 1938, YMCA groups explored the 2000 miles of potential trail and planned a route, which has been closely followed by the modern PCT route. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson defined the PCT, the PCT was constructed through cooperation between the federal government and volunteers organized by the Pacific Crest Trail Association. In 1993, the PCT was officially declared finished, thru hiking is a term used in referring to hikers who complete long-distance trails from end to end in a single trip. The Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide Trail were the first three long-distance trails in the U. S, successfully thru-hiking all of these three trails is known as the Triple Crown of Hiking.
Thru-hiking is a commitment, usually taking between four and six months, that requires thorough preparation and dedication. The Pacific Crest Trail Association estimates that it takes most hikers between six and eight months to plan their trip, while most hikers travel from the Southern Terminus at the Mexico–US border northward to Manning Park, British Columbia, some hikers prefer a southbound route. In a normal year, northbound hikes are most practical due to snow. If snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is high in early June and low in the Northern Cascades, however, it is not currently possible to legally enter the United States from Canada by using the Pacific Crest Trail. Hikers have to determine their resupply points, resupply points are towns or post offices where hikers replenish food and other supplies such as cooking fuel. Hikers can ship packages to themselves at the U. S, post Offices along the trail, resupply at general and grocery stores along the trail, or any combination of the two
