If more Red Counties and States stayed honestly focused on economics, housing, healthcare, and quality of life mobility and access projects like this we could all breathe easier.

Greenville County, South Carolina’s “Freeway for Bikes”, primarily the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail, a popular 28-mile greenway connecting Travelers Rest to Greenville along a former railroad corridor, but the county also develops local bike routes, like the one connecting White Horse Road to downtown for commuters, fostering a strong cycling culture with trails, bike lanes, and support from organizations like Bike Walk Greenville.
#US #SC #Bike #SustainableMobility, #ActiveTransportation, #TrailBuilding, #CyclingInfrastructure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxGYs8kHxw4&t=629s

-English below-

#Wanderwege entstehen nicht von selbst.
Die #TranscaucasianTrailAssociation braucht unsere Hilfe!

Seit ich im Sommer 2022 in #Georgien eine Woche lang mit anpacken durfte, schaue ich ganz anders auf gut gepflegte #trails , weil ich nun weiß, wieviel Arbeit dahinter steckt.

Um so erschütternder ist es, lesen zu müssen, dass der Organisation im wunderschönen #Kaukasus dank der AmericaFirst-Politik die finanziellen Mittel komplett gestrichen wurden.

Seit gestern läuft deshalb bis zum Monatsende eine #Spendenaktion , die ich hiermit etwas promoten möchte.

Das Trail-Projekt wird von sehr engagierten und netten Menschen aus Amerika sowie vor Ort im Kaukasus vorangetrieben, anvisiert wird ein 3000Km Trail durch #Armenien , #Azerbaijan und #Georgien.
Ein Muss für jede Weitwandererin und Weitwanderer.

English:

#Hiking trails do not develop by themselves.
The TranscaucasianTrailAssociation needs our help!

Since I was able to help out for a week in #Georgia in the summer of 2022, I look at well-maintained trails in a completely different way because I now know how much work goes into them.

It is all the more shocking to read that the organization in the beautiful #Caucasus has had its funding completely cut thanks to the America First policy.

As a result, a fundraising campaign has been running since yesterday until the end of the month, which I would like to promote here.

The trail project is being driven forward by very committed and friendly people from America and locally in the Caucasus. The aim is to complete a 3000km trail through Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
A must for every long-distance hiker.

https://transcaucasiantrail.org/en/hike-a-thon/

#HikeforTCT #tct #transcaucasiantrail #trailbuilding #naturelovers #mountainlovers #crowdfunding #LongDistanceHiking

wintersun bright morning

#photography,
#webcam
#WinterWonderland
#trailbuilding, #permaculture

Wondered if the vertical dot-dash-dot blaze pattern carved into a tree I think was at the end of a switchback once had any meaning. Searching for blazes gets me drowned in a sea of painted ones. (I must have asked Jeeves. Jeeves always tried to bend my search into something common, but I'm not Bertie.) So I had a look at the Forest Service trail building manual. They only do reassurance markers (vertical dot-dash, AKA i) so I didn't find out.

However, I did learn that even in 1935, they didn't think you should chop all the way through the bark if you could help it. Here's a couple pages from https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/recreational_trails/publications/fs_publications/00232839/

#hiking #trailBlaze #history #trailBuilding #ForestService

Yesterday I attended another trail building day organised by 千里步道 on Bengshankeng Historic Trail (崩山坑古道) in New Taipei’s Shuangxi District.

It’s the third such event I’ve attended, and each day has involved using different techniques to maintain the paths. The spot we were working on yesterday was a narrow path running alongside and a couple of metres above a stream. Over time, erosion has chipped away at the bank and the path, leaving a trail that was little more than 30cm in some places, and without repair work, it could easily collapse entirely given a few more big storms.

When we arrived at the site and the experts explained the work we were going to undertake to shore up the path, I struggled to see how it would work. But then over the course of a few hours, rock supports were constructed to shore up areas where the erosion was worst, a couple of trees were felled and used as a border to prevent more earth from being lost, and a low baffle was added in the stream to gently divert the water away from the steep bank below the trail and towards the shallow bay on the far side.

Seeing the transformation was incredible. Having been there from start to finish, it looked like an entirely new trail, but what makes it even more beautiful is that anyone walking this way in a few weeks would struggle to spot what has been done. The craftsmanship of these hand-built trails enables them merge seamlessly with the rest of the path that’s been there for over a hundred years already.

All of the work was done using very simple tools that we carried in ourselves and using materials sourced right there where we were working. There’s no metal, no concrete, no plastic. Just rocks, wood and plenty of team work.

I feel really lucky to be able to give a little back to the trails that have given me so much pleasure.

#Taiwan #trail #trailbuilding #hiking #volunteering #nature