State Hiking programs

[jason]

Has anyone looked into their state hiking program? Noticed when we were in Georgia they promoted it at the park we went to. Came home and found Florida does one too. Thought it would be an interesting try.

Florida's program is called Trailwalker, with a few other programs if you decide to go further.

To become a Trailwalker:

Walk a total of 10 trails from this Trail List in a minimum of five State Forests. At the head of each trail you hike, obtain one prepaid postal survey card for the trail. Fill it in and put it in the mail after you complete the hike.

Print the Trailwalkers Log [ Adobe PDF Document ] and record your progress. As you send in your postal survey cards, we will send you a sticker for each one. You will affix this sticker next to the entry for each trail you hike.

When you have hiked and logged your 10 trails, complete the Trailwalkers Log and mail it to us. We will send you a beautiful Trailwalker patch that you can sew on your favorite shirt or hiking vest, plus a certificate commemorating your achievement signed by the Florida Forest Service Director.

Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

www.fdacs.gov

 

[ppine]

We have nothing similar.
I was impressed in Germany with Volks Marches. A couple hundred people out hiking from one town to the next. They collect little metal signs and nail them on their walking sticks. Americans need to get out and move more.

 

[Roybrew]

The Great Smoky Mtns park has badges and things to encourage people to hike the trails. We started hiking there in 2007. We didn't know they had badges for the trails at that time. We hiked several the next year, and of course we had to have the badges.

The town a half hour from us has a city park in a valley on top of a mountain. They have several hiking trails and encompass 3,750 acres. The lake is 44 acres, and a trail around the lake is 2.8 miles. We were there week end before last. That park also connects to a park that is closer to home. Laurel Run park is a state park that is at the western end of Bays mtn park. I haven't hiked from one park to the next yet, but I'm planning on it.

 

[jason]

We have nothing similar.
I was impressed in Germany with Volks Marches. A couple hundred people out hiking from one town to the next. They collect little metal signs and nail them on their walking sticks. Americans need to get out and move more.

I know when geocaching first started getting popular there were more people out, but that seemed to have died down. I'll be honest and haven't looked for a cache in a long time. But I usually walk in the same parks at lunch. I do try and find new paths within my time limit to see new things.

 

[jason]

The Great Smoky Mtns park has badges and things to encourage people to hike the trails. We started hiking there in 2007. We didn't know they had badges for the trails at that time. We hiked several the next year, and of course we had to have the badges.

The town a half hour from us has a city park in a valley on top of a mountain. They have several hiking trails and encompass 3,750 acres. The lake is 44 acres, and a trail around the lake is 2.8 miles. We were there week end before last. That park also connects to a park that is closer to home. Laurel Run park is a state park that is at the western end of Bays mtn park. I haven't hiked from one park to the next yet, but I'm planning on it.[

2.8 miles would be perfect for my lunch break, lol. I usually only have county parks available to me at lunch, but I have hit a few state parks around me and never seen anything mentioned about the hiking program. I had to google it to find something.

Also, did you make that small walking stick?

 

[ppine]

Public land is everywhere in the West. We have some local marked trails. Mostly we just hike where ever we want. On the other side of my back fence are one million acres of BLM land.

 

[jason]

I miss that. Where I grew up we just left the back door and had a trail into the woods. I guess it is a park now, not sure if it was back then too. A bit over 2000 acres. No signs or fencing. All the parks around here have fencing, usually barbed wire cattle-style fencing with marked paths. A lot of parks have cabbage palms all over too, so there is no wandering off the paths for the most part. Something I noticed again when we were in Georgia, is just how open the ground is in the forests and you could just walk wherever. Something I truly miss, the best I get down here is at work I will sometimes walk a bit further than I perhaps should in larger dry(ish) swamps and have to find my way back out.

 

[Northern Dancer]

I was thinking how fortunate we are to have such vast amounts of land around us. It's interesting when you read about escapades of English campers when they speak of Stealth camping, an act of parking your camper van or motorhome or tent in any area without paying for a spot, ranging everywhere from residential streets to the middle of the countryside or private property. It's sometimes referred to as boondocking, free camping, or wild camping.

In my neck of the woods, public land is referred to as Crown Land which consists of 41% of the nation's land mass and is available for camping free of charge for a period not exceeding 21 days.

 

[Roybrew]

2.8 miles would be perfect for my lunch break, lol. I usually only have county parks available to me at lunch, but I have hit a few state parks around me and never seen anything mentioned about the hiking program. I had to google it to find something.

Also, did you make that small walking stick?

Sorry for the late reply. The small walking stick is Laurel. Someone broke it off a bush and used it, then they left it a trail head. It fit my wife's hand very well and is light and sturdy. People shouldn't destroy the vegetation like that, there is plenty of dead fall laying around.