Trails Move People Virtual Challenge

The Superior Hiking Trail is a natural footpath along Lake Superior's North Shore that runs 310 miles, from the WI/MN border to the Canadian border.

The Superior Hiking Trail is one of the best hiking and trail running destinations in the United States. The SHT is built, maintained, and renewed by the Superior Hiking Trail Association, a Minnesota nonprofit organization based in Two Harbors. SHTA operates 94 shared backcountry campsites along the Trail that do not require registration and cannot be reserved. The Trail is a footpath only, with a natural surface 18-inch treadway through a clearing approximately four feet in width. The entire Trail is marked with either blue or white paint blazes or SHT logo signs.

The Trail is routed principally along the ridgeline overlooking Lake Superior.The Trail is characterized by ascents to rock outcroppings and cliffs, and descents into numerous river and creek valleys. Most rivers and streams are crossed by bridges. Overlooks of Lake Superior, the Sawtooth Mountains and inland woodlands, lakes and rivers are abundant. The Trail follows rivers and creeks, often for distances of a mile or more, showcasing waterfalls and rapids, bends and deep gorges where thousands of years of rushing water has cut into layers of ancient volcanic rock.

One of the more challenging aspects of hiking the Trail is the elevation changes. Instead of long climbs and descents found in mountains, the SHT is constantly ascending and descending.

SHTA publishes a "Guide to the Superior Hiking Trail" and maps to help trail users plan their trips. Visit superiorhiking.org for more information, to join the Association, or to volunteer on the Trail.

Beginning in Norfolk and spanning 321 miles west to Chadron, this is the largest Rails-to-Trails project in the United States. 192 miles of the trail between Norfolk and Valentine is improved limestone surface.

The Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail is notable for many reasons including being the Nation's longest rail-to-trail conversion and Nebraska's first State recreational trail. The historic Chicago and Northwestern Railroad right-of-way, now the Cowboy Recreation and Nature Trail, passes through spectacular Nebraska scenery as it travels from Norfolk west through the Elkhorn River Valley. Farmsteads, cropland, and timber-covered riverbanks dot the landscape. Currently 64 miles of this trail are open for public use. When finished this hiking, biking, and equestrian trail will stretch 321 miles across Nebraska, making it the longest rail-to-trail conversion in the Nation. The trail will pass over 221 bridges and through 29 communities.

From its inception as "the hidden path through Puget Sound" of Joel Rogers' book "Watertrail," the trail has captured the imagination of kayakers, canoeists, sailors, and rowers plying Pacific Northwest waters in Washington state. A National Millenium Trail, one of 16 trails considered nationally significant at the turn of the century, this saltwater trail introduces modern explorers to historic and commercial coastal routes, in voyages of discovery along the shores of the native peoples' Salish Sea.

Orca, salmon, bald eagle, heron, puffin, side-by-side with trail users, feat on the bounty of lunar-pulled tidal currents and the rich contributions of mountain-fed rivers. From an original 20 camping spots on sate lands, the number of campsites on the trail has more than doubled in its first decade, gathering trail partners within both county and city parks and local port districts. More sites will be added with volunteers, WCC crews, businesses, and kayak clubs lending a hand from the sheltered South Sound to the outer San Juan Islands.

The founders of the Cascadia Marine Trail and the non-profit Washington Water Trail Association continue their work to preserve natural shorelines in Puget Sound and across Washington state. Their tales of kayaking and sailing in the mid-twentieth century inspire the work of WWTA and its non-profit partners and kindle enthusiasm among newcomers to non-motorized recreational boat travel. They love to share some of the many stories that "Honor and reserve 5,000 years of marine travel" on the Cascasia Marine Trail.