Your ideal fantasy long distance trail...

If you could snap your fingers, and instantly have a long distance trail come into being, what would it be?

Doesn't matter if it's a hiking or a paddling trail. Can be as well developed as you want, as difficult as you'd like it to be, and traveled by as many people or as few people as you think is ideal. Can be anywhere in the world.

I've got two fantasy trails. The first, in the Catskills, is actually not too far from becoming a reality. Once the final road-walk sections of the Finger Lakes Trail and the Long Path are relocated, we'll have an approximately 120 mile long continuous hiking trail that traverses the entire Catskill park, crossing the summits of 10 Catskill High Peaks along the way. Can't wait for this one to finally be finished so I can hike it!

The second would be a loop trail in the Adirondacks- basically two companion trails to the NPT that start in Northville and end in Lake Placid, one that swings west through the Ferris Lake Wild Forest, north through Old Forge and the Ha-De-Ron-Dah Wilderness into the Five Ponds Wilderness, then northeast through the St. Regis Canoe Area and Saranac Lakes Wild Forest to Placid, and second trail that swings east through the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest to Lake George, north through the Pharaoh Lakes Wilderness and Hammond Pond Wild Forest, then northwest through Keene Valley and the Sentinel Range Wilderness to Lake Placid. The completion of both of these trails would provide a 300+ mile long hiking loop in the Adirondacks.

What have other people got?

In my ideal I don't have to road walk into town to resupply and shower, they would be on the main trail or on side trails. No hitching or asphalt hiking require. Also, the resupply stores/inns/whatever are well stocked enough to not need to plan ahead or do mail drops.

Hmm … did I just describe European trekking?

An extended Route de bleue...north side of the St Lawrence, Quebec... paddling...looking for whales.

I want the JMT to be in Maine.

Perhaps more feasible: I'd like some 100 - 300 mile loop hikes in VT-NH-ME and into Quebec

Perfect weather, (partly sunny everyday) expansive views, clean mountain streams to drink out of without filtering.......ever, everynight a beautiful campsite to watch the sunset/sunrise, no MOSQUITOS, around 500 miles, with some amazing home cooked meals at resupply points! (not too far from the trail, of course)

Via Alpina in European Alps.

I would line up all six of the mountain ranges in CO in a North to south line, avoiding any direct contact with civilization. Id carry a fly rod and a gun to supplement my supplies along the way.

I dream about these kinds of things way too often

Here's one I thought of not long ago that I thought would be pretty beautiful. If the trails really existed, and there were campsites, a few lookout towers, and so on, I'd do this over just about anything.

The Cohos Trail seems like one person's fantasy that actually came true, so I like to think this kind of thing is possible.

Guthook said:

I dream about these kinds of things way too often

Here's one I thought of not long ago that I thought would be pretty beautiful.

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Nice... I helped replace the bog bridging on the portage between Attean and Holeb Ponds this summer... Last summer I helped to install the wood stair cases at the access/portage at Spencer Rips... You probably saw some of our work!

Does it have to be a trail? Is being completely off trail allowed?

The places I paddled by in the Yukon, oh how I want to hike some of those undulating mountains (not necessarily the rugged peaks) that just head off into nowhere, and are only accessible by first paddling a hundred miles or more. Same for pure paddling, there are many tributaries of the Yukon and other far north rivers that call out to me. I hunt for and trace them on Google Earth often.

MichaelJ said:

Hmm … did I just describe European trekking?

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Not quite ... you forgot to mention beer and wine in the huts

DSettahr said:

Nice... I helped replace the bog bridging on the portage between Attean and Holeb Ponds this summer... Last summer I helped to install the wood stair cases at the access/portage at Spencer Rips... You probably saw some of our work!

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Yes indeed! I totally fell in love with that area, too. Great trails and campsites, not to mention the ponds and river.

Mohamed Ellozy said:

Not quite ... you forgot to mention beer and wine in the huts

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Ah, good point. In my ideal fantasy trail there are *not* huts. I do like a tent or lean-to. Of course my ideal fantasy trail would not involve rain or bugs.

A 10-year hike that combines all these :

Abel Tasman Coast Track
Alpamayo Circuit
Alpine Pass Route
Alta Via 1 ("AV1")
Alta Via 2 ("AV2")
Annapurna Circuit
Appalachian Trail
Arctic Circle Trail
Baltoro Glacier to K2 Base Camp
Biafo-Hispar Traverse
Bolivian High Level Route
Cathar Way
Chogoria & Summit Circuit Routes
Chomolhari Trek
Coast To Coast Walk/Path
Continential Divide Trail
Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit
Darien Gap
Dhaulagiri Circuit
Dingle Way
Dolomites Traverse
Eden to Mallacoota
Everest Base Camp
Fish River Canyon
Fitz Roy Grand Tour
Gondokoro La-Hushe to Concorida
GR10
GR11
GR20
GR5
GR54
Grande Traversata delle Alpia (GTA)
Heaphy Track
High Sierra Trail (to Mt. Whitney)
Illampu Circuit
Inca Trail
Inner Dolpo
John Muir Trail
Jumla to Mt. Kailas
Kaibab Trail/Grand Canyon
Kalalau Trail
Kanchenjunga Trek
Kangchendzonga Himal
Kepler Track
Kungsleden
Ladahki & Zanskar
Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk
Larapinta Trail
Long Trail
Lycian Way
Manaslu Circuit
Milford Track
Mount Kalias Circuit
Mt. Kilimanjaro-Marangu Route
Mt. Kilimanjaro-Machama Route
Offa's Dyke Path
Otter & Tsitsikamma Trails
Overland Track
Pacific Crest Trail
Pembrokeshire Coast Path
Pennine Way
Polar Route
Pyrenean High Level Route
Rakiura Track
River Rhine Trail
Rockwall Trail
Routeburn Track
Royal Trek
Salcantay Trek
Singalila to Kangchendzonga
Skyline Trail
Slovene High Level Route
Snow Lake
Snowman Trek
Southern Upland Way
South West Coast Path
Stubai Horseshoe
Sunshine to Mt. Assiniboine
Teton Crest Trail
Tongariro Northern Circuit
Torres Del Paine Circuit - "W" section
Toubkal Ciruit (Tichka to Toubkal)
Tour de la Vanoise Glaciers
Tour du Mont Blanc
Tour of Mont Rosa
Tour of the Jungfrau
Tour of the Matterhorn
Walker's Haute Route
West Coast Trail
West Highland Way
Wonderland Trail
Zillertal Rucksack Route

"The Mighty N" trail. "What the heck" you say? Connect the Pacific Crest Trail's northern end with the AT's Southern end. What you get would be a huge (albeit irregular) "N" across the USA. Now, how many thru hikers you think THAT thing would see in a year (I mean, it would take someone with A LOT of drive to spend all that time hiking across the dead flat areas of the Midwest! ). The first person to complete this grand vision of mine would get from me.....a pat on the back and a hearty "well done!"

Brian

Mohamed Ellozy said:

Not quite ... you forgot to mention beer and wine in the huts

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I'd settle for short side trails every few day's hiking time leading to the backyard of congenial pubs with good burgers and microbrews...

I'd often dreamed of a meandering route that would connect the NY Adirondacks to the Vt Greens into the NH Whites finally ending somewhere deep in the Maine backcountry...
With the mention of connecting the northern terminus of the AT to the PCT, that would be sweet!
Or a Mexico to Denali trail?!?

Forester Jake said:

I'd often dreamed of a meandering route that would connect the NY Adirondacks to the Vt Greens into the NH Whites finally ending somewhere deep in the Maine backcountry...
With the mention of connecting the northern terminus of the AT to the PCT, that would be sweet!
Or a Mexico to Denali trail?!?

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It's too bad Vermont rejected the North Country Trail. The original plan was that the eastern terminus would be at a junction with the Long Trail. Vermont said that they didn't want another national scenic trail, though, so the NCT is going to end at Crown Point in NY instead.

If the Long Path ever makes it all the way up to the Adirondacks (as was the original intention for the trail), you could always hike south on the LP to the AT, then north on the AT to Vermont.

Forester Jake said:

I'd often dreamed of a meandering route that would connect the NY Adirondacks to the Vt Greens into the NH Whites finally ending somewhere deep in the Maine backcountry...

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Doesn't the Northern Forest Canoe Trail do that, except not through the mountains, exactly?

As far as ADK and Green Mountains, another one I'd thought of several years ago was to start southbound on the Long Trail, continue on the AT to New Jersey, then take the Long Path north to the Catskills and (hopefully) into the Adirondacks, then the NPT and a combination of other ADK trails as far north into New York as possible, then take the ferry back to Burlington. I think it ended up being about a 1000 mile almost-loop, hitting the highest peaks in VT, MA, CT, NJ and NY.

Guthook said:

Doesn't the Northern Forest Canoe Trail do that, except not through the mountains, exactly?

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Kind of. It does connect NY with VT (as well as QC, NH, and ME), but it's Northern Vermont, and yeah, it skirts up through Canada to get around the north end of the Green Mountains. It gets fairly close to the LT, but there's no direct link. Some outfitters in QC that would probably help you make the switch from canoes to hiking boots if you wanted to start on the NFCT and finish on the LT, though.

Interestingly enough, one of the original proposed routes for the NFCT was further south in VT, via the Lamoille, which would have take paddlers through more mountainous terrain. But some of the towns on the Mississquoi lobbied really hard to have the trail further north, hence the finalized route.

There has been some discussion about developing the Lamoille Route as an alternate route, but there is still lots of work to be done on the main route of the NFCT as it is.