The Administration Is Squashing My Hiking Dreams


I'm pretty much over This American Life (I am a tad tired of it, a la this Onion article, but mostly it's just because I think that constantly listening to my iPod has decreased my attention span to the detriment of school work, and I got that ticket a while ago for wearing headphones while riding my bike, which is when I did most of my listening) but anyway, a couple weeks ago's aggravating show had a story that related to something I've seen on all my big hikes--the slash, pictured above.

It's the cleared area along the border between the US and Canada. I hiked along it for several miles after finishing the AT (and, oops, accidentally crossed into Canada for a couple minutes until getting picked up by the Mounties), crossed the slash on the PCT, and turned around there on the CDT. Someday I'd like to investigate the possibility of a long hike along the slash. It's always seemed like an accidental freebie when it came to trails with public access--no need for parks or national forests or permission; it's just the border and nobody owns it so nobody could keep me off of it. But the TAL story makes me less optimistic about that, as the administration is violating treaties to let private construction take place right on the border.

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