Most of us remember going barefoot as a kid. The feel of warm sand, hot
pavement and early morning dew stays with us. But now that we’re older,
our feet seem more sensitive. We worry about stepping on something. Or
at least most people do. A growing number of hikers are trading in
their boots for bare feet. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen
Kelly recently caught up with one of these so-called "barefooters" in
New York’s Adirondack mountains:
Tag: hiking
Summit Stewards Promote Balance
Each year, tens of thousand of tourists flock to New York’s
Adirondack State Park… most of them heading straight for the High
Peaks, a rugged chain of mountains just west of Lake Champlain. More
visitors than ever before are climbing above the timberline and
environmental groups are concerned about rare alpine species that are
being crushed underfoot, damaged by campfires and tent sites. As the
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Brian Mann reports, a group called
Summit Stewards is working to protect this rarest part of the
Adirondacks
in a way that still welcomes hikers from around the country:
Adirondack Man
As in so many rural areas, the culture of the Adirondack Mountains is
in decline. The days of hunting and trapping have given way to
condominiums and convenience stores. At one time, the Adirondack
pack-basket was a emblem of this culture. But the number of people who
make them has dwindled. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly
visited one of the few residents keeping this tradition alive:
Not a Place for Weenies
Newsweek magazine has named Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior as one of the seven best places in the world…to get away from it all. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson reports, this isolated island is one of the least-visited places in the national park system: