By Kirm Taylor
Special to the Weekly
As a founder of Lopez Community Trails Network I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to walk a trail when we went to England in January. My wife and I hiked from Winchester, in southern England, eastward for two days through beautiful rural country on public pathways through private lands, mostly farms.
Several things impressed us on our hike. First, the trail began at the edge of town and then we were immediately in farmland. City, then country … nothing in between. The trail was wide, maybe because it’s been well used since the Romans occupied England. Sometimes we mixed with horses, cows or sheep. It was well signed and with many side trails designated for hiking or bridle trails. Stiles and gates allowed us to cross fences, and often we had to close the gate ourselves. In one case there was a “radar” lock allowing someone in a wheel chair the ability to open the gate without assistance.
Hiking through pastures, sometimes in the middle but mostly along fence lines and hedgerows, felt different to us as Americans whose relation to private property slightly differs from England and most of Europe. There, it felt normal to walk through private pastures, past barns, homes and animals. Because of their long historical tradition, it is expected that private property is accessible along established, maintained trails. Although it was incumbent upon the owners to allow access, they had the right to manage it so as to protect their agricultural interests. At one point we saw a sign indicating that the owner was going to utilize the trail for her/his tractor over several weeks for a building project and sought to coordinate those activities with the hikers.
On the afternoon of the first day of hiking we arrived in Exton, a village of 600, with a dead cell phone and in need of lodging. Everything was closed until dinnertime. A man doing yard work at the (closed) pub offered to go in and see if his daughter, the owner, would assist. We were ushered inside, served tea and biscuits (gratis) while the owner contacted an inn nearby and arranged a room. How Lopezian!
On our hike we saw a successful partnership that provides access to the beauty and abundance of an entire country to all its citizens. By sharing and cooperating, everyone can participate in the countryside without disrupting its productivity or damaging its beauty. With over 2,000 of experience, citizens of England have evolved a culture of sharing the land with hikers. The level of trust was high, and participants were respectful of others’ rights.
LCTN was founded on the belief that Lopez is a community in which sharing is universal. While Europeans have two millennia of experience of walking across private property and respecting it, America stresses individual private property rights. We have no culture of passing through our neighbors’ lands, hence most trails are in parks or other public lands. In order to create a meaningful trailway we must ask each owner’s consent.
The Lopez Walkabout is one way we demonstrate that it is possible to hike off roadways across private and other lands responsibly. This once-a-year hike, the length of Lopez, is open to LCTN members. (For info, visit LopezTrails.org).
In a new effort, LCTN plans to create “trail trials” to offer the opportunity for private land owners and the public to work together and experience how and where trails might work on Lopez. There will be a section of trail open to the public for about a month. We will monitor, study and survey the participants in order to learn what issues must be resolved so we can develop trail connections throughout Lopez. We are looking for possible sites and invite owners and hikers to our discussions. If you are interested in trails in your area, please contact us via our website.
Photographs of Kirm and Lexi Taylor’s hike can be seen at the Trails website: LopezTrails.org.
