outdoor recreation

I Talked with Washington Trails Association About Transit Trekkin’

A screenshot of my trip report account on the Washington Trails Site. Titled "My Trip Report" it notes that I have written 6 trip reports and that my trip reports have received 26 total helpful ratings from other users.
My modest stats on my WTA trip report account.

A while back I started writing trip reports for some of my hikes over at the very helpful Washington Trails Association (WTA) site. It seemed like a small but potentially effective way to share information about transit-accessible trails and to plant the seed in more folks’ minds that transit to trails is a thing you can do or something that just might be more possible than previously assumed. So when Anna Roth over at WTA reached out after noticing my trip reports, I was more than happy to chat. Here’s the Q&A.

Expanding transit is one of the very most effective things we can do to promote quality of life overall for rural and urban Washington and more equitable access to the outdoors.

– me

I was equally pleased that at least one of those trip reports, for North Kitsap Heritage Park, prompted a fellow hiker to try out a transit trek — scroll to the bottom of the trip report to read the comments.

Now There’s A Transit Trekking Resource Page

Photo of one of my filing bins with brown file folders labeled with various Washington state regions.
Not shown: a lot of stuff that belongs filed in these folders.

I’ve found some jewels that make identifying transit-accessible hiking and other outdoor exploration around the U.S. much easier and compiled them in this resource page. It lives in the main site navigation but I thought I should highlight here.

For now, it’s super simple, in an alpha list by state. Canada welcome, too — I know B.C. transit-accessible outdoor opportunity abounds just north of me here in Seattle.

Every time I update the resource page to add a new find, I also update a corresponding spreadsheet in hopes of someday creating a simple search tool on here.

In the meantime, if you know of a comprehensive resource for your region, be it city, state, county, or province, let me know using the contact form and I’ll add it. Generally I am looking to add resources that provide many options versus a single long trail, although I’ve made some initial exceptions to that in this early stage. For example, I included Boston’s Walking City Trail because I don’t know of other resources in that area (a major city in New England) and it’s a pretty long trail, and included the SF Crosstown Trail because it connects to a ton (a full ton! I weighed them) of other regional trails.

If you’re aware of a central source of transit hiking/trekking/transit to trails info that the resource page aspires to be, I’d love to know about it. Get in touch.

A lone, leafless tree backed by a small lake and mountains at dawn.

Two High-Impact, Low-Effort Ways to Support Transit Trekking

I’m out of office so I’m scheduling a few quick posts for while I’m away. Here are two easy things you can do that have lots of potential to spur support for transit trekking and improved transit overall.

Talk About It.

Whenever you travel for recreation, be sure to mention that you either came by transit or that you would like to. This is especially important to mention to smaller, local businesses when you’re visiting smaller communities in predominantly rural areas. These are the folks that are likely to have the ear of electeds and other decision makers, and if the small business community hears it enough, they are more likely to make sure that electeds know. I will write more about this in The Transit Trekker Manual, but if you are able to work in language about how the people in the area who depend on transit also deserve more frequent transit service, great.

Review It.

Write reviews of your trips in All the Places, and mention if you came by transit, bike, etc. and include a few details. Didn’t come by transit but know a place can be reached that way? Mention it. I have started doing this with my trip reports for hikes over at WTA. Here’s a recent one for a day hike at Rattlesnake Ledge. When I visit restaurants or stay in private campgrounds or motels or wherever while I’m on a Transit Trek, I will mention how bike-friendly or transit accessible that place is. TripAdvisor. TikTok. Yelp. Like I said: All the Places.

These are small but potentially powerful ways to show key people — small biz owners, outdoor advocacy organizations, and other travelers — that transit-based recreation is not only possible, but in demand.