Get Ready!.
Trail Hiking Scouts do much of their hiking on trails. They may choose pathways leading deep into the backcountry, or shorter routes connecting points of interest in a Scout camp or a city. A trail can lead to a mountaintop, a lake, a neighborhood park, or a prairie. Trails are opportunities. If everyone stays on that pathway, vegetation on either side will not be trampled and erosion is less likely to occur. (By contrast, hikers going cross-country may spread out to avoid creating unwanted trails.) Trails often have structures to help travelers stay safe. Retaining walls made of rocks or logs strengthen the sides of trails. Water bars set across the tread divert water from the pathway before it can cause erosion. Bridges constructed of lumber or logs carry trails over streams and gorges. Staircases of wood or stone can ease steep ascents. Culverts channel water from rain, springs, and melting snow under the tread. Trail Corridors and Switchbacks. Every pathway passes through a trail corridor—the space cleared of branches and vegetation above and to each side of the tread. The corridor gives trail users room to pass with ease. A trail shared with horseback riders will have a higher and wider corridor than will a simple foot pathway. Because water from rainstorms and melting snow can rush down a pathway and transform it into a gully, trails climbing a steep hill or a mountain may zigzag at a gentle grade that is easy on the land and on you. These turns are called switchbacks. Stay on the pathway and always go completely around a switchback; don’t take a shortcut from the upper leg of the trail to a lower leg. Cutting across switchbacks can crush vegetation and loosen soil. Before long, water from rainstorms or melting snow can gouge out a trench that ruins the switchback, exposing the hillside to further erosion. 22 Hiking