World Trails Conference, Korea

#Jeju #JejuOlle

by site editor Rick McCharles

Regarding the World Trails Conference held recently in Jeju, Korea.

We heard presentations from:

• John Muir Trail, California
• The Way of St. James (Camiño de Santiago), Spain
• Cotswold Way, England
• Bruce Trail, Canada
• The Great Ocean Walk, Australia

We listened to speakers from the Shikoku island in Japan, Swiss tourism and the China Volkssport Association.

The representative of the French Rambling Association (Féderation Française de la Randonnée Pédestre) taught me a lot.

I was personally very keen on learning of the Hong Kong Great Outdoors initiative, including free guided tours of the MacLehose Trail (100km), one I’ve not yet done there. (I’m thinking of hiking Japan in Oct. 2011, followed by Hong Kong and Jeju in November. An Asian tour.)

Hong Kong is a surprisingly excellent hiking destination:

By the end of the 3-day conference our host, Jeju Olle Trail, had struck partnership agreements with The Bruce and Cotswold. Nice.

There was much discussion regarding a possible World Trails Network.

My main take away from the World Trails Conference was that construction and management of trails worldwide varies wildly. But they all rely on a lot of volunteer labour. Labour of love.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting specifically on some of the walks presented.

One Reply to “”

World Trails Conference – good for you for getting there – I’d never heard of such a thing, and look forward to hearing more.

“My main take away from the World Trails Conference was that construction and management of trails worldwide varies wildly. But they all rely on a lot of volunteer labour.”

“…varies wildly” indeed – the strangest management system I’ve ever seen is in my hometown of Boulder. Known worldwide as an outdoor mecca, nonetheless we fight tooth and nail here behind the scenes, not to preserve the trails from development (the norm), but to preserve them from self-appointed extreme “environmentalists” from closing them down entirely. It’s crazy. Volunteer labour is not allowed on City public land.