Ever since I thru’ hiked North America’s 2653-mile Pacific Crest Trail in 2004, I’ve been itching to get another long distance route under my belt – or rather, beneath the soles of my trail shoes.
It’s been just a tad frustrating to come to the real-life realisation that I can’t just drop everything and fly off to the States again to hike, say, the 3100-mile Continental Divide as easily as I did the PCT. The PCT hike was a dream come true; right now I’ve other dreams to be living out – exciting ones, yes, but dreams that can’t be measured in miles.
So I’ve been paying more than a little attention to the Government’s proposal to increase our “rights” of access to the English and Welsh coastlines. Here, by-the-seaside-beside-the-sea, is a hiking challenge on our own doorstep that’s longer and more demanding – certainly in terms of the weather likely to be encountered! – than any of North America’s Triple Crown trails: imagine setting off to walk the entire UK coastline.
Marry a UK coastline walk with a Land’s End to John o’ Groats hike and a Cape Wrath to Dover epic and you’ve a trio of routes that should keep long distance backpackers busy for years.
I’ve outlined my proposal for such a UK Triple Crown elsewhere on my website. If we can get such a challenge recognised, and up and running, I reckon it’d be a worthy rival to the American triptych, one that doesn’t demand an environment-damaging flight across the pond; that doesn’t involve the frustration of making plans to hike in a foreign country; and one that you can nibble away at over several years if you can’t afford the time to hike one of the trails in one fell swoop.
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