Why did hiking become so popular across the globe?

The following is an adaptation from Ramble On: A History of Hiking:

Since the dawn of mankind, humans have walked the planet to hunt, forage, explore, trade goods with neighboring communities, and migrate to other regions. At some point in our long evolution, we realized we didn’t need a utilitarian reason to walk. Somewhere along the line we discovered the joy of traipsing through the countryside, observing the beauty of a wildflower, watching wildlife in their natural habitat, marveling at the roar of a waterfall, or contemplating the scenic grandeur from the top of a mountain. Is this a fairly recent phenomenon, or is this an innate characteristic of human beings?

While history has preserved a few examples of men scaling mountains for an assortment of reasons prior to the early modern era, these feats appear to be extremely rare. Before the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, mountains were commonly seen as dangerous and mysterious by most Western cultures, at least according to prevailing wisdom. People from the Middle Ages purportedly regarded them with fear, loathing and superstition. Moreover, they thought the alpine world was inhabited by evil spirits, witches, wild beasts and bandits. Some men even swore affidavits before magistrates that they had seen dragons in the mountains.

However, as the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods progressed and spread across Europe, fear of mountains slowly began to subside, and more men began venturing into the highlands. Several modern historians contend that attitudes towards mountains started to shift as a result of the religious and philosophical tenets of natural theology, which proposed that God is revealed through reason and nature, rather than sacred texts, divine revelation or supernatural beliefs. They argue that individuals from this era began to realize that fear and loathing of mountains wasn’t justified. The perception that they were inherently dark and evil inevitably changed after it was understood that it was God who had created them. Consequently, people started viewing mountains as images of the Creator, as sources of spiritual inspiration, or even as proof of God’s existence. Leslie Stephen, on the other hand, claimed that attitudes simply evolved in conjunction with the revolution in ideas and thinking that occurred during the Age of Enlightenment. As one of the most famous British climbers from the “Golden Age of Alpinism,” Stephen argued in 1868 that "The history of mountaineering is, to a great extent, the history of the process by which men have gradually conquered the phantoms of their own imagination."

By the mid-1700s, we begin to see the first documented rambling and walking excursions. While the historical record seemingly indicates that mountaineering preceded hiking by several decades, or even centuries, it doesn’t necessarily mean that people didn’t hike or walk for recreational purposes prior to this timeframe. Rather, it seems more likely that those who did set out on foot never would’ve considered a leisurely walk in the countryside to be a noteworthy event. Therefore, very few individuals would’ve taken the time to record their rambles for posterity, even if they were literate. As a result, hiking doesn’t have a date of birth, or even an approximated timeframe for its origins. It seems most likely that walking for pleasure has always been a natural form of recreation that evolved over time to a point where individuals began to take it more seriously, whereupon we begin to see the first descriptions of walking excursions in diaries, letters, poems and travelogues.

The roots of hiking and walking for pleasure were firmly established by the late 1700s, especially in Great Britain and certain parts of Europe. However, during the earlier part of the century, walking was generally looked down upon. “Respectable” citizens during this era usually rode in carriages or on horseback to travel any significant distances. For the most part only the poor walked. In Victorian England, during the mid-1800s, wandering vagrants were derogatively known as tramps, a word that would eventually refer to hikers, and now used by New Zealanders to describe backpacking.

While overcoming the fear of mountains, and the gradual breakdown in the social stigmas associated with walking certainly enabled mountaineering and hiking to germinate, I would argue that the single most important event to spur the development of hiking and walking for pleasure was the Industrial Revolution. The social changes brought about by industrialization were profound. As I explain in more detail in my book, industrialization triggered a massive backlash from certain segments of society, which inspired movements in art, philosophy and religion. These movements, in turn, would motivate people in one way or another to visit wilderness areas for recreational purposes. As industrialization progressed, especially in America, it gave rise to the labor movement, which eventually resulted in increased wages, and significant reductions in the number of hours worked each week. Thus, workers began to enjoy more free time, many of whom pursued recreation in the great outdoors. Industrialization also gave rise to railroads, automobiles and roads, which provided people with the ability to travel more easily to wilderness areas. As a result of these social transformations and movements, hiking emerged as a pastime. Though it was just a fringe activity in the early 1800s, the sport grew steadily through the Great Depression. After World War II, however, it exploded, and has now become one of the world's most popular outdoor activities.

You can learn more about the history of hiking on my author page.


Other excerpts from Ramble On:

* The Etymology of Hiking

* The Historic Circle Tours of Glacier National Park

* Women’s Hiking Attire During The Victorian Era

* The Evolution of Hiking Boots



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Virtually no one went hiking before the 19th century. What occurred that inspired ordinary people to take a walk through the woods for pleasure? Ramble On: A History of Hiking explores the rich history of hiking, and how it evolved into one of the most popular pastimes in the world.

The Historic Circle Tours of Glacier National Park

The following is an adaptation from my book, Ramble On: A History of Hiking:

Almost immediately after Glacier was established as a national park, Louis W. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway, began building a series of hotels, chalets and tent camps throughout the park. The buildings were modeled on traditional Swiss architecture, and were part of Hill's strategy to portray Glacier as the "American Alps" or "America's Switzerland." The accommodations would in-turn help the railway promote tourism to the new national park, while at the same time promote their rail line as the primary mode of travel to the park. This would also allow them to compete against their chief rivals; the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway, who were already transporting tourists to Banff and Yellowstone.

The Belton Chalet in West Glacier, and the Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier Park were the first two hotels to be constructed by Great Northern. Both acted as gateways from railroad depots to the interior of the park. Between 1910 and 1915, the railway also constructed eight Swiss-style backcountry chalet complexes, each connected by a network of trails. The complexes were strategically located at Two Medicine Lake, Cut Bank, St. Mary, Sun Point, Granite Park, Many Glacier, Gunsight Lake and Sperry Glacier. Tent camps were also established at Red Eagle Lake, Cosley Lake, Fifty Mountain and Goat Haunt. The chalet and tent camps were located roughly 10-18 miles apart. During their prime most of the chalet camps could host between 100 and 150 guests per night. Hill would explain to newspaper reporters that the “lodges would be located only far enough apart so that the man on foot even could make the trip and obtain sleeping accommodations,” and that “hotel accommodations of a more prestigious type or tents for the most modest could also be furnished.”

As construction on the new chalets progressed through the early 1910s, the railway also constructed the trails that would connect each of them by foot or horse travel. Because of a lack of federal funds, the Great Northern Railway assumed financial responsibility for all trail construction during this time period, but was eventually reimbursed as funding became available. Some of the earliest trails developed by the railway included Swiftcurrent Pass, Gunsight Pass, Mt. Henry, Red Gap Pass, Gable Pass, Triple Divide Pass, Piegan Pass, Pitamakan Pass and the St. Mary Lake trails. Many of these early trails were routed along Indian paths, prospector trails or old game trails. Great Northern would continue to improve or construct new trails within the park into the early 1920s. As the network of trails expanded, organized tours by horse concessionaires began to emerge. In 1915, the Park Saddle Horse Company became the sole concessionaire for the park, and began organizing a series of guided tours that utilized the existing network of chalets and trails. This included the North Circle, South Circle and Inside Trail trips, which encompassed roughly 163 miles of trails, each of which is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The company also offered the Logan Pass Triangle Trail trip, which traversed across the heart of the park utilizing routes from the other tours, as well as the now abandoned Logan Pass Trail, which I discussed in detail yesterday. The concessionaire offered a variety of options, from half-day excursions to extended trips lasting up to two weeks. Most of the so-called circle tours, however, lasted between three and five days. During the 1920 season, the company charged roughly $4.00 per person, per day to take one of its saddle-horse tours.

Although there were several variations of each of these trips, depending on the number of days tourists chose, the direction they wanted to take, as well as the evolution of routes over time, these are the routes described on the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form and various park brochures:

The North Circle: Connects Many Glacier with Cosley (aka Crossley) Lake; Cosley Lake with Goathaunt; Goathaunt with Fifty Mountain; Fifty Mountain with Granite Park; Granite Park with Many Glacier.

The South Circle: Connects Lake McDonald Lodge with Sperry Chalets; Sperry Chalets with Sun Point via Gunsight Pass; Sun Point with Many Glacier via Piegan Pass; Many Glacier with Granite Park via Swiftcurrent Pass; Granite Park with Going-to-the-Sun Road at Packer's Roost.

Logan Pass Triangle trip: Three-day trip made as follows: Many Glacier Hotel to Granite Park Chalets via Swiftcurrent Pass, thence along the west side of the Garden Wall through Logan Pass to Going-to-the-Sun Chalets, thence back to Many Glacier Hotel via Glacial Meadows and Piegan Pass. Rate for guide and horses, $12.50 per person. Going-to-the-Sun Chalets is also a point of departure for this trip.

Inside Trail: Guide and horses may be obtained for a five-day trip over the inside trail from Glacier Park Hotel, via Two Medicine Chalets, thence via Mount Morgan Pass (now known as Pitamakan Pass) to Cut Bank Chalets, thence via Triple Divide, Red Eagle Lake, to St. Mary Chalets, thence via boat across St. Mary Lake to Going-to-the-Sun Chalets, thence via Piegan Pass to Many Glacier Hotel, at the rate of $18 for each person, including boat fare, if five or more make the trip. This trip may be made in either direction.

The park visitors that took these tours were “guided by ‘cowboys,’ lunched near glacial lakes and then dined in comfort on Chinese linen and blue willow china”. Park rules dictated that the Park Saddle Horse Company had to furnish at least one guide for each ten tourists on a trip. Parties could reach as large as 180 people and 200 horses. It’s estimated that the concessionaire used more than 1000 horses during its peak, with at least one source estimating as many as 1500 head of horses. The 1922 park brochure bragged that there were "more saddle horses used in Glacier than in any other similar recreational area in the world". From everything I’ve read that record has never been surpassed.

The saddle-horse tours were the dominant method of seeing the park until the Going-to-the-Sun Road was completed in 1933. Although the tours continued for another ten seasons, they came to a permanent end after the 1942 season when America became fully involved in World War II.

Ramble On chronicles the history of the first hikers, trails, and hiking clubs, as well as the evolution of hiking gear and apparel. This broad-based book on hiking history is available on Amazon.


Other excerpts from Ramble On: A History of Hiking:

* The Etymology of Hiking

* How did hiking become so popular across the globe?

* Women’s Hiking Attire During The Victorian Era

* The Evolution of Hiking Boots



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Glacier National Park preserves more than a million acres of some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth. With more than 740 miles of trails meandering throughout this vast park, how will you find and choose the most scenic and rewarding hikes?

Exploring Glacier National Park takes all the guesswork out by focusing on the most amazing hikes, and provides you with handpicked recommendations that will allow you to make the most of your trip to Glacier:

The Evolution of Hiking Boots

The following is an adaptation from my new book, Ramble On: A History of Hiking:

Prior to the 1970s and 80s, most hikers wore hunting, riding, military or everyday work boots while hiking. Some even wore gym shoes. Grandma Gatewood famously wore Keds sneakers during her first thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1955. While so-called “mountain boots” were also available as early as the 1850s, they were mostly worn by climbers and adventurers from the upper classes who could afford their high price tags. One of the earliest uses of the phrase “hiking boots” appeared in an advertisement in the 1912 edition of The Mountaineer, the journal of The Mountaineers club out of Seattle. The use of this phrase in this instance, however, likely referred to “mountain boots”.

The first major improvement in mountaineering boots came about as a result of a deadly climbing accident in 1935. While descending Punta Rasica, a rugged peak along the Swiss-Italian border, an expedition led by Vitale Bramani was caught in an unexpected blizzard. Unable to descend along the icy rock walls, six members of his party ultimately succumbed to exhaustion, exposure and frostbite. As was the custom at that time, climbers wore heavy, hobnailed boots along the lower slopes of mountains. As they climbed higher, they would exchange their boots for lighter rock climbing shoes, usually made with thin leather and felt-bottom soles that offered little protection against cold temperatures or moisture. Though they worked well in normal weather, the shoes offered virtually no grip in icy conditions. Convinced that inadequate footwear played the primary role in the deaths of his six companions, Bramani resolved to find a solution to the problem. Two years later he introduced a boot sole with an innovative tread design that he called Carrarmato, which means “tank tread.” The sole was made from vulcanized rubber, and featured heavy lugs that were designed to take the place of hobnails. The rubber lug pattern provided boots with outstanding traction, which allowed them to be used on a variety of surfaces, including uneven forest floors, bare rock, loose scree slopes, and hard-packed snow. Moreover, the rubber soles were highly durable, abrasion-resistant, waterproof, and provided far more insulation against the cold than leather soles. In 1937, with the financial backing of Leopoldo Pirelli, grandson of the founder of Pirelli Tires, Bramani launched his revolutionary new product. Taking the first two letters of his first name, and the first four letters of his last name, Vitale Bramani called his startup enterprise “Vibram.” Almost immediately, the lugged soles caught on with the climbing community, and eventually with hikers in the 1960s and 70s.

By the 1970s, American bootmakers were beginning to turn their attention towards the production of lighter boots for day hikers and backpackers. One of the first boots to deliver on this promise was the Danner 6490, which weighed in at just 3 pounds and 14 ounces. In its Winter 1973 edition, Backpacker Magazine declared that the 6490 was very close to being their “ideal hiking shoe.” Since the introduction of that boot, manufacturers have made numerous advances over the years that have reduced the overall weight of hiking boots. This includes the use of lightweight leather or synthetic fabric uppers, replacing stitching with cement or injection molding to attach uppers to soles, and the use of shallower lugs.

The next major technological advance in boots came in 1980 when both Danner and Donner Mountain Corporation introduced the first hiking boots made with Gore-Tex. The introduction of Gore-Tex resulted in boots that were lighter, breathable, more durable, nearly waterproof, and far more flexible, all of which resulted in increased comfort. Once the original high production costs were slashed, the use of Gore-Tex in hiking boots became the industry standard. Nearly all quality hiking boots sold today are made with Gore-Tex or some other waterproof-breathable fabric.

This new, improved and expanded edition on the history of hiking is available on Amazon.


Other excerpts from Ramble On:

* Women’s Hiking Attire During The Victorian Era

* How did hiking become so popular across the globe?

* The Historic Circle Tours of Glacier National Park



                *******************************************************************************

Virtually no one went hiking before the 19th century. What occurred that inspired ordinary people to take a walk through the woods for pleasure? Ramble On: A History of Hiking explores the rich history of hiking, and how it evolved into one of the most popular pastimes in the world.