No, they aren\u2019t \u201cthe classics.\u201d But trails through these less-popular areas provide me a space to move through varied ecosystems, cultures and landscape. They offer connections between people and the subtleties\u2014or grandeur\u2014that make each region unique; that\u2019s helped me see the appreciation people have for their corner of the continent.<\/p>\n
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But truly \u201cseeing\u201d a place is nothing without fuel from the other senses.<\/p>\n
Have you, for example, ever noticed how the sun bakes the morning dew off Florida\u2019s fallen pine needles, filling the air with a warm Christmas scent? And how, in the rainy season, clockwork thunderstorms empty over the southland\u2019s hardwood hammocks, creating muddy patches where wild boars stomp their grounds?<\/p>\n
Or have you heard the insects clap in flight as you disrupt their place on Kansas\u2019 tallgrass prairie? Their sounds are amplified in the afternoon clouds that thunder across the skyline. After summer\u2019s storms finish feeding the grasslands, autumn\u2019s winds brush against the stalks, moving them in formation like golden waves.<\/p>\n
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And what about the Canadian Atlantic Maritimes, where the Appalachian Mountains submerge below icy waters, shoring a legacy of explorers who tread a land once considered wild? If you look in its quiet folds, in the regions surrounding the whitewashed fishing villages, you\u2019ll find the mountains of the Maritimes still hold a salty breath of mystery. Or hike into Canada on the Appalachian Trail\u2019s International section, and you\u2019ll pass through the system\u2019s most remote and rugged region\u2014the Chic-Chocs\u2014showing that the Appalachians do <\/em>hold a candle to the rugged peaks of the west.<\/p>\n Because of my unquenchable addiction, I\u2019ve held open the doors of perception and allowed North America to show me what she holds, no judgments. And she\u2019s shown me, as I\u2019ve traversed her trails over many regions, that she\u2019s exquisite.<\/p>\n