Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Rollerpacking - Am I the last to hear about this?

Thanks to Everytrail user Ben, I recently found out about an awesome trail activity called Rollerpacking. It involves an overnight trail trip on inline skates. Basically, it's back-packing on inline skates. Of course, it requires a nice smooth paved trail, but there are plenty of those featured on trailsnet. (Just click on the "Locate Trails by State" link above.) I don't know about you, but that sounds like an awful lot of fun to me.

Most trailsnet trails are
great for inline skating.
Ben roller-bladed the Western Maryland Rail Trail which runs parallel to the C & O Canal Towpath trail. I have had the pleasure of riding my bike on both of those trails and thoroughly enjoyed them. Now I want to go back and try them on inline skates, a recumbent, a Trikke...

I appreciated Ben sharing information about his roller-packing trip. He reminded me of the much-appreciated snowcone stand near the trail in Hancock, Maryland. He also reminded me of how many trails are located in the Washington D.C./Maryland area. From the C & O trail, riders can access the Capitol Crescent trail, the Western Maryland Rail Trail, The Mount Vernon Trail, and the world famed Appalachian Trail. So thanks to Ben and to all of you who send me your trail stories whether by blog comments (preferred method), email, or Everytrail contacts.

I'm soon going to be publishing my fall foliage trail recommendations. I'd appreciate hearing from any of you who have suggestions for fall color trails. Feel free to leave a comment with your recommendation. And if you haven't signed up to "Follow" trailsnet, please do so in the column to the right.

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3 comments:

barry said...

Inline skating is very popular here in Japan also,especially along the many kilometers of river stop-banks.

I would love to try it myself but I was born with two left feet and I keep veering-off in the wrong direction.

Looking forward to future posts.

Pam said...

Ohio has some awesome bike paths, I am really surprised they are not on your list. We have people from all over the country ride our trails because we are so connected. Check us out. This link might be a good place for you to start: http://www.ohiobikeways.net/

trailsnet said...

Hi Pam,

I was very pleased to hear from you about the Ohio trails, and I appreciate you sending me the link to the Ohio Bikeways website. It is a wonderful website... my compliments to whoever designed and manages it. I love looking at bike trail websites and especially ones as good as the Ohio Bikeways site.

I especially liked the links to your long-distance trails since that is what I am most interested in. I was surprised to see that you have a 270 mile trail in the works. That will be incredible when it's done. I hope to see more states moving in the same direction as Ohio is.

I'm afraid that I haven't had the opportunity to visit Ohio yet and try out the amazing trails there. It is now on my agenda, but I'm afraid I've temporarily curtailed my trail ventures in pursuit of a couple other related activities. I hope to get back into the trail travel sometime fairly soon. I am going to start guiding groups on various long-distance trails, and I'll definitely put some of the Ohio trails on my radar.

Thanks for contacting me, and thanks for being a trail advocate.