ABOUT DR. RONALD STRICKLAND
Ron Strickland began to create the 1200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) in
1970. Seven years later he founded the non-profit Pacific Northwest Trail
Association (PNTA) to locate, develop, maintain, and protect the Trail.
He described its Continental Divide-to-Pacific
Ocean route in The Pacific Northwest Trail Guide (Seattle, WA: Sasquatch
Books, 2001.) His current project is the
creation of the transcontinental Sea-To-Sea Route. He is excited about
C2C's (1) vast scale, (2) proximity to record numbers of potential hikers, and
(3) potential to transform America’s National Trails System. He says,
"Hikers know that initially a proposed long walk can seem overwhelmingly
difficult. But the wiser heads among them realize that even the longest journey
is accomplished one step at a time. So, too, the Sea-To-Sea Route at first
glance may seem like an impossible dream. But in 2007, having already convinced
many skeptics, I know that I am on the right path and that this project is the
perfect way for many hikers `to give back to the trail'"
Dr. Strickland is fascinated with America's regions.
As early as his graduation from Georgetown's School of Foreign
Service he sought the first person, local perspective. As a grassroots
interviewer at Vermont's School
For International Training, he deployed teams of foreign students to survey
farmers about rural school consolidation. Years passed and he forgot about
those barnyard
interviews as he worked to locate, develop, and protect the Pacific Northwest Trail.
During the 1970's he was totally focused on raising funds, recruiting volunteers, cutting brush, digging dirt, and
lobbying landowners, officials, and politicians. However, out in the backcountry
he accidentally turned up many priceless narratives. And when it became
clear that people's vanishing lifestyles needed a chronicler, Ron collected some of those stories in River Pigs And
Cayuses (1984.) The creation of that first book inspired him to record
the process of change in other regions. So far he has published and illustrated
5 such volumes and begun others about the South, Midwest, and Far West.
Nicknamed Pathfinder, Ron Strickland is inordinately fond of
Rhode Island foods,
French culture, and German shepherds. As a thru-hiker, he walked the 1200 miles of the Pacific Northwest Trail in 1983. In 2004, he
completed the Pacific Crest Trail with a 1500-mile hike from the Mojave Desert
to the Columbia River.
August 2001: he received the $10,000 Chevron Conservation Award for his work to create and preserve the
Pacific Northwest Trail as a "national scenic trail."
October, 2002: at the American Land Trust Alliance Rally in Austin,
Texas, the Conservation Fund awarded him the $50,000 American Land Conservation Award.
February 15, 2007: Ron proposed marriage to Christine Hartmann at Walden Pond,
lying on the snowy ice.
March 19, 2007: Christine Hartmann married him even though she'd been
winter hiking with him on the Appalachian Trail and knew what she was getting
into.
October 2, 2008: Christine Hartmann and Ron Strickland began touring Japan to visit
her friends and to hike the Japanese Alps.
