I Can’t Sleep - Trails | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: January 16, 2021

Ease into sleep with this calm bedtime reading on trails, a peaceful way to help with insomnia and sleepless nights. Benjamin’s soothing voice explores the history, purpose, and variety of trails, from ancient pathways and trade routes to modern hiking trails through nature. His gentle cadence transforms everyday travel routes into soft, fact-filled narration that helps calm the mind. This is not whispering or hypnosis—just relaxing storytelling and education designed to reduce stress, ease anxiety, and bring restful sleep. Press play, close your eyes, and let thoughts of trails guide you into dreams. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Trails, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Trails. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled, Trail. A trail is usually a path, track, or unpaved lane or road. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, path or footpath is the preferred term for a walking trail. The term is also applied in North

America to routes along rivers and sometimes to highways. In the U.S., the term was historically used for a route into or through wild territory used by immigrants, e.g. the Oregon Trail. In the USA, trace is a synonym for trail, as in Nutsch's Trace. Some trails are single use and can only be used for walking, cycling, horse riding, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. Others, as in the case of a bridal way in the UK, are multi-use, and can be used by walkers, cyclists, and equestrians. There are also unpaved trails used by dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles, and in some places, like the Alps, trails are used for moving cattle and other livestock. usage. In Australia, the term track can be used interchangeably with trail and can refer to anything from a dirt road to an unpaved pedestrian path. In New Zealand, the terms track or walkway are used

almost exclusively, except in reference to cross-country skiing. Walkways vary enormously in nature from short urban strolls to moderate coastal locations to challenging tramps hikes in the high country mountains. Walkway is used similarly in St. John's Newfoundland, Canada, where the Grand Concourse is an integrated walkway system. In the United Kingdom, the term trail is in common usage. Longer distance walking routes and government promoted long-distance paths, collectively known as national trails, are also frequently called ways, as in the Penin Way and South Downs Way. Generally, the term footpath is preferred for pedestrian routes, including long-distance trails, and is also used for urban paths and sometimes in place of pavement.

Track is used for wider paths, wide enough for vehicles, often used for hiking. The terms bright away, byway, restricted byway, are all recognized legal terms, and to a greater or lesser extent in general usage. The increased popularity of mountain biking has led to a pre-refer. proliferation of mountain bike trails in many countries. Often these will be grouped to form larger complexes known as trail centers. In the early years of the 20th century, the term auto trail was used for a marked highway route, and trail is now also used to designate routes, including highway routes,

designated for tourist interests like the Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia, Canada, and the quilt trails in the U.S. The term trail has also been used by developers and urban planners for a variety of modern paved roads, highways, and boulevards in these countries. And some highways continue to be officially called a trail, such as the Susquehanna Trail in Pennsylvania, a designation that varies from a two-lane road to a four-lane freeway. A particularly usual use of the term is in the Canadian province of Alberta, which has multi-lane freeways called trails. Types

Segregated Trail Trail. Trail segregation, the practice of designating certain trails, as having a specific, preferred, or exclusive use, is increasingly common and diverse. For example, bike trails are used not only on roads open to motor vehicles, but also in trail systems open to other trail users. Some trails are segregated for use by both equestrians and mountain bikes, or by equestrians only, or by mountain bikes only. Designated wilderness area trails may be segregated for non-wheeled use. Hence permit backpacking and horses, but exclude mountain bikes and motorized vehicles. Often, trail segregation for a particular use is accompanied by prohibitions against that use on other trails within the trail system. Trail segregation may be supported by signage, markings, trail design and construction,

especially selection of tread materials, and by separate. separation between parallel treads. Separation may be achieved by natural barriers, including distance, ditching, banking, grading, and vegetation, and by artificial barriers, including fencing, curbing, and walls. Bicycle Trail. Bicycle trails encompass a wide variety of trail types, including shared use paths used for commuting, off-road cross-country trails, and downhill mountain bike trails. The number of off-road cycle trails has increased significantly, along with the popularity of mountain bikes.

Off-road bicycle trails are generally function-specific and most commonly waymarked along their route. They may take the form of single routes, or form part of larger complexes, known as trail centers. Off-road trails often incorporate a mix of challenging terrain, single track, smooth fire roads, and even paved paths. Trails with an easy or moderate technical complexity are generally deemed cross-country trails, while trails difficult even to experienced riders are more often dubbed all-mountain, free ride, or downhill. Downhilling is particularly popular at ski resorts such as Mammoth Mountain in California or Whistler Blackham in British Columbia,

where ski lifts are used to get bikes and riders to the top of the mountain. Eurovello bicycle routes are a network of currently 14 long-distance cycling routes, criss-crossing Europe in various stages of completion. More than 45,000 kilometers was in place by 2013. It is envisaged that the network will be substantially complete by 2020 and when finished the Eurovello network's total length will exceed 70,000 kilometers. Eurovello is a project of the European Cyclist Federation, ECF. Eurovello routes can be used for bicycle touring across the continent

as well as by local people making short journeys. The routes are made of both existing national bike routes, such as the Dutch LF routes, the German D routes, and the British National Cycle Network, and existing general purpose roads together with new stretches of cycle routes to connect them. Off-road cycling can cause soil erosion and habitat destruction, if not carried out on established trails. This is particularly so when trails are wet, overall, though, cycling may have only as much impact as other trail users. Cross-country skiing trail. In cross-country skiing, a trail is also called a track or pist. Recreational cross-country skiing is also called touring, especially in Europe.

Some skiers stay out for extended periods using tents and equipment similar to bushwalkers and hikers, whereas others take relatively short trips and from ski resorts on maintained trails. In some countries, organizations maintain a network of huts for use by cross-country skiers in wintertime. For example, the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association maintains over four. 400 huts stretching across hundreds of kilometers of trails, which are used by hikers in the summer and by skiers in the winter. Equestrian Trail Horse riding and other equestrian uses of trails continue to be a popular activity for many trail users. Horses can usually negotiate much the same grades as hikers, but not always,

although they can more easily clear obstacles in the path such as logs. The Bicentennial National Trail, B&T, in Australia, is the longest marked multi-use trail in the world, stretching 5,330 kilometers from Cooktown, Queensland, through New South Wales to Healsville, Victoria. This trail runs the length of the rugged, great dividing range through national parks, private property, and alongside of wilderness areas. One of the objectives was to develop a trail that linked up the Brumby tracks, mustering and stock routes, along the great dividing range, thus providing an opportunity to legally ride the routes of stockmen and drovers

who once traveled these areas with pack horses. This trail provides access to some of the wildest, most remote country in the world. The Bicentennial National Trail is suitable for self-reliant horse riders, fitwalkers, and mountain bike riders. Within the United States National Trail Classification System, equestrian trails include simple day-use bridal paths and others built to accommodate long strings of pack animals on journeys lasting many days. Trail design parameters for these uses include trail-based,

widths and material, trail clear widths, trail clear height, access to water suitable for stock, not human use, and trail routing. Footpath. A footpath is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians, not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles and horses. They can be paths within an urban area or rural paths through the countryside. Urban footpaths are usually paved, may have steps, are called alleys, lanes, steps, etc., and may be named. Other public rights of ways, such as bridalways, byways, towpaths, and green lanes, are also used by pedestrians.

In some regions of the United Kingdom, such as England and Wales, there are rights of way on which pedestrians have a legally protected right to travel. National parks, nature preserves, conservation areas, and other protected wilderness areas may have trails that are restricted to pedestrians. Footpaths can be connected to form a long-distance trail or way, which can be used by both day hikers and by backpackers. Some of the trails are over 1,000 miles long. In the U.S. and Canada, where urban sprawls begin to strike even the most rural communities,

developers and local leaders are currently striving to make their communities more conductive to non-motorized transportation through the use of less traditional trails. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has established the Active Living by Design Program, to improve the livability of communities in part through developing trails. The Upper Valley Trails Alliance has done similar work on traditional trails, while the Somerville Community Paths and related paths are examples of urban initiatives. In St. John's Newfoundland, Canada, the Grand Concourse is an integrated walkway system that has over 160 kilometers of walkways, which link every

major park, river, pond, and green space in six municipalities. Footpaths can be located in different settings for various uses. These can include disability and wheelchair accessible paths in sensory gardens and all of the above settings, gardens and design landscapes, in private gardens and in public areas, and at park visitors' centers as natural history interpretive nature trails, and designed wildlife gardens. A type of trail that was quite popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but is less popular today is the exercise trail, also known as Trim Trail,

which combines running with exercise stations. Jogging or running paths. Many runners also favor running on trails rather than pavement, as giving a more vigorous workout and better develop. agility skills, as well as providing a more pleasant exercise environment. Parks, including public spaces, urban parks, neighborhood parks, linear parks, botanic gardens, Arboretum, and regional parks. Sculpture gardens and open-air museums as sculpture trails and historic interpretive trails.

Urban pedestrian footpaths or trails are sometimes called alleys, or lanes, and in older cities and towns in Europe and are often what is left of a medieval street network or right-of-ways or ancient footpaths. Similar paths also exist in some of the older North American towns in cities like Charleston, South Carolina, Newcastle, Delaware, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Such urban trails or footpaths are narrow, usually paved, and often between the walls of buildings. This type is usually short and straight, and on steep ground can consist partially or entirely of steps.

Some are named. Because of geography, steps are a common form of footpath in hilly cities and towns. This includes Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Seattle, and San Francisco in the United States, as well as Hong Kong, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, and Rome. Stairway trails are found in a number of hilly American cities. This includes the stairway trails in Bernal Heights, East San Francisco. Motorized trail. Motorized trail use also remains very popular with some people.

Such terms as ORV, four-wheeling, all-terrain vehicle, and others actually have highly specific meanings. In the United States, this sport remains very popular. The recreational trails program defined as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, mandates that states must use a minimum of 30% of these funds for motorized trail uses. Off-road vehicle use on public land has been criticized by some members of the U.S. government, and environmental organizations, including this ERA Club and the Wilderness Society.

They have noted several consequences of illegal ORV use, such as pollution, trail damage, erosion, land degradation, possible species extinction, and habitat destruction, which can leave hiking trails impassable. ORV proponents argue that legal use taking place under planned access. along with the multiple environment and trail conservation efforts by ORRV groups will mitigate these issues. Groups such as the Blue Ribbon Coalition advocate tread lightly, which is the responsible use of public lands used for off-road activities. Noise pollution is also a concern and several studies conducted by Montana State University, California State University, University of Florida, and others have cited possible negative behavioral changes in wildlife as a result of some ORV use.

Some U.S. states have laws to reduce noise generated by off-road and non-highway vehicles. Washington is one example. Water Trail Water trails also referred to as blueways or paddling trails are marked routes on navigable waterways, such as rivers, lakes, canals, and coastlines, for people using small non-motorized boats, such as kayaks, canoes, rafts, and rowboats. Some trails may be suitable for float tubing or developed in concert with motorized use.

They include signs and route markers, maps, facilities for parking, boat ramps, or docks, and places to camp and picnic. There are also state programs and other promotion for water trails. The American Canoe Association has compiled a database of water trails in the United States. The National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program has compiled a list of water trail resources, success stories, and statewide contacts for water trails. Shared Use Trail

Shared use may be achieved by sharing a trail easement, but within it maintaining segregated and sometimes also separated trail treads. This is common in rail trails. Shared use may also refer to alternate day arrangements, whereby two uses are segregated by being permitted on alternate days. This is increasingly common in long-distance trails shared by equestrians and mountain bike users. These two user communities have similar trail requirements, but may experience encounters with each other on the trail as difficult. The Trans-Canada Trail can be used by cyclists, hikers, horseback riders, and walkers, as well as cross-country skiers, snowmobillers, and snowshoers in winter. In the United States, the East Coast Greenway, 3,000 miles from Key West to the Canadian border, and the September 11th National Memorial Trail, a 1,300-mile triangular loop connected to 3 9-11 memorial sites, are two long-distance multi-use paths for cyclists, runners, walkers, and even equestrians.

In Belgium, Ravel, French for Rousseau-Ate-Vois-Vois-Evois. autonomous network of slow ways, is a Walloon initiative aimed at creating a network of itineraries, reserved for pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, and people with reduced mobility. The network makes use of towpaths on riverbanks and disused railway or visceral tramway lines. Old railway lines have been leased by the Walloon government for 99 years, using infatutic lease contracts. Where necessary, new paths are created to link parts of the network. In England and Wales, a bridal way is a trail intended for use by equestrians.

But walkers also have a right-of-way, and Section 30 of the Countryside Act 1968 permits the riding of bicycles on public right-o-ways, though the Act says that it shall not create any obligation to facilitate the use of the Bridal Way by cyclists. Thus, the right to cycle exists even though it may be difficult to exercise on occasion, especially in winter. Cyclists using a Bridal Way are obliged to give way

to other users on foot or horseback. The seawall in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is popular for walking, running, cycling, and inline skating. There are two paths, one for skisks, skaters and cyclists, and the other for pedestrians. The lane for cyclists and skaters goes one way in a counterclockwise loop. Forshore way, also ocean way is a term used in Australia, for a type of greenway that provides

a public right-of-way along the edge of the sea open to both walkers and cyclists. Forest Road A forest road is a type of rudimentary access road, built mainly for the forest. industry, although in some cases they are also used for backcountry recreation access. There is open access to most forestry commission roads and land in Great Britain for walkers, cyclists, and horse riders, and since the countryside bill of 1968, it has become the largest provider of outdoor recreation in Britain. The commission works with association involved in rambling, cycling, mountain biking, and horse riding to promote the use of its land

for recreation. The trails open to the public are not just forest roads, and a notable example of the Commission's promotion of outdoor activity is the Seven Stains Project in Scotland, where seven-purpose-built areas of mountain bike trails have been laid, including facilities for disabled cyclists. Holloway. A Holloway, also Holloway, is a sunken path or lane, i.e. a road or track that is significantly lower than the land on either side, not formed by the recent engineering of a road, cutting, but possibly of much greater age. Various mechanisms have been proposed for how hollowways may have been formed, including erosion by water or traffic, the digging of embankments to assist with the herding of livestock, and the digging of double banks to mark the boundaries of estates.

These mechanisms are all possible and could apply in different cases. Rail trail. Rail trails or paths are shared use paths that make you. use of abandoned railway corridors. They can be used for walking, cycling, and horse riding. They exist throughout the world, and the following is a description of trails in Australia. Following the route of the railways, they cut through hills, under roads, over embankments, and across gullies and creeks. Apart from being great places to walk, cycle, or horse ride, rail trails are line.

conservation corridors, protecting native plants and animals. They often link remnant vegetation in farming areas and contain valuable flora and fauna habitat. Wineries and other attractions are near many trails, as well as B&Bs and other great places to stay. Most trails have a gravel or dirt surface suitable for walking, mountain bikes and horses. In the USA, the 27-mile-long Cheshire Rail Trail in New Hampshire can be used by hikers, horseback riders, snowmobillers, cross-country skiers, cyclists, or even dog slitters.

In Canada, following the abandonment of the Prince Edward Island Railway in 1989, the government of Prince Edward Island purchased the right-of-way to the entire railway system. The Confederation Trail was developed as a tip-to-tip walking cycling gravel rail trail, which doubles as a monitored and groomed snowmobile trail during the winter months, operated by the PEI Snowmobile Association. A considerable part of the Trans-Canada Trail are repurposed defunct rail lines denoted to provincial governments by CP and CN Rail, rebuilt as walking trails.

As such, much of the Trans-Canada Trail development emulated the successful Rails to Trails Initiative in the United States. The trail is multi-use and depending on the section may allow hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders, cross-country skiers, and snowmobillers. A towpath is a road or path on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The original purpose of a towpath was to allow a horse or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. It can be paved or unpaved and are popular with cyclists and walkers, and some are suitable for equestrian. In Scotland equestrians have legal access to all towpaths, and there is a campaign for similar rights in England and Wales.

In snowy winters in the USA, they are popular with cross-country skiers and snowmobile users. In Britain, most canals were owned by private companies, and the towpaths were deemed to be private for the benefit of legitimate users of the canal. The nationalization of the canal system in 1948 did not result in Topaz becoming public rights of way, and subsequent legislation, such as the Transport Act of 1968, which defined the government's obligations

to the maintenance of the inland waterways, for which it was now responsible, did not include any commitment to maintain towpaths for use by anyone. However, some ten years later, British waterways started to relax the rule that a permit was required to give access to a towpath and began to encourage leisure usage by walkers, anglers, and in some areas, cyclists. The British Waterways Act of 1995 still did not enshrine any right of public access, although it did encourage recreational access of all kinds to the network, although the steady development of the leisure use of the canals

and the decline of commercial traffic had resulted in a general acceptance that towpaths are open to everyone and not just boat users. The concept of free access to towpaths is enshrined in the legislation which transferred responsibility for the English and Welsh canals from British Waterways to the Canal and River Trust in 2012. Not all towpaths are suitable for use by cyclists, but where they are, and the canal is owned by British Waterways, a permit is required. There is no charge for a permit, but it acts as an opportunity to inform cyclists about safe and unsafe areas to cycle. Some areas, including London, are exempt from this policy, but are covered instead by the London towpath code of contact, and cyclists are required to have a bell, which is rung twice when approaching pedestrians. parts of some towpaths have been incorporated into the National Cycle Network, and in most cases this has resulted in the surface being improved.

In France, it is possible to cycle, rollerblade, and hike along the banks of the Canal de Midei, a paved stretch of 50 kilometers from Toulouse to Avignon-Laregé, and another 12 kilometers between Bezier and Portieragne, are particularly suited to cycling and roller plating. It is possible to cycle or walk the entire canal de du mer from set to Bordeaux. Other French canals provide walkers with many excellent routes, as they are always accompanied by a towpath, which makes a pleasant off-road track

and have the added virtues of flatness, shade, and an abundance of villages along the way. The walk in a canal can be monotonous so that a long trip beside a canal is better done by bicycle.