In the early 1970s, a young, novice hiker had an audacious idea.  Ron Strickland decided to create a 1,200-mile footpath across three national parks and seven national forests to link Glacier National Park's alpine meadows with Olympic National Park's wilderness coast.  Enchanted by all that magnificent backcountry, he enlisted volunteers, lobbied landowners, and dug dirt.  Four decades later in 2009, President Obama made the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail an official part of our national heritage.  In this book Ron reveals how he and the volunteers bucked both brush and bureaucracy to establish one of the world's most beautiful trails. Ron Strickland is a master storyteller whose seven previous oral histories and guidebooks showcase some of our most fascinating regions and people.  In Pathfinder he intersperses colorful portraits of memorable trail characters, insider's tips about favorite hikes, and news about the coming Renaissance of hiking.  "The adventure," he says, "is just beginning." A hiker’s memoir with a twist – portraits of the huge and colorful cast of characters encountered on some of the world’s premiere trails, and the inside scoop from the PNT founder what it takes to establish a trail. Ron Strickland is the founder of the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail. He is the author of seven oral histories and guidebooks, including The Pacific Northwest Trail Guide, River Pigs and Cayuses: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest, and Whistlepunks and Geoducks: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest . He is the recipient of numerous conservation honors, including the L.L. Bean Outdoor Heroes Award. ronstrickland.com