ADK = Adirondacks.
Green (Mountains), White (Mountains).
It teaches kids to preserve trails by not walking on them, if at all possible. While walking on trails in New York and New England, you should aim for a rock first. If there is no rock to step on, aim for a root. If there is no root, then dirt is ok to step on. But avoid mud at all costs.
This highlights the ruggedness of the terrain out there. Where many hikes elsewhere provide such an ample amount of dirt with so little rock and root to aim for first, it is not a well known trail maintenance practice outside of the region. However, in the region, it is essential. When ignored, large patches of mud that will last all season long start to form. When this happens, trail maintainers either:
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Close the trail until it’s restored
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Reroute the trail permanently
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Lay down wooden planks to minimize further damage (least sustainable option).
This maintenance is tax dollars, and they don’t have a lot of them, so education is the most effective use of that dollar. And that’s why we teach the kids:
Rock before root and root before dirt, and never step in mud if you can avoid it! 🤠
just_ducky_in_NH@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
ADK is short for ADirondacK mountain range. The others are the Green Mountain range and White Mountain range. All start in New England.