Sharing the Path of Abraham

Sharing the Path of Abraham

Can retracing the path of one of the world’s most revered prophets help sow the seeds of peace and economic prosperity for communities in the Middle East? This is the question that Harvard professor William Ury sought to answer when, in 2004, he established the Abraham Path Initiative. Abraham was the exemplar of hospitality and preached kindness to strangers. The story of Abraham, or Ibrahim, is one of the most well known and revered by followers of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Indeed, it is through Abraham that these followers trace their ancestry and from the stories of his travels through the Middle East that many continue to find inspiration today. For Ury, these stories provided a particular kind of inspiration that saw the potential for finding common ground, and common ancestry, in the face of conflicts that have sought to tear the region apart. Thus was born the Abraham Path.

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Nan Shepherd featured on Five Pound Note!

Amazing! Nan Shepherd, author of “The Living Mountain” — one of the finest books on mountains I’ve ever read — was selected by the Bank of Scotland to grace the five pound note. Not only is her beautiful visage featured, but several quotes from her elegant writings are included on the note.

What a testament to the literary culture in Scotland, and to that nation’s appreciation of mountains, walking and women! When will this sort of thing happen in USA?!

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NYT Opinion Piece: Right to Roam in USA?

In the April 23, 2016 New York Times Ken Ilguna makes a case for implementing “Right to Roam” laws in USA similar to those in England, Sweden, and other European nations. Along the way he provides some useful comparative perspective on how different nations handle right to roam. In the end he acknowledges that right to roam legislation is unlikely to happen in the USA for several reasons, including:

1. the “takings” clause of the Fifth Amendment declares that private property cannot “be taken for public use, without just compensation.”, and

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A Festival of Walking Art & Ideas at Carleton

Prof. John Schott of Cinema and Media Studies at Carleton College has organized an interdisciplinary celebration of walking and walking art called “WALK! A Festival of Walking, Art and Ideas”. This Walking Festival, features art and media projects, wide-ranging lectures, and many public walking events.

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Tóchar Phádraig: Pilgrim Path in Co. Mayo, Ireland

by Amanda Wagstaff, Hut2Hut Pilgrimage Editor

The Tóchar Phádraig path to the holy mountain Croagh Patrick © Amanda Wagstaff 2016

I left Dublin early in the morning for Castlebar. I was going to walk the Tóchar Phádraig, or St. Patrick’s Causeway, the pilgrim walk from Ballintubber Abbey to the holy mountain of Croagh Patrick. The bus ride through the midlands of Ireland was beautiful, cloudy with instances of sun, rain, and hail. (Yea, all of those.)

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News: Great New Yorker article about Via Alpina and the hut-to-hut experience

Poet, writer and walker James Lasdun has published a wonderful exploration of the delights and challenges of the famous Via Alpina, and the experience of walking hut-to-hut. Published in the April 11, 2016 issue of the New Yorker magazine, this is a delightful and serious essay on the Via Alpina, a trail that wends its way through 8 nations and has more than 300 huts spaced a days walk apart. He describes parts of the trail, gives glimpses of hut life, and relates his own challenges and observations in walking a portion of the trail in the Triglav National Park in Slovenia. Its not often that an American general interest magazine devotes space to describing the hut-to-hut experience, and this one — humorous, well-written, and informative — is an especially worthy contribution to America’s growing consciousness of the hut experience of long distance walking.

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Gifts from Glendalough by Amanda Wagstaff

I left early in the morning for Glendalough to join a group of pilgrims on St. Kevin’s Way. Glendalough,”glen of two lakes,” is the site of a medieval monastic city in County Wicklow, south of Dublin. It was founded in the 6th century by the ascetic monk Kevin and has been a destination for pilgrims ever since. St. Kevin’s Way is the pilgrim path the leads from the small village of Hollywood, through the Wicklow Gap, to the doorstep of St. Kevin’s monastery. I was very excited to do my first pilgrimage in Ireland and impressed to see the parking lot full of cars and walkers, despite the rainy weather. And then someone broke the news to me: the pilgrimage was cancelled. The local mountain rescue team had advised the organizers against doing the pilgrimage because several sections of the path had been replaced by small but rushing rivers.

I was so disappointed.

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Revival of Irish Pilgrimage Paths

by Amanda Wagstaff, Hut2Hut Pilgrimage Editor

View of the holy mountain Croagh Patrick, ancient pilgrimage site, Co. Mayo, Ireland, © Amanda Wagstaff, 2010

March 22^th-29^th, 2016 is Pilgrim Paths Week in Ireland. This national event, which takes place simultaneously at various pilgrimage sites, first started on Easter Saturday 2014 in an effort to revive interest in Ireland’s ancient pilgrim paths. It’s been growing ever since. Not only do many Irish citizens walk these paths, but many foreign visitors, including myself, have been attracted to these ancient pathways, many of which date from prehistory.

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Grand Huts Association: $100,000 expansion grant

Congratulations! According to an article in the SkyHiDaily News, a major grant from private donors will help fund the second hut in The Grand Huts Association.

Their first hut (the Broome Hut pictured here), which took 15 years to get permitted and built, was completed in 2012 at a cost of $400,000. Located in a remote location with excellent back country skiing, materials were delivered to the site by helicopter. The hut is very popular and operates close to full capacity in winter and at about half-capacity in summer. Located on US Forest Service Land near Winter Park Colorado, the Grand Huts association hopes to eventually grow to 5-7 huts, creating a hut-to-hut system from Berthoud Pass to Grand Lake in Grand County.

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Book Review: “The Hut Builder”, by Laurence Fearnley

Published by Penguin Books New Zealand, 2010

With 950 huts in a nation the size of Oregon, huts are a vital part of New Zealand’s landscape and imagination. What I loved most about this novel, in addition to this it’s sensitive portrayal of the life story of a quiet poet-butcher named Boden Black, was an even quieter main character: the “Far-light hut”.

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