Top 5 hiking trails for spreading your ashes

There are a lot of great trails in the country to pick from if you are a hiker and want to return to your favorite hiking spot. Even if you aren't a hiker, here are my top 5 selections for a hiking trail to explore as your final resting place. Please observe trail courtesy and don't have your ashes spread right on the trail or around where future hikers will be walking. Try to leave your ashes in an unobtrusive spot so the trail angels don't get upset.

We have to start with the most well known trail along which you have over 2100 miles to pick from for a final resting spot. The trail is easily accessed at many spots along its length with one section traversing the Smoky Mountain National Park. Springer Mountain, Georgia is the southern end while Mount Katahdin, Maine is the northern end. In between, it runs through North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. For a good spot try the St. Anthony's Wilderness area in Pennsylvania. Another wilderness along the trail is the 100 mile wilderness in Maine. Either one would be a great final resting place. You don't have to hike the whole trail to find a spot, many day hikers frequently hike section along the way. So, pick a spot and start hiking.

The Pacific Crest Trail is the west coast equivalent of the Appalachian trail. It runs over 2600 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. This trail incorporates such a diverse selection of sites that it is hard to list them all but it includes: the Mojave Desert, Yosemite National Park,  the Russian Wilderness, the volcanoes of the Cascades, Crater Lake, Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Rainier, and the remote Northern Cascades. Surely, with all that diversity, you can find a spot that pleases you. Access to the trail is within driving distance of all major metropolitan areas of the West Coast. The Desolation Wilderness is an excellent spot to start your search. Be sure and maker your spot by GPS so someone can find it for you to spread those ashes.

The 27 mile Pinnell Mountain trail is located 100 miles northeast of Fairbanks, it traverses a series of alpine ridge tops entirely above timberline.  You will find wooden posts along the trail to show the mileage from the start at Eagle Summit to the trail’s end at Twelve Mile Summit.   Two emergency shelters provide refuge from storms, but you should prepare for unpredictable, dramatic weather. While hiking the trail you will be greeted by spectacular views of the White Mountains and the Brooks Range, beautiful wildflowers, and the midnight sun. After spotting  wolves, bears, caribou, or wolverines from the trail this may convince you to make this your final resting place.

The North Country Trail will be over 4300 miles long at its completion but today it is far from complete. However, there are still wonderful parts of the trail available today with parts of the North Country trail passing through North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. You can select Lone tree wildlife management area and sleep with the birds. Another option is Chittenango falls, a 160 foot plus water fall  in the state park of the same name in Madison county, New York. Manistee National Forest is reclaimed area that nobody wanted after it was clear cut. Today, it is a beautiful forest again.

Hiking the Kalalau trail can be one of the most spiritual adventures of your life. It isn't an easy trail and it  begins in Ha'ena State Park at the northwest end of Kuhio Highway about 40 miles  from Lihu'e Airport. You can see the how the waterfalls and swift flowing streams have etched   these narrow valleys while the sea still carves cliffs at their mouths. There are still a lot of stone terraces found on the valleys where Hawaiians once lived and cultivated taro. You will need a camping permit to hike this trail and I warn you that this is not a trail for someone afraid of heights. However, once you complete this hike you will go back home realizing that life is all about the journey. You may just decide to come back here after your journey to make this your final destination.

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