Ron Strickland

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Ron Strickland (1943-) is an American conservationist and author. An oral history researcher, he is best known as the founder of the 1,200-mile (1,900 km) Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) and of the transcontinental Sea to Sea Trail (C2C).

[edit] Education and career

Ronald Gibson Strickland was born in Providence, RI, Rhode Island, attended Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated with three degrees from Georgetown University. Dr. Strickland wrote his dissertation about the politics of the National Wilderness Preservation System. That inspired him to lobby for passage of his "study bill" to mandate a federal report about the desirability and feasibility of creating a trail from the Continental Divide at Glacier National Park to the Pacific Ocean at Cape Alava. He incorporated the Pacific Northwest Trail Association in 1977 and was its executive director for twenty years. In 1984 and 2001 he published the first and second editions of the Pacific Northwest Trail guidebook.

His most ambitious project was the extrapolation of his Northwest Trail east to the Atlantic Ocean in the form of the Sea to Sea Trail. His goal was to provide a transcontinental framework for the hitherto disparate long distance trails of the National Trails System. C2C's first thru-hiker was Andrew Skurka who hiked the Route straight through from east to west (2004 to 2005) in 11 months.

A member of the Explorers Club, Ron Strickland is the author of seven books, and has received the $10,000 Chevron Conservation Award and the $50,000 American Land Conservation Award.

[edit] Publications

The Pacific Northwest Trail Guide, 2nd Ed. (Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 20001)
Shank's Mare: A Compendium of Remarkable Walks, (New York: Paragon House, 1988)
Vermonters: Oral Histories from Down Country to the Northeast Kingdom, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986; Hanover, NH: University Press Of New England, 1998)
River Pigs and Cayuses: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest, (San Francisco: Lexikos, 1984; Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2001)
Whistlepunks & Geoducks: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest, (New York: Paragon House, 1990; Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2001)
Texans: Oral Histories from the Lone Star State, (New York: Paragon House, 1991)
Alaskans: Oral Histories from the Last Frontier, (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992)