Ramble On

Inspired by Iconic American Long Trails, a New Generation of Pioneers Are Creating Paths for Hikers and Bikers the World Over

- Charles Bethea

IN 2010, AMERICAN Paul Stephens was working for USAID in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia—a country roughly the size of South Carolina—where he had originally traveled to volunteer for the Peace Corps. In between helping with the agency’s poverty and education initiatives, he explored the nearby Caucasus range on foot.

“There are lots of peaks above 4,000 meters and dense forests,” says Stephens, now 35. “Western Georgia is like the Pacific Northwest, but with ancient villages, defense towers, and churches on the mountainside.” During one excursion, he came across a few intrepid Eastern European trekkers attempting to cross the country’s 800-mile swath of untracked mountains and forest.

“It just got me thinking,” he says. “So I started looking at the map.” Years earlier he’d hiked much of the Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail, along with the Great Smoky Mountains farther south.