Definitions compiled by
John Marsh, February 2005:
Trail – track, followed by hunter. (The Home and Office Dictionary, Literary Press, Glasgow, 1958).
Trail – a path or track made by
continual passing or deliberately blazed. (Webster’s New World
Dictionary, Toronto, 1960)
Trail – a beaten path; mark, scent,
etc. left by a person, animal or thing that has passed. (Webster’s New
World Dictionary, Toronto, 1968)
Trail – a path or track worn by the
passage of persons travelling in a wild or uninhabited
region. (Chiefly U.S. or Canada ) (The Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, 1967)
Trails – include the routes of the
Native peoples, explorers and voyageurs; hiking, equestrian, cycling,
snowmobiling, motorcycling, ATV, canoeing and scuba trails; interpretive and
educational trails; trails for the disabled; and greenways. They may be long or
short, on private or public land, and owned or managed by a variety of public
and private agencies. (Trail Studies Unit, Trent University ,
Peterborough , 2004)
Trail – Linear route on land or water
with protected status for recreation or transportation purposes such as
walking, jogging, hiking, bicycling, horse-back riding, mountain biking,
canoeing, kayaking, backpacking, and vehicular travel by motorcycle or
all-terrain vehicles. (Flink , C.A. et.al. Trails for the
Twenty-First Century, Rails to Trails Conservancy, Washington, 2001)
Trail – a linear route, outdoors,
under five metres wide, officially designated
primarily for one or more of the following means of travel: walking, hiking,
backpacking, jogging, running, roller-blading,
cycling, mountain biking, wheelchair riding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing,
horseback riding, motor cycling, ATV riding, snowmobiling, canoeing, kayaking.
(Marsh, 2004)
Other
meanings associated with the word “trail”
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail
A trail is a pedestrian path or road
mainly used for walking, but often also for cycling, cross-country skiing or
other activities. Some trails are off-limits to everyone other than hikers, and
few trails allow motorized vehicles.
In the United
States, the word footpath is
also used to mean a trail; however in Australian English, New Zealand English,
Indian English, and Irish English this word means "sidewalk"
(American English) or "pavement" (British English).
(In England and
Wales a footpath is a path on
which the public have a legally protected right to travel on foot.) – see
rights of way
In Australia,
the word track can be used
interchangeably with trail, and can refer to anything from a dirt road
to a pedestrian walkway (generally also unpaved). The term "trail"
gained popularity during World War II, when many servicemen from the United
States were stationed in Australia, which probably influenced its being adopted
by elements of the Australian media at the time. In New Zealand, the word track is used almost exclusively
except in reference to cross-country skiing, where trail is used.
The following link to the Wikipedia article on Rights of Way in the
United Kingdom is an excellent overview of the sophisticated definitions of
trails in the U.K. Public Right of Way; footpath; permitted path; permissive
path; bridleway; byway open to all traffic (BOAT); road used as public path
(RUPP); and restricted byways, among the formal classifications. Directly below
is a quote:
“In the
United Kingdom, public rights of way
are paths on which the public have a legally protected right to pass and
re-pass. The law differs in each of the constituent countries of the kingdom:
notably, in England and Wales rights of way only exist where they are so
designated; in Scotland, meanwhile, any route that meets certain conditions is
defined as a right of way, and in addition there is a general presumption of
access to the countryside. Private rights of way or easements also
exist.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_way_in_the_United_Kingdom
The United
States National Recreation Trails program, jointly administered by the National
Park Service and the USDA Forest Service, is similarly sophisticated in its
definition of three overall designations of trails: National Historic Trail,
National Scenic Trail, and National Recreation Trail. This system was
inaugurated in 1968 with the passing of the National Trails System Act.
“While
National Scenic Trails and National Historic Trails may only be designated by
an act of Congress, National Recreation Trails may be designated by the
Secretary of Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture to recognize exemplary
trails of local and regional significance in response to an application from
the trail's managing agency or organization. Through designation, these trails
are recognized as part of America's national system of trails.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Historic_Trail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Scenic_Trail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recreation_Trail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_%28disambiguation%29
Trail, in
addition to its main meaning of a route for travel, may have following special
meanings:
• Audit trail
• Paper trail
• Breadcrumb trail
• Vapour
trail
• Vortex trail
• Trail, British Columbia
• Trail, Minnesota
• TRAIL, in molecular biology
• Flanged T rail, a railroad rail
• The trail of a bicycle or motorcycle.
• The Scottish clan of Traill (aka "Trail")
• The last part of closed orthographic
syllables in Hangul, also known as “final”
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Trent University Trail Studies Unit home page
Last updated by Wesley Found on September 28, 2011.