Take a Hike! No, Seriously--Go Hiking!

Czechs are an outdoorsy people. They love spending time in "the nature," a kind of catch-all term that encompasses  the outdoors, the countryside, and the environment generally. If you ask a Czech person about their hobbies--which I do frequently as part of my job--outdoor sports (cycling, hiking, skiing, etc.) are invariably near the top of the list, making the average American--or this average American, at least--feel like a slug in comparison.

I mean, I guess that looks nice...

Hiking, in particular, is a passion here, a passion that is in a symbiotic relationship with the Czech hiking trail system. The Czech Republic is home to 40,000 km (~25,000 miles) of hiking trails. Reread that number. 40,000 kilometers is the approximate circumference of the planet Earth at the equator. Walking every meter of every Czech hiking trail would be the equivalent of walking the planet--all in a nation smaller than South Carolina. That's not to count the thousands and thousands of kilometers of trails of cycling, skiing, and horseback riding. It's the densest system of hiking trails in the world. If a hiker made a point of hiking every part of the trail and did 20 km every weekend, it would take over 38 years to hike it all, assuming they never covered the same ground twice.

The system began over a hundred years ago, in 1889, when the Czech Hiking Club--also known as the Czech Tourist Club--began formalizing a system of hiking trail markers and mapping out the system. Walking and hiking were, of course, already very popular past-times throughout Europe--spurred on by the Romantic movement earlier in the century. What the new system did was make everything easy. Instead of hundreds of separate trails, there are now hundreds of distinct trails that are interconnected, classified, and marked. If you pay attention at all, it's almost impossible to get lost on a Czech hiking trail. Look:

There are four colors of markings: red, yellow, green, and blue. Red is used for difficult trails or trails that summit mountains. Blue trails are next easiest, with yellow and green being used for short trails and connecting trails. These symbols, with the stripe of color between two stripes of white, are marked on lamp posts, fence posts, trees, buildings, rocks, and, one can only imagine, slow-moving cows--anything that can help the hiker find and follow the way.

Here, there are four trails all following the same path.

Turns in trails and indicated by arrows.

Major junctions have signs with distances to nearby villages or destinations.

While this system originated here, the "Czech Hiking Markers System" as it's now known is in use all over Europe and in a variety of regions across the globe. The Czech Tourist Club--now 40,000 volunteers strong--maintains the network, with a limited amount of government support.

These trails don't just criss-cross the countryside, however. They run through villages, towns, and cities--even Prague. I literally live on a yellow/green trail and a short walk from a blue trail.

The red mark is my house--come visit!

Prague has multiple nature preserves, which, unsurprisingly, have tons of trails.

The pink trails are bike trails. Notice that the hiking trails and bike trails are different.

If you zoom in, you'll see that the hiking maps also include points of interest, historical sites, restaurants--pretty much everything a hiker will need to make their hike interesting and comfortable. Printed maps are still available, but the easiest way, by far, to plan a hike is to use Mapy.cz--the Czech maps website, which also has a great app and features all of the Czech hiking trails. It will help you plan hikes, can suggest hikes near your location, includes all the information about things to see along the way, can time your hike out for you, and it can even help you follow the trail in case you don't want to rely on the markers.

So, whether you live in Prague or are just visiting for a few days, get the app, find a trail, and enjoy "the nature" the way Czechs do--take a hike.

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