AMC Outdoors, October 2002

By Katharine Wroth

There's a question Paul Elliott has long asked about hiking: "What's the point?" He used to ask it out of curiosity, as a tennis player and bicyclist who couldn't understand the allure of "disappearing into the woods." Today, a dedicated AMC leader who's written a book on hiking in the Washington, D.C., area, he asks it to get people thinking.

The point, says Elliott — who was won over to the activity in the late 1980s by a friend who belonged to AMC — is fourfold: learning, fitness, social interaction, and self-empowerment. For two years, while exploring in and around the nation's capital for 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Washington, D.C., published in June by Menasha Ridge Press, he studied not only the urban and rural landscape, but also his fellow hikers. The self-described "laidback" leader delights in encouraging new hikers to explore their own potential and local environmental issues, from pollution to preservation.

His research convinced Elliott, who calls Alexandria, Va., home, to switch from exclusively long-distance hikes to mostly shorter excursions, which draw more people with more interest in their surroundings. "I cut back on the forced marches," he says, "in favor of stopping to savor things." Among his favorite "underhiked locales that offer much to savor year-round" are D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood, Maryland's Little Bennett Regional Park, and Virginia's Winkler Botanic Preserve.

An AMC leader since 1997, Elliott also takes groups out for the Sierra Club. "I continue to lead frequently because my weekday intention to hike is often confronted on Saturday morning by my impulse to sleep," he admits. "It ensures that I get regular exercise."

A long-time self-employed science writer and editor, Elliott finds himself "smitten and bitten" by his foray into writing on hiking and the environment, and intends to continue on that path. "Hiking has transformed my life," he says. "It opens doors that can benefit not only the individual, but the community as well."

—Katharine Wroth is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors.