Nature Trails and Mixed Routes - Tourism and Trails: Cultural, Ecological and Management Issues - page 78

Caribbean coastline, but also indigenous farming and hunting methods.
Users were able stop by a traditional Maya home and replica Garifuna village
where they learned about Maya and Garifuna cultures and traditions
(Boucher, 1990). Many trails around Lake Michigan (USA) traverse sand
dunes, glacial landscapes and cedar swamps, while at the same time focusing
on mining heritage, the Black Hawk War and ancient fossils buried nearby
(Schwartz, 1996). In Australia, horseback riding on Outback trails nearly
always involves natural and cultural heritage elements, where riders experi-
ence the harshness of the Australian wilderness while appreciating folklore,
stories and billy tea boiled over an open fire (Hemmings, 1993).
Bicycle trails
While there are off-road and wilderness bicycle trails, most cycling routes
comprise a mix of cultural and natural assets. Thousands of trails have been
designated specifically for the use of cyclists in urban and national parks, as
well as in wilderness settings. Bicycle trails are now a commonplace feature
of city green space master plans and rural development strategies (Rennicke,
1997b; Watkins, 1984). As well, the popularity of cycling in many European
and North American cities has resulted in special bicycle lanes on streets and
urban roadways that facilitate easier traffic navigation for cyclists and help
provide a safer urban environment for them.
Many countries see cycling trails not only for local recreation and trans-
portation but they also see them as potential tourism products, where
people come from abroad to view the country by bicycle. Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Belgium and several other countries have been especially aggres-
sive in promoting cycle tourism for many years, utilizing local trails for tour-
ists to enjoy attractive small towns and beautiful landscapes as part of those
countries' tourism product (Burgener, 1987; Cox, 2012; Lamont, 2009;
Meschik, 2012). Switzerland has planned and continues to plan themed
medium-distance cycling routes that link tourist destinations together with
rest stops and points of interest (Studer, 1994). At a different scale, the
North Sea Cycle Route was established in 1998 to provide a continuous,
signed route through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands
and the United Kingdom (UK) as a cross-border cycle tourism network
linked by the theme of the North Sea (Lumsdon et al. , 2004: 13).
In the UK, the National Cycle Network (NCN) (10,400 km) was initi-
ated in 1995 by Sustrans and funded by the National Lottery (Cope et al. ,
2003). According to Cope et al. (1998: 211), eventually half the network will
be on car-free routes shared by pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair users.
The first recreational section of the NCN was the 220 km Coast to Coast
(C2C) cycle route in 1996, which crosses northern England from the
Cumbrian Coast to the eastern seaboard near Sunderland. Between these
two end points, the C2C passes through the Lake District National Park, the