Imagine stepping off a train or bus at dawn one bright morning, and setting off on a hike through public parks, urban forests, community gardens, and residential neighborhoods. In 2022, just a couple of years after the Covid-19 pandemic  underscored the beauty and social power of city green space, a group of us in Boston created the Walking City Trail: a 27-mile trail connecting some of Boston’s most immersive naturalistic and built environments for a scenic journey from the Neponset River Reservation to Bunker Hill Monument.

It all started when Miles Howard, a journalist and hiking guidebook author based in Boston, read an article in National Geographic about San Francisco's Crosstown Trail.  The creators of this gorgeous 17-mile urban hiking trail across the roly-poly city connected pre-existing park paths and sidewalks to take hikers on a ramble through the city's hills and canyons. 

While the Crosstown Trail isn't physically marked with signs or blazes, free maps and written trail directions and consistent public transit connections make the trail easily accessible. Splitting the trail into two segments over one weekend, Miles saw a side of SF that he'd never experienced before. And the takeaway hit him in the airport, on the way home. Boston could have a trail like this. With expansive parks and urban wilds, lots of pedestrian infrastructure, and two of America's most well-known historic trails—the Emerald Necklace and the Freedom Trail—Boston is ideally positioned to host bigger, longer, and more connective urban hiking trails.

So what does it take to "build" an urban trail like this? A deep appetite for poking around city parks and forests. A solid GPS app. And an enduring passion for sniffing out the most scenically interesting ways to walk from one urban green space to the next destination.  

The website, maps, and directions for the Walking City Trail were created by Miles in June of 2022, as an open invitation for Boston  to try hiking across the city. And it didn't take long for Boston residents and visitors to answer the call. Guided hikes along the trail, co-organized with Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara  and with Boston's own Mothers Out Front chapter,  sparked bright ideas for how the "WCT" could be expanded to include even more immersive green (and blue) spaces. Two of the earliest WCT group hikers, Matthew Broude and Jules Murdza stepped up as fellow trail builders once the Walking City Trail re-routes began. In 2023, the Walking City Trail route was finalized at 27 miles. And as the first wave of trail signs began appearing on utility poles and fences, Patrick Maguire and Helen Gibbons were there for each installation voyage, wielding zip-ties and wirecutters.

By demonstrating that you can go for a great hike in the middle of a city, the Walking City Trail is more than a trail―it's an idea that can be replicated in more urban environments across the U.S. and around the world. Some call this approach to trail-making the Instant Urban Trail model. Granted, "instant" usually means more like 6-12 months: especially if an urban trail route is revised and finished by community consensus. But at a time when hiking is soaring in popularity and when structural barriers to hiking are finally being recognized and dismantled, more hiking venues are sorely needed, and cities are ready to deliver.

But don't just take our word for it. Come take a hike in "America's Walking City" and give the WCT a whirl today! Hike it in small pieces. Divide it in half over a weekend. Or traverse the whole thing in one day. (It's only one mile longer than the Boston Marathon.) Please do get in touch if you have questions or would like to get directly involved with trail projects. Check out our trail contribution page to learn more about how you can support the Walking City Trail and Boston's many green spaces. And read on to learn a bit more about each of us who’ve helped bring the WCT to life, read on below.

MILES HOWARD

A contributing writer to The Boston Globe and National Geographic, author of Moon New England Road Trip, and a former nightlife staff writer for The Boston Phoenix, Miles found his way into urban hiking during the first spring of the Covid-19 pandemic, when millions of city dwellers started exploring overlooked parks and urban conservation lands. He founded the Walking City Trail in 2022 and he is the lead organizer for trail projects.

When he’s not bumbling around Boston green spaces with a group of hikers or a journal full of notes (for the next Boston trail), Miles enjoys visiting cities with wild nightlife, volunteering for initiatives to expand access to housing and transit, and savoring movies from directors like Rose Glass and Terrence Malick.