Take Care in What You Share

Protecting Pristine Places

Some of Kentucky’s most beautiful natural wonders remain untouched by the rough hands of mankind. To keep them that way, The Project has adopted a policy consistent with Leave No Trace Principles to only share hikes already in the public forum or that have clear evidence of negative user impacts.

The best way to protect pristine places remains to keep them out of the public forum in two very important ways - (1) sharing location data only with responsible users and (2) avoiding the creation of unofficial user trails. In these two ways, pristine places are protected by remaining out of view of the general public - both online and on the trail.

Some may be thinking, “These are public places on public land, so it’s only right to share these places with others.” Sadly, the outcome of this thinking frequently looks like this:

So, how does one go about sharing only with responsible trail users? It’s simple. Invite your friends on a hike and show them the way. Teach them how to respect and preserve these amazing places, and they will, in turn, teach others.

If visiting a pristine place that does not have a user trail, please be sure to follow Leave No Trace Practices when visiting - limit the size of your hiking party, spread out (never single file), don’t camp nearby, and finish the hike without leaving a trace.

Pristine places are by definition fragile. One negative impact user can create damage that lasts decades, centuries, millennia, or more.

Take care in what you share,
Michael