Hiking routes vs trespassing

[SmileDocHill]

I've canoed, camped, hiked, and mountain biked a lot but oddly not much more than fixed position camping here in Indiana. The fine thread posted by Sailor
https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo..._bugout_48_miles_in_3_days-2.html#post1570745
got me thinking about possible hiking routes. Are there any tracks of land that qualify as publicly accessible to hike like rivers are to canoe? I know from canoe camping that while on the river you really don't have many trespassing concerns but you should plan ahead and pull over to camp where you have permission to avoid trespassing. Are there land based equivalents to that, man made or natural? Like along railroad tracks (some certain distance from the tracks, not on them), or river banks, clearing routes where pipelines or power lines have been placed? I can almost certainly rule out some of these as still being private land that some level of gov. got a right of way for but you know what I mean.
Any thoughts???
I am really talking about areas in addition to places like parks and labeled public property that are well known and labeled as such.

 

[Glock18FA]

Off the top of my head there seems to be a trail system that goes through Hoosier national Forest that is pretty long.

 

[qmikep]

Try the Hoosier national forest

The Hoosier national forest areas (Welcome to Hoosier National Forest) have quite a bit of land that has no established trails .And I've never see many if any other people around when I go. And its free no gated entrances so It dosen't feel like being at the lameass state park or anything like that.

 

[Digital_photog]

Check out the Deam Wilderness area in Hoosier National Forest. https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...86-backpacking_and_ham_radio_in_the_deam.html

 

[moischmoe]

In the UK, they have trails that are on private land, but are open to the public. They even have areas (not just trails) of private land that are open to the public. Ever watch "Last of the Summer Wine"? They walk all over the countryside. Very beautiful place. I suspect they are using the public access land. I wish we had trails like that in the US. I can envision walking through the countryside, from one town to another, using trails running along fence rows or property lines. I can also envision running from farmer Brown and his shotgun because HE doesn't share that same vision.

More info: Slow Travel United Kingdom - Hiking, walking, rambling, trekking in the countryside

 

[DThurston]

For the most part, in the UK they are on private land, but there is a law providing for public access for walking through and prohibitions on interfering with it. I'm sure they have limitations on walking through cultivated crops etc, but by and large, it's pretty open, I thought.

If not, someone please correct me!

 

[Leadeye]

Lots of interesting places to walk in the HNF, just remember that what looks like vast amounts of HNF on maps is often broken up with private ground.

 

[Archbishop]

There's a lot of hiking to be done here in Indiana. Knobstone trail down in Southern Indiana is longest continuous trail in Indiana. It's about 58 miles long. Can be pretty rugged and quite often lacks any source of water. (Adds to the challenge I suppose.)

Hoosier National Forrest has several different trails some inner connect whilst other do not. There are other trails scatter through the state at various parks. I guess the real question that you'd have to answer first is what type of hiking you want to do. Long multi-day hike, shorter one day hikes? Hilly terrain, Or easier flat terrain?
The majority of the trails are in the south and therefor hilly.
Don't forget that in several of these parks you're allowed to bushwack and go where ever you please.
National Geographic makes a series of maps called Trails Illustrated map. They have one for pretty much every National Park or Forrest in the United States. They have one for Hoosier National Forrest. They are topo maps printed on tear & water resistant paper that shows all the trails marked out. They are worth getting even if you only use them once or twice. They cost about $12.
Good luck to you.

 

[patriot492]

I got the Indiana hiking guide and it came with 12 large topo maps of the trails in the state forest. This one was from 1983 but I'm sure they have updated it since then.