Welcome to Home of the Brave. I'm Scott Carrier. I've been working on a couple of stories that aren't ready yet.

So today I'm going to play a piece I produced last summer for one of my favorite radio

programs, The New Yorker Radio Hour.

The Radio Hour is like the New Yorker magazine in that they present a wide variety of genres, fiction, non-fiction,

essays, reviews, parody, musicals by some of the best writers in the world.

So I was honored when they asked me to do a story about a new long distance

hiking trail through Grizzly Bear Country in the Pacific Northwest. The radio hour is hosted by the New Yorker's editor, David Remnick,

and hears his introduction to the story.

Now our final story today brings us north, northwestern Montana close to the Canadian border.

And in this region of immense forests, there's a hiking trail that's become a source of really bitter dispute.

Now, often in stories like this, we find the interests of loggers or developers or ski resorts or dam

builders at odds with the views of environmentalists.

But in the Yak Valley, the Pacific Northwest Trail pits nature lovers against nature lovers.

Scott Carrier, the producer of the podcast Home of the Brave, recently drove up to the Yak Valley. The

Poet carrier, the producer of the podcast Home of the Brave, recently drove up to the Yack Valley to try to

understand just what's going on. In America we have 11 national scenic trails for long miles long. National scenic trails are like national parks in that they're designated

by Congress and managed by the National Park Service and the National Forest Service. Anybody in the country can go there for a short walk and a picnic,

or you can start walking and keep walking for four to six months

until you get to the end of the trail.

One of our newest national scenic trails, designated by Congress in 2009,

is the Pacific Northwest Trail, the PNT.

It's 1,200 miles long, starting on the continental divide in Glacier National Park, Montana,

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