I've wanted to compile a standardized list of North American long distance trails, abbreviations, and distances for ALDHA-West for a while. Now that I'm writing a quarterly article for the Gazette I can follow through on this idea. I welcome people to submit additional trails or correct any errors. Some distances are debatable, so I've used mileage given by the trail organizations, and for the National Scenic Trails, I've used mileage provided by Kathleen Ann Cordes in her book "America's National Scenic Trails."

I ignored National Historic Trails, since they're not really defined as hiking trails. The same goes for many of the Millennium Trails and Rails to Trails more conducive to bicycles. I also omitted tracks that are more of a dream than a reality such as the Hayduke Trail, the Washington Coast Trail or the Everett Ruess Trail. These three trails may someday be defined paths with association backing, but not today. Some trails such as the Chilkoot and West Coast Trail are omitted because they just aren't long enough for me to classify as a long distance path.