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Idea to send:	Topic State Parks and Hiking Trails Content Oklahoma is lucky to have a wide range of topography from corner to corner. But we've not done a very good job of exploiting that. Yes, we have a number of state parks all over the state, but it often seems that if you don't have a boat, the state parks aren't for you. I think it would be a good idea to put more overnight hiking trails in our state parks. Backpacking has become a very popular activity over the last decade-- we even have a Backwoods shop here in Norman. But, outside of the Wichita mountains, and parts of the Ouachita forest, there are not many places in the state to do overnight hiking trips. And there very easily could be. A number of the parks have the space, even it was just a trail that hugged the lake, but right now, those trails just don't exist. What I think would be a better, although much more challenging idea, is to form a number of regional hiking trails that link the different state parks. For example, my job takes me to the north west part of the state, Boiling Springs state park, Alabaster Caverns State Park, Little Sahara state park, the Gloss Mountains, and Roman Nose State park would make a fantastic mulit-day loop. Even better if you could make it horse accessable. You could, as an example, start at Roman Nose, follow the Canadian River north west to Boiling Springs, then go North East to Alabaster Caverns, then follow the Cimarron River south east and go to LIttle Sahara, and then reach the Gloss Mountains. And this kind of thing could be repeated in almost every corner/quadrant of the state. And you could work in Native American history, and frontier history (would't it be great to be able to travel down the Chisom trail, instead of just seeing a placard on the highway?) and really showcase what Oklahoma has to offer. There would, of course, be right of way issues that would have to be settled first. However, I am confident that those issues could be settled to everyone's advantage. I recently returned from a trip to Northern England, where I did the coast-to-coast walk. Because they have these regional hiking trail systems, they also have these regional micro-economies that spring from them. Many landowners make money from this, especially if your barn/cabin is the only place to stay between towns. I feel confident that Oklahoma could make something like this work. We have the diversity of landscape, and enough points of historical interest to draw people in, what we lack is the accessibility. I'm available at this email address if you would like to follow-up on this idea. I am also willing to donate my time and my money to a project like this. Sincerely, Adrian Simmons