The American Discovery Trail is an enormous outdoor classroom. We would like to bring that classroom to you through this 'Virtual Field Trip'.

'Virtual Field Trip'?, you ask....... an explanation is in order!

The 'Virtual Field Trip' we would like to create will consist of a combination of Information and Interaction.

The Information we hope to compile will become an educational tool to be used by anyone interested in 'Discovery'.... 'Discovery' of the American Discovery Trail, the thirteen states and the nations capital that the trail goes through, our natural environments and the earth sciences that explain it all, the historical points of interest along the American Discovery Trail and the interesting communities and cultures made up of the amazing people of this great country.

We will offer you a look at our daily experiences in our Trail Journal titled TODAY'S THOUGHTS. We will be documenting points of interest we "discover" during our experiences on trail in our VIRTUAL HIKE OF THE ADT entries. Records of the environmental conditions from the field will be displayed in our DAILY READINGS entries and we will capture the visual representations of the American Discovery Trail in our PHOTO GALLERY. Entries from the field will be made daily using our Pocket-PC, and the Photographic gallery will be continuously updated and maintained east to west allowing us to create an opportunity for you to follow along daily and 'discover' as we 'discover'.

We hope to make our 'Discovery' your 'Discovery'.

The Interaction we hope to create will require your involvement.
This 'Virtual Field Trip' will enable you to 'discover' thru-hiking the American Discovery Trail through our words and images and provide you an opportunity to contribute information based upon your experiences. You can enhance your Interaction in this 'Field Trip' by contributing your knowledge and experience in our FORUM. We hope to generate Forum topics relative to our adventures and have you share your thoughts, stories and ideas with us.

We hope that this 'Virtual Field Trip' is an Informative and Interactive 'discovery' of the American Discovery Trail.

Teachers! We would like to offer you the opportunity to take your class on a 'Virtual Field Trip'. The resource we are hoping to compile here at TRECK USA is designed to inspire learning. All too often students are unable to have on-the-scene interaction incorporated into their educational experience. We would like for your students to get involved as we attempt to bring an on-the-scene feel to the classroom. Scott Steele will be incorporating our Location, DAILY READINGS , VIRTUAL HIKE OF THE ADT, PHOTO GALLERY. and FORUM Topics into his Ninth Grade Earth Science Classroom. Mr. Steele teaches at Wilson Memorial High School in Fishersville, Va. The incorporation of our hike with Mr. Steele's classroom curriculum will be presented in the CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES pages. Articles written by Mr. Steele's students will create a VIRTUAL LIBRARY. The virtual library of articles will become an excellent resource for students all across the country. Our involvement with Mr. Steele's classroom and the interaction of his students with TRECK USA will inspire his students to explore the earth sciences that are affecting their environment. While the Information Mr.Steele exposes his students to will be consistent with their traditional high school text, the 'Virtual Field Trip' will provide an untraditional platform upon which to present them the Information. The retention of Information by Mr. Steele's students will undoubtedly improve due to their Interactive experience. The 'Virtual Field Trip' experience will offer your students an enhanced learning opportunity promoting an interest in the American Discovery Trail and the many educational 'discoveries' to be made while thru-hiking the States of the ADT from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

We will attempt to take you on a Virtual Hike of the ADT by offering a state by state list of links to some of the points of interest we see as we walk from coast to coast.

We started our hike on March 7, 2006 on the east coast at Cape Henlopen State Park, DE. We plan to hike the ADT west to Point Reyes National Seashore, CA. When we reach Ohio we will take the southern route of the ADT to Colorado. Your Virtual Hike of the ADT will be entered for each state, so stay posted and "discover" as we "discover".


We hope to create a 'Virtual Field Trip' experience for individuals using our adventure as a research tool. We hope to explore the ADT as your eyes in the field. The Journal entries and the Virtual Hike of the ADT pages will document the points of interest that we hike past on a daily basis, and will be entered state by state. We will offer brief introductions and quick field facts about our 'discoveries'. We will attempt to offer you as many web links as possible, giving you an opportunity to 'discover' more in depth details concerning our topics. The Virtual Hike of the ADT will be supplemented with our Journals and Daily Readings. Our Daily Readings will give an on-the-scene report of the actual environmental conditions each day of our hike. The Daily Readings will be represented in our Photo Gallery as we attempt to document our 'discoveries' visually, hopefully demonstrating a realistic exposure to each of the points of interest in the current environmental condition. Following along with our Journals, Virtual Hike of the ADT, Daily Readings and Photo Gallery will give you an opportunity to 'discover' as we 'discover'. Students will enhance their 'discoveries' with further classroom research as outlined in our Classrroom Activities pages. The results of their studies will be presented in the Virtual Library. The Virtual Library will be made up of articles written by the students involved in this 'Virtual Field Trip' and will become an outstanding reference for other student exploring these topics.


Our Virtual Hike of the ADT articles will be listed by State and will coordinate with the entries in our Journals, Daily Readings and Photo Galleries.