Trail vs path
- Thread starter Abstreet
- Start date
A path would be a natural path caused by humans and/or animals walking along it. It would be narrow and completely unsuitable for horses or vehicles of any sort.
A trail can be a well-established path, sometimes repaired or improved by workers. It is almost always wider than a path and may be (in sections or overall) suitable for horses, bicycles, and perhaps vehicles.
A trail can be a well-established path, sometimes repaired or improved by workers. It is almost always wider than a path and may be (in sections or overall) suitable for horses, bicycles, and perhaps vehicles.
Out here in the forests of the Northwest, it's not quite that cut and dried.
For example, we talk of "game trails," created by deer and other animals and so narrow that they are nearly impassible to humans on foot.
I have a couple of "trails" on my property that certainly are not suitable for bicycles or other vehicles.
On the other hand, we have "paths" in our parks out here. They are well-maintained, rather wide and frequently paved.
See, for example, this photo of a bicycle path.
It's just not that well defined out here.
Once we move out of the forest, things do become more complex. There are "nature trails" that can be both well kept an maintained or little more than a muddy line through grass and brambles. In the UK, this sort of "trail" has a nuance (usually for the purpose of building up public interest and that of teachers leading groups of children, etc) of "going into the wild" - a thing that is difficult on a small overcrowded island.
Again, out of the forest, paths abound in urban parks, etc and are almost invariably metaled and some could support smaller vehicles.
Again, out of the forest, paths abound in urban parks, etc and are almost invariably metaled and some could support smaller vehicles.
Interesting, in that in the eastern US it is the opposite--parks have trails, and paths are narrower, sometimes naturally made by animals--usually only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time.
Probably the most well-known and longest trail in the eastern US is the Appalachian Trail - Wikipedia .
Out here in the mountains of California, it's not cut and dried either. National and State parks have trails. However, one could very well use the word trail -- and I do -- to mean a deer trail with no construction or maintenance and no sign of human use. Path is similarly indefinite. Although the word often occurs coupled with bike, a path through the woods could mean either a maintained trail or a way that one found for oneself. Abstreet, you can use either term, but you will have to elaborate if you want to evoke a definite meaning; neither word does that by itself for a Western US-English speaker.
In a place I'm familiar with in the far northeast of the US, trails go up and down and wind around through a forest, like the Appalachian Trail, but microscopic in size compared to the AT, and they are supposedly 6 feet wide for firefighter access (people carrying equipment on their backs). Paths are shorter and narrower and provide shore and beach access.
I'd call the thing that's made by deer a 'deer trail' also, not a 'deer path.'