New Brunswick: A section of the Appalachian Trail at Bear Mountain State Park in New York can be many things to many people, including a group of landscape architecture majors at Rutgers-Cook College working on a project to redesign that portion of the historic trail.

The trail at Bear Mountain, the most heavily used section of a 2,174- mile trail that goes from Maine to Georgia, including 72 miles in northwest New Jersey, has suffered from overuse. To give the section a fresh look the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, based in Mahwah, requested the Cook College students to submit ideas.

The original Bear Mountain trail, dating to the 1920s, was changed about 30 years ago. "We are looking to create a trail that doesn't have to be changed again, 30 years from now," said David Tulloch, a co-instructor of the course.

Rather than offer one design, the 29 students in the junior-year class have been divided into six teams with six competing plans. Plans include ones to emphasize accessibility, to provide a challenge to experienced hikers, to appeal to novices, to be educational and to promote eco-tourism.

The sixth plan is designed to promote the mission of the Trail Conference by creating a trail that would attract volunteer members.

Combining computer models of the terrain and climate data with visits to the park, the six teams have created plans that will eventually be judged by the trail conference, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the Appalachian Trail Conference and the National Park Service.

Chuck Gandy of Rahway, an experienced hiker, is part of the team working on the plan to challenge hikers. He's been to the park five times since October, scouting possible trails, and has a scar to prove it - two weeks ago he suffered a gash on his hand when he braced his fall on a sharp rock.

Serious hiking, said Gandy, "is a great way to connect with nature. (The Appalachian Trail) has stunning views. It's inspirational."

The team appealing to serious hikers has labeled its project, "The Great Escape," borrowing a movie title about World War II prisoners of war plotting for their freedom.

The location of Bear Mountain State Park, 66 miles from Times Square, places it within an easy drive of millions of visitors, who may have a yen to escape from urbanism.

Tara Piergies, raised in Morris County by a father who was an outdoorsman and a mother with a love of plants, is part of the team offering a plan to appeal to eco-tourists.

The somewhat new eco-tourism movement is "huge," said Piergies. While its greatest appeal is to persons wealthy enough to photograph elephants in Africa, or study rain forests Brazil, what she has learned is the diverse appeal of Bear Mountain to people who might not have the means to cross Australia in a Land Rover.

"There are so many ethnic groups, immigrant groups, the disabled, people of all ages. You're bringing them to something they don't see in the city," said Piergies.

To Galia Roe of Metuchen, who is working on a design that stresses the educational value of the trail, the project is a marriage of two of her interests.

A so-called "nontraditional" student, the 37-year-old Roe is a mother of three, a native of Israel and an accomplished pianist, with a masters degree from Yale University and a doctorate from the City University of New York in music.

What composing music and designing a hiking trail have in common, said Roe "is that both are artistic," though, she allowed, "this is more down to earth." The process of six competing visions will not necessarily produce one team of winners and five sets of losers.

The final design, said Tulloch, "may have piece of some, if not pieces of all."

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Rick Malwitz: (732) 565-7291; rmalwitz@thnt.com Copyright (c) 1997-2003 IN Jersey.