Have you ever heard the expression: “Take a hike?” Growing up, it was considered my dad’s catchphrase. Whenever my brothers or I wanted to use the car for some Friday night fun we’d nervously approach my father and sheepishly ask if we could PLEASE borrow the keys. His response: “Take a hike.” (He, of course, was kidding—well, at least most of the time.) Years (make that decades) have passed since I was told to “take a hike,” but the phrase stuck and I think about it (flashback, flashback) whenever I hear about nature trails. Such is the case in writing this blog about the historic Appalachian Trail.
The Appalachian Trail is the United States first National Scenic Trail. It earned the title in 1968—decades after its completion in 1937 (many trace the origins of the Trail to a 1921 article by Benton MacKaye entitled An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning). The Appalachian National Scenic Trail is a 2,175-mile long continuous marked footpath, which stretches through 14 states from Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia.
An estimated four million hikers and backpackers use the trail each year. Volunteers do much of the work to keep the Trail open—and they have their hands full as the Trail and its associated lands stretch over 250,000 acres. Two hundred eighty one of those miles sit in the state of Maine. The northern point of the Trail is Katahdin. At 5,267 feet it is the focal point of central Maine’s Baxter State Park. The Trail continues southwest to Monson and eventually crosses the Kennebec River before passing through the famed Mahoosuc and Grafton notches, where the Trail enters New Hampshire.
About a quarter of the Trail (544 miles, the most of any state) lies within Virginia, including about 100 miles through the popular Shenandoah National Park. The Trail weaves its way through the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area before entering the town of Damascus, where Trail Days are celebrated every May. If Virginia is home to the majority of the trail, then neighboring state West Virginia could be considered home to the minority. A mere two miles of the Trail can be found in West Virginia where it crosses the Shenandoah River, and continues into Virginia.
The Trail ends in Georgia where it winds through the rugged Chattahoochee National Forest before reaching its southern point at Springer Mountain. (Many hikers are surprised to find that the end is really not the end… once you reach Amicalola Falls you still have to hike wight miles to reach the beginning of the Trail’s southern end.)
To read about a man who decided to hike the entire Trail—barefoot—click here.
For more information about the Trail, and the legend that its origins can be traced back to a 1921 article, click here.