Appalachian Trail The Trail Hiking Maine History Travel

The trail is currently protected along more than 99 percent of its course by federal or state ownership of the land or by right-of-wayRight-of-way is a legal term which may have any of several meanings: priority at a crossing, or in traffic. The one vehicle must yield either to pedestrians or to other vehicles that have priority. It is not an absolute right as it must be exercised in a. Annually, more than 4,000 volunteerA volunteer noun is a person who performs or offers to perform a service out of his or her own free will, often without payment. The year 2001 was the International Year of the Volunteer. People may volunteer verb to perform charitable work. Some voluntees contribute over 175,000 hours of effort on the Appalachian Trail, possibly the largest volunteer effort on Earth, coordinated in most part by the Appalachian Trail Conference organization.

In the course of its journey, the trail crosses the tops of several of the Appalachian MountainsThe Appalachian Mountains are a system of North American mountains running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada to Alabama in the United States, although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. The system is divided into, running, with only a few exceptions, almost continuously through the wildernessWilderness is land that has not been significantly modified by direct or indirect human activity. For most of human history, the greater part of the Earth's terrain was wilderness, and attention was focused on the settled areas. During the 19th century, i.

2 Hiking

Trail hikers who complete the entire trail in a single season are termed "thru-hikers"; those who traverse the trail during a series of separate trips are known as "section-hikers". Those heading from Georgia to Maine, the direction in which the whole route is most often attempted, are termed "north-bounders" while those heading in the opposite direction are termed "south-bounders." Part of hiker subculture includes making colorful entries in log books at trail shelters, signed under trail namesA pseudonym or allonym is a name (sometimes legally adopted, sometimes purely fictitious) used by an individual as an alternative to their birth name. Pseudonyms in print When used by authors, a pseudonym is also called a pen name or (in French) nom de pl adopted by the hikers.

Completing of the trail generally requires five to seven months, although some have done it more quickly. The trail's rugged terrain and cold weather conditions during the spring and fall, make through-hiking a fairly demanding experience. Only about 20% of those who make the attempt actually succeed in completing the entire trail.

Nearly all of the trail is also open to local use, although there are some rules and regulations that favor "thru-hikers"; some believe that the emphasis on hiking the entire length of the trail is misplaced.

2.1 Maine

The 270 miles of trail in Maine are particularly difficult [1]. The eastern section begins in Baxter State Park , at the Maine terminus of the trail. The park closes to camping from October 15 to May 15 each year. Park management strongly discourages thru-hiking within the park before May 31 or after October 15 [2].

The central Maine section includes a 70-yard-wide crossing of the widest unbridged river along the Trail. Fording the river is unsafe due to swift and powerful current and the unannounced release of water from upstream hydroelectric facilities.

The western section includes the mile-long boulder scramble of Mahoosuc Notch , often called the Trail's hardest mile [3].

3 History

The trail was originally conceived by Benton MacKaye , a forester who wrote his original plan shortly after the death of his wife in 1921. MacKaye's utopian idea detailed a grand trail that would connect a series of farms and wilderness work/study camps for city-dwellers.

In 1923, the first section of the trail was opened by groups of enthusiastic volunteers. To maintain forward momentum, MacKaye called for a two-day Appalachian Trail conference to be held in March of 1925 in Washington, D.C. This resulted in the formation of the Appalachian Trail Conference organization, though little progress was made on the trail for several years.

At the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s, a retired judge named Arthur Perkins and his younger associate Myron H. Avery took up the cause. Avery, who soon took over the ATC, adopted the more practical goal of building a simple hiking trail. He and MacKaye clashed over the ATC's response to a major commercial development along the trail's path; MacKaye left the organization, while Avery was willing to simply reroute the trail.

In August of 1937, the trail was completed to Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. The ATC shifted its focus toward protecting the trail lands and mapping the trail for hikers. From 1938 to the end of World War II, the trail suffered a series of natural and man-made setbacks. It is said that a group of Boy Scouts from the New York metropolitan area, with exceptional support such as trucked-in supplies, covered the whole trail (at least among them) some time in this period. It may not be clear whether any individual covered the whole route, nor whether contemporaneous records exist, and it appears any surviving participants are not pursuing credit. At the end of the war, the damage to the trail was repaired, and the first documented through-hike, by Earl Shaffer of York, Pa, brought a great deal of attention to the project.

In the 1960s, the ATC made real progress toward protecting the trail from development thanks to a number of sympathetic politicians and officials. The " National Trails System Act " of 1968, paved the way for a series of national scenic trails within the national park and national forest systems. Trail volunteers worked with the National Park Service to map a permanent route for the trail, and by 1971 a permanent route had been marked (though minor changes continue to this day). By the close of the 20th century, the Park Service had completed the purchase of all but a few miles of the trail's span. Completion of all purchases is currently scheduled to occur in 2004

4 Travel literature

Scores of books about the trail have been published by thru-hikers and others. In 1998 Bill Bryson described his attempts at walking the trail in his book A Walk in the Woods. It is a less-than-serious view of the trail, from a less-than-fit person's perspective.

5 See also

International Appalachian Trail

6 External links

Historic U.S. trails and roads Hiking trails in North America

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1 The Trail