About the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail travels through fourteen states, with its southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia and its northern end at Mount Katahdin, Maine.  With as many as 3 million annual hikers, it is one of the most popular footpaths in the world.  It is also very long, but just how long seems hard to nail down.  The Appalachian Trail Conservancy website (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/home) lists the AT as approximately 2180 miles.  A quick internet search will yield any number of different estimates between 2100 and 2200 miles.  The wide variety of estimates for the length of the AT was commented on by author Bill Bryson in his classic A Walk in the Woods:

  "The precise length of the Appalachian Trail is a matter of interesting uncertainty.  The U.S. National Park Service, which constantly distinguishes itself in a variety of ways, manages in a single leaflet to give the length of the trail as 2,155 miles and 2,200 miles.  The official Appalachian Trail Guides, a set of eleven books each dealing with a particular state or section, variously give the length as 2,144, 2,147, 2,159, and “more than 2,150 miles.”" (Bryson 7-8) 

 For comparison, I checked a National Park Service brochure I have dated 2004, and it lists the distance as 2,170 miles.

AT pioneer Myron Avery using a surveyor wheel to measure a stretch of the trail.  Avery was chairman of the ATC from 1931 to 1952.

At first glance, it seems counter-intuitive that there could be such a variation of lengths.  Upon further analysis, however, it actually makes sense that there is no easily definable length.  The AT is a walking trail through woods, over rocks, across mountains and valleys, crossing creeks and rivers, intersecting with roads, highways, and bridges.  It is not an easy thing to measure with any degree of complete accuracy.  Yet there is more to it than that.  The AT is constantly changing for a number of reasons.  A rock slide along a mountainside could mean a rerouting of a stretch of trail.  The construction of a new road could mean a reconfiguration of a trailhead.  A flood might redirect the flow of a creek, resulting in the need for a completely new section of trail to be blazed.  Even something seemingly insignificant like a fallen tree might cause a redirection of a small segment of trail.  These occurrences happen all the time on the AT and the result is a trail that is continually evolving and changing.  By itself, a small change of a hundred feet is not significant, but a hundred such changes in a year can make quite a difference in the actual length.  So just how long is the AT?  The ATC estimate of 2,180 sounds good to me.

The AT is marked with a simple but effective 2 inch wide by six inch tall white rectangle, known as the “AT blaze.”  The blaze is found every few hundred feet along the entire length of the trail.  It is usually painted on the trunks of trees, but in stretches of trail absent trees, it can be found on rocks and even on stony stretches of ground.  

Stretching along the length of the trail at regular intervals are more than 250 shelters for hiker use.  The idea behind these shelters is that a hiker is rarely more than a day’s walk from one of them.  The shelters are varied in their design, size, and construction.  Some are new and relatively modern, while others are old and rustic like the one pictured above.  The majority of them are three-sided structures with a simple floor for sleeping.  A shelter with a solid roof is a welcome sight on a rainy night in the mountains. 

Below are definitions of other terms used on the AT:

• Thru-hike: A thru-hike is a continuous hike of the AT from one end to the other.  The vast majority who attempt a thru-hike begin in Georgia in the spring and travel northward.  A typical thru-hike takes five months or more.
• Section-hike: A section-hike is a completion of the entire trail over a course of years.  Hikers take the trail a section at a time over a few days or weeks until they complete the entire AT.
• Flip-flop: A flip-flop hike is a completion of the entire trail, but not in concurrent order.  A flip-flop hike might be undertaken in order to avoid extreme heat in summer or cold in spring or fall, or to avoid the more heavily trafficked middle portion of the trail during the height of the season.  A common flip-flop hike is going northward from Georgia to the symbolic midpoint of the trail in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and then traveling to Maine to hike from Katahdin southward back to Harper’s Ferry. 
• 2,000-miler: This is the official designation given by the ATC for those who successfully complete the entire AT.  The annual number has risen dramatically over the past few decades.  In 1970, the total number was only 10.  In 2012, the number was 764. 
• Trail names: Thru-hikers are expected to take a trail name to be used in trail registers and journals.  A glance at the trail names from successful 2012 thru-hikers shows the great variety: http://www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail/2000-milers/2000-milers-listing/2012.  Sometimes the names are simple (Thirsty, Red Hair), sometimes funny (Count Chocula, Mary Poppins), sometimes self-explanatory (N. Trovert, X. Trovert), and sometimes beyond easy explanation (2%, 2:30). 
• Trail magic: Trail magic is an AT long distance hiker’s best friend.  Trail magic is a random and unexpected act of generosity given to a hiker.  It might be a motorist at a trailhead offering cookies and soft drinks to passing hikers.  Or maybe it is a group of campers grilling burgers for hikers coming into a shelter after a long day on the trail.  Maybe it is giving a hiker a ride into the grocery store in the nearest town.  An unexpected gift of trail magic can be a tremendous pick-me-up to a tired and lonely hiker. 

A few AT facts and tidbits: 

• Only about a quarter of those who attempt a thru-hike are successful.
• Women make up about 25% of successful thru-hikers.
• In 2012, hikers from 46 states and Washington, DC completed the AT.  Hikers from Germany, Denmark, England, Australia, Scotland, Barbados, Canada, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Singapore also were successful. 
• The oldest successful thru-hiker ever was an 81-year-old man.  
• The oldest thru-hiking woman to date was 71.  
• The youngest to complete the AT was a 6-year-old boy, while the youngest girl was 8.  Both were hiking in family groups. 
• A thru-hiker can burn as many as 6,000 calories on a long day of hiking. 
• It is estimated that more than half the United States population lives within a day’s drive of the AT.

Because the Appalachian Trail is a relatively well-marked and well-maintained footpath, it might be easy to imagine it as a simple stroll through the forest.  In fact, it is nothing of the sort.  The trail is a tough combination of back-breaking climbs and knee-buckling descents.  There are rocks, tree roots, steep drops, mud holes, sticks, and all sorts of other footfalls along the way.  A hiker might encounter snakes, bears, and poison ivy.  A hiker will encounter rats, mosquitoes, rats, mice, and other bugs.  There will be rain, wind, thunder, lightning, and maybe even snow.  Then there are blisters, sore muscles, aching knees and ankles, and sagging shoulders from the weight of a pack.  A long distance hike is, with apologies to Bill Bryson, no simple walk in the woods.  But that is part of what makes it fun.