The man who set a new record for speed traversing the Appalachian Trail, Scott Jurek, was issued three summonses by rangers on Mt. Katahdin. After completing his 46-day run, state park rangers issued him summonses for public drinking, littering and hiking with an oversize group. Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and lays inside the boundary of...
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Scott Jurek, renowned champion long distance runner, today broke the Appalachian Trail (AT) speed record previously set by Jennifer Pharr Davis of Asheville, NC in 2011 by just three hours. The difference, over the 2,189-mile AT, was akin to a photo finish. Jurek climbed Mt. Katahdin in Maine on Sunday, July 12, 2015, the 47th day after he started at Springer Mountain,...
Learn MoreA dozen writers and photographers from five eastern newspapers were on top of Springer Mountain, southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. They were poised to take the first step of a 2,158-mile adventure along one of the world’s premier hiking trails, a serpentine footpath tripping over the ridge tops of 14 states from Georgia, through Pennsylvania, to Maine. It...
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When the Southern Appalachians are your home, the month of June simply isn’t complete without a visit to Roan Highlands for the annual rhododendron and azalea bloom. Like Julie Andrews sang years ago, “these are a few of my favorite things.” From the first time I set foot on Round Bald, I knew this was someplace special. The grassy ridge of the...
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Clingmans Dome is the highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the state of Tennessee, and along the Appalachian Trail. Standing 6,643 feet, it is also the third highest peak in the East, only 41 feet lower than the tallest. Several hiking trails surround the summit of Clingmans Dome, including the Forney Ridge Trail that heads south to the picturesque...
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Backpacker Magazine is throwing a 2,180-mile party from Georgia to Maine! Join in on June 20, 2015 for a record-setting attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail in 24 hours. Bring on the thru-hikers, the section hikers, the weekend warriors. Bring on the dayhikers with sneakers on their feet and baby carriers on their backs. Bring on the AT lifers and those who have never...
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Hot Springs, NC is an Appalachian Trail Community that sits along the French Broad River in the Appalachian Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest. The Appalachian Trail was built through Hot Springs more than seven decades ago, and today white blazes still mark the path through town and over the bridge across the river, before heading north up to the vista, Lover’s...
Learn MoreA gnarled old oak tree sits atop Bly Gap at 3,800 feet on the Appalachian Trail, famously marking the boundary between Georgia and North Carolina. The Tar Heel State, the second on the northbound thru-hiker’s agenda, wastes no time with fancy introductions, putting a couple of brutally steep 4,000-footers directly ahead: Courthouse Bald and the aptly named Sharp Top....
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The Appalachian Trail Conservancy seeks volunteers, 18 and over, to help maintain the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of the Smokies Wilderness Elite Appalachian Trail Crew for the 2015 season. A position on the S.W.E.A.T. Crew is physically demanding and is designed for experienced hikers who love to work hard, live in the...
Learn MoreScott Jurek has been eyeing the Appalachian Trail for years. On Memorial Day, he began his pursuit of the trail’s speed record. Jurek has won nearly all of ultrarunning’s elite events, including the historic 153-mile Spartathlon, the Hardrock 100, the Badwater 135-mile Ultramarathon, the Miwok 100K, and—his signature race—the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, which...
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Chris Gallaway fought off swarms of mosquitoes like something out of a Biblical plague, black bears trying to get at his rotisserie chicken, and the general exhaustion and agony, anguish and heartbreak of anyone thru-hiking the 2,180-mile-long Appalachian Trail. Although Gallaway, 32, of Black Mountain, NC began the journey in 2013 as a solo hiker, he was never really...
Learn MoreOn the morning of July 11, 1983, Maine State Police Detective Sgt. Ralph E. Pinkham got a call from a woman in Texas worried about her sister Jessie Albertine Hoover. She hadn’t heard from her since May 16, when Hoover called from a Bangor motel. At the time, her sister said, the 54-year-old had only about $15 to $20, but intended to wire for money when she passed...
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When George W. Vanderbilt constructed the Biltmore House, he hired forester Gifford Pinchot and, later Dr. Carl A. Schenck to manage his forests. Over 80,000 of his woodland acres became the home of America’s first forestry school and the heart of the East’s first national forest. Now comprising more than 500,000 acres, Pisgah National Forest holds a vast...
Learn MoreOn March 3, 1925, roughly two dozen outdoor enthusiasts meeting at the Raleigh Hotel in Washington, D.C., formed an all-volunteer organization charged with building the Appalachian Trail. Though work at first proceeded only in fits and starts, the Trail eventually skyrocketed in popularity, attracting the attention of prominent politicians who protected it from...
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When you picture the mountains that span the Appalachian Trail, what comes to mind? Massive, majestic, daunting peaks? Likely not—and you’d be right. It is for this reason that the uninitiated confuse the 2,189 miles that make up the United States’ original long trail as easy hiking. Some of it is. Most of it, however, is excruciatingly difficult. In fact, of the three...
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In order to enhance the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) experience for thru-hikers and better manage this natural resource, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), in cooperation with its partners, has launched a new voluntary registration system for those attempting to hike the trail in one year. This registration system, available at the Conservancy website, exists to ease...
Learn MorePenny Studt hasn’t seen her Eco-Literacy English students at Union High School since before Christmas, but for the last three weeks she has been giving them assignments, grading their work and commenting on their class discussions. She’s doing all of these things, not from a satellite classroom or even an office somewhere, but from stops along the Appalachian Trail, a...
Learn MoreThe Appalachian Trail Conservancy says a record amount of funds were generated from sales of the Virginia Appalachian Trail (A.T.) specialty license plate in 2014. Those funds have been applied to the protection and stewardship of the Trail in Virginia. The Conservancy says $45,000 was generated and will enabled the it to fund projects including open area management in...
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Re-measurements and relocations of the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) have brought the total mileage of the footpath to 2,189.2 miles, an increase of 3.9 miles from last year’s mileage of 2,185.3. This mileage is carefully documented in the Trail’s official guidebooks, which include the Appalachian Trail Data Book and the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers’ Companion. Both books...
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The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) has announced that for fiscal year 2014, 5,617 volunteers reported 241,936 hours to maintaining and protecting the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) for hikers to use. Since the ATC began collecting reports in 1983, individuals have contributed more than 5 million hours to the A.T., resulting in a volunteer network that is recognized...
Learn MoreAfter listening to my sister’s stories about her Georgia-to-Maine adventure on the Appalachian Trail, I’m thinking it might be a good idea for us all to spend some time on foot in the deep woods. Life on the trail, from what Pat tells me, while hugely demanding physically and emotionally, seems a lot like life ought to be here in “civilization.” On the trail, everyone is...
Learn MoreHis job wasn’t difficult, but it wore on him all the same. He craved adventure. He had to do something. That something, it turned out, was hiking the venerable Appalachian Trail in an unbroken streak from Georgia to Maine and, that not being enough, paddling a green canoe from the headwaters of the Mississippi River all the way to Baton Rouge, La. Jared McCallum...
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As the popular Appalachian Trail continues to morph and grow and attract more users and admirers, protecting the land that hugs the footpath and winds into its view is more important than ever, conservationists say. And now one of the more popular access points to the trail in Mitchell County, North Carolina has a little more elbow room in permanent preservation. The...
Learn MoreWe humans are pretty ritualistic creatures. We crave routine and seek out the familiar. When we start to pass these behaviors down through enough generations, we start calling them traditions. Every culture has its own traditions, including the community that surrounds the Appalachian Trail. Hiker traditions and customs can be hard to understand for those on the outside,...
Learn MoreWhile Warren County and Front Royal, Virginia are drawing up plans for extensions of the Appalachian Trail to bring hikers into town, there has been little discussion on the effect hikers have on the economy. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy states more than 2 million people visit some part of the trail every year, spending between $125-168 million annually, with $27...
Learn MoreIt runs more than 2,000 miles, from Georgia to Maine. The Appalachian Trail, the brainchild of Benton MacKaye had humble beginnings in 1921 and became a continuous footpath in August of 1937. “I learned a lot about life and a lot about people out on the Appalachian Trail,” said documentary filmmaker Sam Henegar. Henegar has a special bond with the trail....
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For some, hiking the Appalachian Trail is a bucket-list item. Completing the 2,185-mile trail has come to signify extreme stamina and perseverance. But of the thousands who hike the trail each year, says John Odell of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, only a small fraction are through-hikers who complete the whole trail from Maine to Georgia or vice versa. The vast...
Learn MoreIn May of this year, a man set out, walking down a trail from Springer Mountain in Georgia’s Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. He kept walking for the next 153 days until he reached the top of Maine’s Mount Katahdin. He hiked along, of course, the Appalachian Trail, a stretch of hiking paths that runs more than 2,000 miles from end to end. Millions of...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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