FAQs, Part I - Concerning the trail

(Days until hiking commences: 27)

How long is the Appalachian Trail?

The estimated length of the A.T. varies a bit each year due to updated measurements and a few minor trail relocations here and there.  According to the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy), the trail's governing body, the official length of the A.T. in 2011 is 2,181.0 miles.

Where does it start and end?

The trail's southern terminus is at Springer Mountain in Georgia, and its northern terminus is at Baxter Peak on Mount Katahdin in Maine.  Moving north from Springer, it crosses through fourteen states: Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

What is the highest/lowest point on the trail?

Highest - 6,625 ft (Clingmans Dome, Tennessee)

Lowest - 124 ft (near Trailside Museum and Zoo at Bear Mountain, New York)

When was the trail built?  How?  By whom?

The original idea for a long distance trail through the Appalachians belonged to Benton MacKaye, who in 1921 published a proposal for a 1,200-mile wilderness footpath connecting two of the highest peaks east of the Mississippi: 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell in North Carolina and 6,288-foot Mount Washington in New Hampshire (these termini were eventually relocated to Springer and Katahdin, respectively).  MacKaye's original article, which was published in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects, can be read here:

click here for MacKaye's original proposal (PDF)

Benton MacKaye and Myron Avery

Construction on the trail began in 1923, but for the first seven years progress was exceedingly slow and fragmented.  In 1930, Myron Avery took control of the project.  It is largely to him that the A.T. owes its existence.  Over the next seven years, Avery personally mapped hundreds of miles of trail and oversaw the construction of many hundreds more.  By the time the final section of the trail was completed in 1937, Avery had personally walked the entire trail - and had pushed his trusty measuring wheel over every inch.  At the time of its completion, the A.T. was the longest continuously marked hiking trail in the world.

Myron Avery with measuring wheel on Katahdin.

I also think it is worth mentioning that the majority of the trail's construction was undertaken by volunteers, most of them from regional hiking clubs whose members were recruited to the project by Avery.  Today, the A.T. is maintained entirely by volunteers from 31 different regional hiking clubs, leading some to call the A.T. the largest volunteer undertaking on Earth.

Who was the first person to hike the entire length of the A.T.?

As was mentioned above, Myron Avery was the first section-hiker (someone who hikes the entire trail in pieces), but the first person to successfully thru-hike the A.T. (to hike it all at once) was Earl Shaffer, who completed the feat over a four-month span in 1948.  Ironically, while Shaffer was on his history-making trek, the official journal of the ATC published an article explaining why a thru-hike of the A.T. was probably impossible.  They obviously didn't consult with Shaffer, who managed to thru-hike the A.T. three different times.  His second thru made him the first person to ever hike the entire A.T. from north to south, and his final thru, completed at age 80, made him the oldest person to ever complete an A.T. thru-hike.

Earl Shaffer on summit of Katahdin after
completing his first thru-hike, August 5, 1948.

Today, more than 10,000 people have reported hiking the entire length of the trail.  This number includes both thru-hikers and section-hikers.

How many people attempt to thru-hike the A.T. every year?

Between 1,000 and 1,500 by most estimates.  As much as 10% quit within the first week, less than half make it to the halfway point, and only one in five hikers starting from Springer makes it to Katahdin.  This means that roughly 200-300 people succeed in thru-hiking the A.T. every year.  Now, when I first heard this number, I thought it was quite a lot.  To put the number into perspective, consider for a moment that over 500 people succeeded in summiting Everest last year.  Of course, I am by no means suggesting that thru-hiking the A.T. is more difficult than climbing Everest.  It's just not done that often.