The tale of the trail

The concept of the Appalachian Trail was proposed in 1921 to run from Mount Mitchell in Georgia to Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Myron Avery, a Maine native, insisted that the trail include Maine and run to Mount Katahdin, which it did beginning in the late 1920s.

? The AT is 2,175.5 miles from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Katahdin, traversing 14 states and covering 250,000 acres.

? Some 2,500 “thru-hikers” a year try to hike the entire trail, taking an average of six months to do it. Only three in 20 who attempt to go from Georgia to Maine are successful.

? The Maine Appalachian Trail Club formed in 1935 after the Civilian Conservation Corps ended its efforts to maintain the trail.

? The Maine Trail Crew has been around in various forms since 1975 and has almost 600 members, 100 to 200 of whom actively participate in trail maintenance yearly.

? The MTC works on 280 miles of the AT in Maine. Crew leaders lead 50 volunteers in eight to 10 weeklong projects every summer to rebuild and rehabilitate heavily used portions of the AT.

? Nearly 150 MTC members also perform basic cleanups on designated areas on their personal time and at their own pace.

? More than 4,500 volunteers contribute more than 182,000 hours to trail maintenance throughout the 14 states the trail covers.

? The MATC Web site is: www.matc.org.

Source: Maine Appalachian Trail Club and the Appalachian Trail Club.