Appalachian Trail’s Essentials

• Completed in 1937
• One of the oldest and longest marked foot trail in the USA
• Approximately 2,175mi / 3,500km
• Touches 14 US states
• Crosses 6 national parks
• Traverse 8 national forests
• Maintained by 30 trail clubs and multiple partnerships
• Lowest elevation 124’ / 37.2 meters
• Highest elevation 6,624’ / 2,000 meters
• Total of 165,000 white blazes – GA-ME-GA
• App 5 million steps, 83 marathons – 1 marathon 26.2mi / 41.9km,
• More than 350 peaks over 5,000’ / 1,500 meters
• More than 260 shelters/lean to
• Takes app 400,000 calories and 117 gallons of water
• Over 9,000 people have hiked the entire trail –
  Pre 1930s to present

The Appalachian Trail (AT) is a 2,175mi/3,500km footpath that runs along the Appalachian Mountains from Maine-Georgia. The trail’s northern terminus is in Central Maine in Baxter State Park at Mount Katahdin. The southern terminus is in Northern Georgia in the Chattahoochee National Forest at Springer Mountains.

It is now federally protected under the administrative jurisdiction of the United States Department of the Interior, but is primarily maintained and managed by the Appalachian Trail Conference, changed to Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) in 2004.

Today the ATC is a volunteer-based, private nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of the AT. http://www.appalachiantrail.org