Appalachian National Scenic Trail

Transmission-line corridors sprouting 200-foot-tall towers should not be permitted within the National Park System, according to a coalition of groups opposing such a corridor through Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and the Middle Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River.

Hundreds of hikers set out along the Appalachian National Scenic Trail from Springer Mountain, Georgia, come springtime with sights set on reaching Mount Kathadin in Maine before summer expires. But how many are blind?

High public interest has prompted the superintendents of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and the Middle Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River and National Recreation Water Trail to extend by a week the public comment period on a proposal to run a transmission line across the areas.

A classic battle between utility companies and environmental groups at Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area is the latest example of similar issues all across the country. This debate is over a proposed major "upgrade" of existing power lines that cross the park, and public meetings will be held this week. You can also comment from afar if you're interested.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided not to allow the North Carolina Transportation Department to build a four-lane highway beneath a stretch of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

In the spring of 1948, Pennsylvania native Earl Shaffer stumbled into Stecoah Gap on the Appalachian Trail, high above the Little Tennessee River in western North Carolina’s Graham County. “I must have been a pathetic figure,” he wrote later in his memoirs, “streaming with sweat, bleeding from scratches, every muscle aching, crawling endlessly in a back-slipping, bush-clutching struggle before coming out on top.”

Survey researchers are testing and tweaking new procedures for obtaining Appalachian Trail visitation estimates. The new methodology should yield much more defensible visitation tallies for trails and linear parks with numerous backcountry access points.

Winter is a season for planning. How better to pass some of those long, cold, snowy nights than before the fire or a the kitchen table with guidebooks and maps, calculators and checklists? And if you’re thinking of tackling one of the country’s long-distance hiking trails, planning is definitely not over-rated. Here’s a look at some of the trails that pass through parts of the National Park System, and what planning assistance is out there.

Sorry for the late programming note, but just got word that the National Geographic Channel will explore the Appalachian National Scenic Trail tonight.

The Park Service’s National Trails System Map can serve you well, but be aware of its limitations.

The summer solstice arrived early this morning. Now we’ll experience the longest day, the shortest night, and perhaps a spate of naked hiking.

Four people were injured by lightning last Sunday while hiking on the Appalachian Trail near Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

Zigzagging 2,175 miles between Mount Katahdin in northern Maine and Springer Mountain in Georgia, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail gained life through an article Benton MacKaye wrote for the Journal of the American Institute of Architects in 1921. In it the forester ruminated on the need for Americans to spend more time at leisure, preferably in the outdoors.

A wheelchair accessible 900-foot section of the Appalachian Trail recently opened along the Ottauquechee River near Killington, Vermont. That makes the fourth section of the AT designed for accessibility. A fifth is under construction near West Point.

The year was 1932, and America was in the midst of the worst economic downturn in history. Unemployment stood at 25 percent; homelessness at two million people. When Americans went to the polls, they overwhelmingly elected Franklin D. Roosevelt president. FDR immediately sought 'relief, recovery, and reform' to rebuild America's tattered economy. FDR was not interested in merely handing out money to people. Instead, he wanted to put them to work.