Genesis of a Trail
Benton McKaye is credited with first suggesting the creation of an Appalachian Trail (AT). His proposal in 1921 first appeared, oddly enough, in a journal of architecture as one of the early examples of regional planning. He saw the trail as a place for people to connect with nature, escape an increasingly industrialized world and imagined communities along the route as well as many spur trails giving plentiful access. There is little indication he ever imagined that one day thousands of people would one day attempt to hike the entire length of its path annually.
In 1900 McKaye was 21 years old when his brother, Percy and a friend, Horace Mildreth, began an adventure hiking the major peaks of the Green Mountains in Vermont and it was on this journey that the seed for the creation of the AT was likely planted. The trio followed wagon trails, logging roads and, often, resorted to bushwhacking through the woods. On McKaye’s next visit to Vermont in 1922 over 12 million vehicles traveled the roads of the US compared to just 8,000 when he first visited 22 years before. America was changing as he had envisioned. He and Mildreth returned to Vermont with the intention of viewing the first long distance recreational trail in the country, the Long Trail, which was the brainchild of James P. Taylor and was completed in 1921. It became an inspiration for McKaye’s project.
That the trail was ever completed is something of a miracle. If the trail was a song, McKaye would be considered the composer, but another man, Myron Avery, was the chart topping performer. Without his leadership there is little doubt the Appalachian Trail would never have reached completion. Once the AT moved from the drawing board to the construction phase it soon became clear that McKaye and Avery would clash. McKaye was an idealist and held to his vision. Avery had the “git ‘er done” mentality necessary make the trail a reality even if the final result might have had little semblance to what McKaye originally imagined. A man named Earl Shaffer is generally credited as the first person to hike the entire AT. But in reality, Avery was the first to accomplish that feat, albeit as a section hiker.
Few visitors to the AT today have any clue to the pioneering forces that made it happen. No less amazing is the continued cooperative effort of multiple federal, state, and local organizations, both private and governmental, behind its continued existence. There is an army of volunteers that work to maintain the path and the view sheds along its course. The route changes from year to year as improvements are made to protect the ecosystems it passes through.
It was in Tennessee on my thru hike of the AT in 2019 that I encountered an elderly couple. We stopped and chatted and I warned them of a yellow jacket nest in a hollow tree trunk that had fallen across the trail. I noticed neither of them had on backpacks or footwear suitable for hiking. They noticed my concern and remarked they were driving by on their travels and wanted to stop and hike just a bit of the AT to say they had done so. This trail has a revered reputation that draws people from all across the US and far beyond to experience its wonders. While the AT has become something unlike his original vision, I think McKaye would be proud of what it is today.