Here are some amazing facts about one of humankind’s most amazing achievements.
- The Appalachian Trail runs nearly 2,200 miles through the Appalachian Mountains.
- It’s the longest footpath on Earth.
- It takes an estimated 5 million steps to hike the entire trail
- About 165,000 2-by-6-inch white blazes mark the route.
- Along the course of the trail, hikers make total elevation changes of about 464,464 feet.
- By some estimates, 99 percent of the trail has been rebuilt or relocated since the trail was first completed in 1937.
- The 105-mile Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park occupies the original path of the trail in that part of Virginia.
- It runs through 14 different states, from southernmost to northernmost: Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
- The trail crosses a road every four miles, on average.
- Springer Mountain was not the official southern terminus of the trail until 1956. Prior to that it was Mount Oglethorpe.
- About 15,000 hikers have successfully thru-hiked the trail.
- The trail is maintained by volunteers in 31 trail maintenance clubs. The Maine Appalachian Trail Club maintains the biggest chuck, 267 miles.
- There are wild horses along the Appalachian Trail. The ponies in Virginia’s Grayson Highlands State Park are descendants of 50 ponies brought there in 1975 from Assateague Island off the coast of Maryland.
- The 105-mile Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park occupies the original path of the trail in that part of Virginia.