There are other, shorter such trails dotted around the country too including the Long Trail in Vermont and the Colorado Trail which remain within state lines. Realizing early on he preferred the serenity of nature to a bustling urban environment, he pursued a degree in geology at Harvard University and went on to teach at the Forestry School there and also worked at the U.
Forest Service. It is said that the idea for the AT came to him while standing atop Stratton Mountain in southern Vermont, and he subsequently presented the concept to the public in in a paper titled An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning that was published in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects. In it, he outlined a utopian vision of camps connected by trails where people would live and work as well as recreate.
He pointed to the general fatigue caused by the recently ended world war as a motivating factor, writing:. It is the slow quiet development of a special type of community — the recreation camp. It is something neither urban nor rural.
It escapes the hecticness of the one, the loneliness of the other. MacKaye went on to propose a sociological need for more leisure time and fresh air in a period of history when labor and industry were increasing drastically, and identified the newly formed national parks Yosemite and Yellowstone as models upon which to base his idea. He proposed that such access to nature was most needed near to the main population centers of the U.
What would he see from this skyline as he strode along its length from north to south? Starting out from Mtn. Washington, the highest point in the northeast, his horizon takes in one of the original happy hunting grounds of America — the " North woods," a country of pointed firs extending from the lakes and rivers of northern Maine to those of the Adirondacks.
The next decade saw links being made between existing trails and in , the trail between Maine and Georgia was completed. The size of the Appalachian Trail is vast. About , white trail markers, painted on trees, line the A. They help keep everyone on course and heading in the right direction. The Virginia section of the trail accounts for a quarter of the entire route miles , and it's not easy. In the southeast corner of the state, for example, the trail passes less than a mile from the highest point in the state, Mount Rogers 5, feet.
As the trail heads north, it becomes easier. This section, which contains miles of well-maintained trail, is not too difficult to get through. In fact, it's often a good spot for newer hikers to get their boots dirty and begin their hiking life. In Northern Virginia, the A.
The views in this section aren't as good as they are on other parts of the trail, but it makes for a nice week-long hike. So be sure to plan a rest break there and check it out. After a short 4-mile trek through West Virginia, the trail enters Maryland and snakes 40 miles along the spine of South Mountain, a ridge stretching from Pennsylvania to the Potomac River at the Virginia-Maryland border.
This section isn't too difficult and is perfect for hikes that last days. It's impossible to single out a single person or group that will enjoy the Appalachian Trail, because it has something for everyone. Unfortunately, the area is quite isolated and far from public transportation. Yeah getting out to Shenandoah via public transportation from even Dulles would be hard.
We were thinking we could take the bus from there to Charlottesville and ride with friends to Big Meadows. I'm not aware of a bus from DCA to Charlottesville. Grew up near National Airport and lived in C'ville for 8 years. You can catch a Greyhound from Springfield, though, which is about 20 min down the Blue metro line from the airport.
Still, going via Charlottesville means you'll be backtracking about 90 minutes to get back up to Big Meadows. Driving through Central Virginia is lovely at that time of year, but it'd make a very long travel day. If you do go with the bus option, I second basalganglia's suggestion to take the Greyhound from the Springfield Metro station. Alternatively you could Lyft out north beyond the Beltway where you can get right on the Trail where it crosses I, in Maryland, on a special footbridge.
Another option if you don't want to go to Charlottesville would be the Megabus to Front Royal.
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