The Appalachian Trail links Springer Mountain in Georgia with Mount Katahdin in Maine as a continuously marked footpath identified by white blazes on trees, rocks, utility poles, and other objects, and in Hanover it follows West Wheelock Street from the Connecticut River, Main Street, and Lebanon Street before reentering the woods beyond the Hanover Coop service station. Proposed by Benton McKaye in 1921, begun in 1922, and completed as a continuous marked trail in 1937, it was heavily damaged in New England by the 1938 hurricane and not fully restored until 1951 because World War II delayed the work. The National Trails System Act of 1968 created National Scenic Trails and provided for acquisition of buffer lands to protect the A.T., which today is protected by a corridor of more than 250,000 acres. In the Upper Valley, parts of the route use trails first created early in the 20th century by the Dartmouth Outing Club, whose black and orange blazes can still be seen, and Hanover was designated an official Appalachian Trail Community in 2010. The A.T. was the first completed National Scenic Trail, extends approximately 2,181 miles through 14 states, is managed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in cooperation with the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, and is maintained by 31 volunteer trail clubs and multiple partnerships, including the Dartmouth Outing Club in New Hampshire. About 6,000 volunteers contribute roughly 200,000 hours each year, approximately 165,000 white blazes mark the route, and Earl Shaffer became the first person to hike it from end to end in 1948 in four months and four days. At its northern terminus on Baxter Peak, established by Myron Avery in 1933 after Percival Baxter had donated more than 6,000 acres on Katahdin to the State of Maine in 1931 as the first parcel of Baxter State Park, increasing long-distance hiker use led Baxter State Park to require permit cards beginning in 2016 and to cap available permits in 2017 in order to balance human use, resource protection, and the visitor experience on Katahdin.

Photo: Michael Herrick

Norwich, Vermont · USA