Managing the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, which passes through 14 states and many communities and parks, is a complex shared responsibility of national, regional, and local agencies and volunteer-based nonprofit organizations. At the national level, the National Park Service oversees and safeguards the trail in partnership with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a private nonprofit dedicated exclusively to its preservation and management. Founded in 1925, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy works with federal, state, and local agencies and 31 maintaining clubs, including the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, to cooperatively manage the trail and provide education, resources, and inspiration for hikers and volunteers. In 2006, the Bear Mountain Trails Project was established to make Bear Mountain State Park’s trails more sustainable for heavy use through a cooperative agreement among the National Park Service, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. The first 20 miles of the Appalachian Trail were built through Bear Mountain and Harriman State Parks, and the trail’s lowest point is at the Trackside Museum and Zoo at Bear Mountain, at an elevation of 124 feet. In the early 1900s, walking clubs such as the Wanderbirds became popular with New York City residents seeking fresh air and outdoor recreation, and these hiking clubs built the first hiking trails in this region. Since the Appalachian Trail was first built in the 1920s, much has changed, but trails still offer a way to step away from hectic lives and reconnect with nature. Members of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference and its maintaining clubs volunteer their time to keep trails open and safe, and under the authority of maintaining clubs, volunteer maintainers adopt sections of trail that they regularly inspect so the path remains accessible, easy to follow, and free of hazards. Sometimes new sections are built around dangerous or eroded areas to keep the trail open, so the exact mileage changes slightly from year to year; one Appalachian Trail reroute in 1986 was marked by a ribbon cutting.