The Appalachian National Scenic Trail grew from a 1921 idea by Massachusetts forester and regional planner Benton MacKaye for a footpath from Maine to Georgia that would link wilderness areas with people in urban areas along the Atlantic Seaboard. Today the trail runs nearly 2,220 miles along the Appalachian Mountains on the East Coast. Inspired by MacKaye’s vision, hikers and wilderness lovers began planning and building the Appalachian Trail with assistance from the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and in 1923 New York-New Jersey Trail Conference volunteers completed the first piece of the trail at Bear Mountain. A unit of the National Park System, it is maintained primarily by volunteers who keep it open, safe, and enjoyable. The trail connects communities and gives people access to scenic beauty, quiet forests, wildlife habitat, and thousands of miles of connecting trails, while Bear Mountain and Harriman State Parks provide more than 225 miles of trails and serve as the gateway to more than 50,000 acres of backcountry habitat.