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renais
11-10-2012, 17:16
Interesting article about extending the AT until it hits the ocean:
Ga. river could take Appalachian hikers to coast Posted at: 11/10/2012 1:35 PM

(AP) ATLANTA - A national group is working toward a long-term vision of providing a way for hikers on the Appalachian Trail to continue south until they reach the ocean.
They envision the Chattahoochee River, which runs through metro Atlanta, as a way to allow hikers to reach the Gulf of Mexico after they finish the Appalachian Trail, either on trails along its banks or in a canoe or kayak.
The Chattahoochee’s headwaters, in the north Georgia mountains, are only a few miles from the southernmost section of the Appalachian Trail, which ends in Georgia.
Curt Soper, the Georgia-Alabama state director of the Trust for Public Land, says the group has already managed to acquire 17,000 acres of land that touch 76 river miles from the Chattahoochee’s headwaters to Columbus.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

shelb
11-11-2012, 00:09
Hmm.. Reminds me of the guy who shuttled hikers to the ocean last summer!

Different Socks
11-11-2012, 00:55
This can already be done using the AT, the Benton McKaye Trail, the Pinhoti Trail and the Florida Trail.

ki0eh
11-11-2012, 20:41
Or by jumping off the Bear Mountain Bridge.

fcoulter
11-11-2012, 20:52
Or by jumping off the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Kinda cold, though.

fcoulter
11-11-2012, 20:53
This can already be done using the AT, the Benton McKaye Trail, the Pinhoti Trail and the Florida Trail.

Aren't there a few gaps that need to be filled?

WingedMonkey
11-11-2012, 21:08
Aren't there a few gaps that need to be filled?

Yep, 160 miles of highway.
:sun

moytoy
11-12-2012, 08:10
Yep, 160 miles of highway.
:sun
It's hard to get folks to give up land that are growing cash crops for a "silly" trail.

RED-DOG
11-12-2012, 08:17
Why ? 80% of the people that attempts the AT know can't finish it so what would be the point.

moytoy
11-12-2012, 08:26
No point really. It would be a trail through farm land and it's probably not ever going to happen anyway. On the other hand, not building it because only a few can finish a thu is being pretty short sighted. No one was thinking of thru hikes when the AT was conceived and built.

Creek Dancer
11-12-2012, 08:58
We already have the Mountain to Sea Trail. That's not to say there can be too many trails.

fishing
11-12-2012, 16:27
No hurt in it.

fcoulter
11-12-2012, 21:11
There's nothing wrong with more trails. In fact, the more trails the better. The VAST majority of AT hikers are not through hikers. They hike sections of the trail that are close to their homes. Nothing wrong with that.

Extending the trail south (and filling in the 160 miles) would give more people access to long distance hikes within a short distance of their homes. Nothing wrong with that, either.