Lauriep
09-14-2013, 22:16
If you have just completed hiking the Appalachian Trail, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy asks you to report your hike for our official records.
You can download an Appalachian Trail 2,000-miler Application from our website at www.appalachiantrail.org/ATcompletion (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/ATCompletion). We can also send a hard copy--just email your postal mailing address to [email protected] or call us at (304) 535-6331. Or stop by ATC (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/who-we-are/locations) on your way home from Katahdin (or whatever point you finish), and look at all the hiker pictures that have been taken since you were last here.
In return, with the help of a crew of dedicated volunteers here at ATC Headquarters in Harpers Ferry, we'll send you a 2,000-miler certificate, an A.T. patch, and a 2,000-miler “rocker” designed to fit under the patch, within 12 weeks of receipt of your completed application (but usually we mail it in 4-8 weeks).
Names of those submitting 2,000-miler applications prior to December 31 will be listed in the next March/April issue of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s member magazine, A.T. Journeys (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/atjourneys) . We will also add your name to the 2,000-miler listing on our website at www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail/2000-milers/2000-milers-listing (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail/2000-milers/2000-milers-listing), which is updated a few times a year. There's no time limit on reporting, but if you want to be listed in the magazine with most of the hikers from your class year, send it in this year. We've got a bunch of volunteers lined up now. Our primary volunteers leave before the end of the year, so it's helpful if you can get them in while they are still here.
Even if you don't want the recognition, it helps us have accurate statistics of trail usage over the years. You can tell us not to send you a certificate; you can tell us not to print your name, you can tell us not to share your name with other hikers or researchers, and you can tell us not to quote you even if we like something you wrote on your report. That you spent that you spent five or six months or so (consecutively, or in pieces over ten or twenty years) on the A.T. and walked the whole thing is significant. We have been keeping records on 2,000-milers since Myron Avery became the first the walk the entire A.T. in 1936, a year before the Trail was formally announced completed.
If you are going to The Gathering in Shippensburg, PA (just west of I-81 near Caledonia State Park and Pine Grove Furnace State Park) October 11-13, ATC will have your certificate there for you if you write prominently on the front of your 2,000-miler application that you want us to do this, and get it in to us by October 1. ALDHA also has their own certificate of congratulations that they give out on the spot to any 2013 thru-hiker who shows up on Friday night. ATC's new executive director, Ron Tipton (a 1978 thru-hiker) will be pairing up with ALDHA's president Mike "Wing-heart" Wingeart to offer congratulations and hand out certificates.
By the way, the ALDHA Gathering is an awesome opportunity to see your fellow hikers again and learn more about the A.T., hiking, and other trails around the world. And, other than climbing Katahdin, there are few things that provide a sense of euphoria as seeing the class years called to stand up in front of a sea of fellow A.T. enthusiasts on Friday night. My guess is there will be at least 50 2013 thru-hikers in attendance. Trail volunteers get recognized too. More info is available at www.aldha.org (http://www.aldha.org).
Hope to see you again here at ATC in Harpers Ferry or up in Shippensburg!
Laurie Potteiger
ATC
You can download an Appalachian Trail 2,000-miler Application from our website at www.appalachiantrail.org/ATcompletion (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/ATCompletion). We can also send a hard copy--just email your postal mailing address to [email protected] or call us at (304) 535-6331. Or stop by ATC (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/who-we-are/locations) on your way home from Katahdin (or whatever point you finish), and look at all the hiker pictures that have been taken since you were last here.
In return, with the help of a crew of dedicated volunteers here at ATC Headquarters in Harpers Ferry, we'll send you a 2,000-miler certificate, an A.T. patch, and a 2,000-miler “rocker” designed to fit under the patch, within 12 weeks of receipt of your completed application (but usually we mail it in 4-8 weeks).
Names of those submitting 2,000-miler applications prior to December 31 will be listed in the next March/April issue of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s member magazine, A.T. Journeys (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/atjourneys) . We will also add your name to the 2,000-miler listing on our website at www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail/2000-milers/2000-milers-listing (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/about-the-trail/2000-milers/2000-milers-listing), which is updated a few times a year. There's no time limit on reporting, but if you want to be listed in the magazine with most of the hikers from your class year, send it in this year. We've got a bunch of volunteers lined up now. Our primary volunteers leave before the end of the year, so it's helpful if you can get them in while they are still here.
Even if you don't want the recognition, it helps us have accurate statistics of trail usage over the years. You can tell us not to send you a certificate; you can tell us not to print your name, you can tell us not to share your name with other hikers or researchers, and you can tell us not to quote you even if we like something you wrote on your report. That you spent that you spent five or six months or so (consecutively, or in pieces over ten or twenty years) on the A.T. and walked the whole thing is significant. We have been keeping records on 2,000-milers since Myron Avery became the first the walk the entire A.T. in 1936, a year before the Trail was formally announced completed.
If you are going to The Gathering in Shippensburg, PA (just west of I-81 near Caledonia State Park and Pine Grove Furnace State Park) October 11-13, ATC will have your certificate there for you if you write prominently on the front of your 2,000-miler application that you want us to do this, and get it in to us by October 1. ALDHA also has their own certificate of congratulations that they give out on the spot to any 2013 thru-hiker who shows up on Friday night. ATC's new executive director, Ron Tipton (a 1978 thru-hiker) will be pairing up with ALDHA's president Mike "Wing-heart" Wingeart to offer congratulations and hand out certificates.
By the way, the ALDHA Gathering is an awesome opportunity to see your fellow hikers again and learn more about the A.T., hiking, and other trails around the world. And, other than climbing Katahdin, there are few things that provide a sense of euphoria as seeing the class years called to stand up in front of a sea of fellow A.T. enthusiasts on Friday night. My guess is there will be at least 50 2013 thru-hikers in attendance. Trail volunteers get recognized too. More info is available at www.aldha.org (http://www.aldha.org).
Hope to see you again here at ATC in Harpers Ferry or up in Shippensburg!
Laurie Potteiger
ATC