IAT vs AT

[THEmapMAKER]

Whats the major differences? Do most people who hike the AT stop in Maine and not continue on? Which is more popular?

[double d]

Do you mean the IAT as in the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin?

[Lone Wolf]

Whats the major differences? Do most people who hike the AT stop in Maine and not continue on? Which is more popular?

correct. most stop at katahdin then go home after picture taking of the sign

[Gnarly]

Most people only hike to Katahdin also because of the time frame allotted by Mother Nature to do a through hike. To have time to make it to Katahdin from Springer and then do the entire IAT you would have to start very early and hike at quite a pace to make it up there (to Newfoundland or however far you decide to go) before it got too cold and the weather too extreme to safely hike. There is also an extension into Alabama somewhere that I read about that some people want to get included in the official National Scenic Trail portion of the AT. It could extend another few hundred miles to the Trail, and apparently already exists to a great extent if you keep traveling south from Springer and past the approach trail. It lends more weight to the phrase "hike your own hike" when you could nearly double the length of an Appalachian hike if you traversed the whole geologic extent of the range instead of the legally sanctioned "Scenic Trail" portion.

[Slo-go'en]

Also, the AT "extention" to Canada is really remote and mostly follows logging roads. The logistics of resupply is a big problem.

[Pedaling Fool]

Do you mean the IAT as in the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin?

That's a good point, maybe the International Appalachian Trail should stop using the acronym IAT. World Wildlife Fund got the World Wrestling Federation to drop the WWF acronym, now they’re WWE (I think).

Why do they call it International AT any way? I’ve been to Canada, that’s not another country, they’re just like us.

[Lemni Skate]

There will be one long trail starting at Key West Florida, winding through Florida and then Alabama and Georgia and then follows the current AT from Springer to Katahdin. Then continues on through New Brunswick, Ontario, PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland and then to, I kid you not, Scotland. I think they left out Iceland, but I think the rational is that parts of Greenland and Scotland were part of the Appalachian Mountains before the continents drifted apart and Iceland is a volcanic island that appeared later and was therefore never part of the Appalachian Mountain Range.

I think this would be fun, but who's going to paddle me from Newfoundland to Greenland in their canoe?

[Mags]

More French is spoken.

[LockJaww]

Or if ya just really got a case of happy feet, and a couple of years .....You could walk the ADT.

[weary]

[SIZE=2]Why do they call it International AT any way? I’ve been to Canada, that’s not another country, they’re just like us.

Well it is another country. There are similarities. But they are not exactly like us. Luckily, for them..

Weary

[boarstone]

I wish New Brunswick would adopt us....

[Old Hillwalker]

Cape Wrath in North Western Scotland is the easternmost end of the Appalachain Monutain Range. I just completed a 215 mile backpack of the "North to the Cape" route that runs from Fort William near the big geological split that holds Loch Ness to the Northernmost tip of Scotland, Cape Wrath. Many miles of this route that really cannot be called a trail runs through remote mountain passes and across moorland that is essentially trackless. We used 9 1:50000 maps for covering the route. Lots and lots of snow still remaining over here even at the end of May. The snow levels are at about 3000 feet and above at present. Hopefully I will be making a presentation at an ALDHA Gathering pretty soon. This little jaunt takes about 18 to 20 days since hiking through moorland and across trackless passes takes a bit of time. A 10 mile day is considered pretty good mileage under those conditions.

Scotland and England is chock full of National trails such as the West Highland Way, Hadrian's Wall, and others. This Cape Wrath route is not an official trail, neither is it on the maps, or waymarked in any manner. We used a GPS with a Scottish Memory chip on quite a few occasions to locate ourselves on our maps. It is referred to as the most extreme and remote route in the British Isles. Awesomely beautiful and wild. The final campsite before reaching the lighthouse on Cape Wrath was at Sandwood Bay (Google it) an old Viking landing site with a mile of sandy beach and sea stacks.

I recommend this route to the adventurous before it becomes more popular in a few years.

[Jeff]

For sure, north of Katahdin you will not have a town or hostel to visit every other day.

[DavidNH]

That's a good point, maybe the International Appalachian Trail should stop using the acronym IAT. World Wildlife Fund got the World Wrestling Federation to drop the WWF acronym, now they’re WWE (I think).

Why do they call it International AT any way? I’ve been to Canada, that’s not another country, they’re just like us.

You really should get out more. Canada is actually very different from America. They have the metric system. In New Brunswick, everything is bilingual and in the Quebec portion of the IAT, it is unilingual French. They have a different political system, and different accents. They have a different educational system, etc. etc. etc.

As for the IAT acronym, perhaps it should be changed to CAT or Canadian Appalachian Trail From what I have read, its best portion is in Canada anyway.

DavidNH

[Pedaling Fool]

You really should get out more. Canada is actually very different from America. They have the metric system. In New Brunswick, everything is bilingual and in the Quebec portion of the IAT, it is unilingual French. They have a different political system, and different accents. They have a different educational system, etc. etc. etc.

As for the IAT acronym, perhaps it should be changed to CAT or Canadian Appalachian Trail From what I have read, its best portion is in Canada anyway.

DavidNH

First off, that was a tongue-in-cheek response. I’ve never counted, but I’ve been to at least 30 countries, so who needs to "get out more". Yet, there is a glimmer of truth in my statement concerning Canada: "they’re just like us", in comparison to any other country I’ve visited. However, I would say the country that comes in second, being "just like us" would be Australia, still much different in many respects.

As for multi-lingual nation, you really need to get out more and see the U.S. You know we are the melting pot of the world, you ever been to New Orleans? Also, just look at our Olympic teams, we have all peoples represented, this is starting to change because other countries are now starting to show a little diversity, but we’re still far in the lead.

Note: When it comes to multi-lingual cultures the U.S. or Canada doesn't really stick out as unique, many other coutries that are multi-lingual. Also many other multi-ethnic cultures, but I've never seen a country that is as intergrated as us (yes we have our racial problems, but look around the world...)

[DAJA]

First off, that was a tongue-in-cheek response. I’ve never counted, but I’ve been to at least 30 countries, so who needs to "get out more". Yet, there is a glimmer of truth in my statement concerning Canada: "they’re just like us", in comparison to any other country I’ve visited. However, I would say the country that comes in second, being "just like us" would be Australia, still much different in many respects.

As for multi-lingual nation, you really need to get out more and see the U.S. You know we are the melting pot of the world, you ever been to New Orleans? Also, just look at our Olympic teams, we have all peoples represented, this is starting to change because other countries are now starting to show a little diversity, but we’re still far in the lead.

Note: When it comes to multi-lingual cultures the U.S. or Canada doesn't really stick out as unique, many other coutries that are multi-lingual. Also many other multi-ethnic cultures, but I've never seen a country that is as intergrated as us (yes we have our racial problems, but look around the world...)

The difference being that in Canada we recognize two "official" language's, French and English. We don't expect others to integrate, but rather offer them the freedom to practice there language, culture, religion and traditions openly. Canada is not considered a melting pot but rather a salad bowl, each ethnicity is recognized as unique and not expected to meld into the whole of Canadian Culture. We encourage diversity of all sorts.

Does it work in practice is debatable and depends on what side of the issue you find yourself... While I apprechiate the rights of the French to be able to recieve all services and programs in their mother tonque, the cost to the tax payer to provide services in both languages is enormous..

Further, recently there have been a lot of situations were in an effort to be PC, we have gone to far. For instance, Government offices and schools can no longer openly celebrate or decorate for holidays such as Christmas due to its Christian (more acurately Pegan) background, as it may offend employee's of other faiths... All very reasonable, and understandable, but at times seems to be missing the origional intent of the salad bowl theory...

There was a principle in a local elementary school here in NB who recently halted the daily morning singing of the national anthem due to references to God in the anthem. He did this out of respect of a minority of kids who where from different faiths. He said he would continue to play the anthem for special assembly's as a comprimise. This single incident created a huge national debate that ended in the principle quietly resigning. The poor guy recieved death threats... I cannot imagine being that blindly patriotic that I would threaten a man's life because he was attempting to be respectful and tolerent... It's not like we choose where we are born... I could just as easily be Afgan or German... People are strange indeed..

[Pedaling Fool]

Just for claification, there is NO offical language of the United States. There is a movement to establish English as the official language, which I disagree with, and I don't think it will happen.

We also have two primary languages here in the states, English and Spanish. You can not anything without there being instructions in at least one other language, and if only one other language it will be Spanish. It's almost required for a business to interpret certain things in Spanish.

[DAJA]

Back to the IAT... If you where to hike it today, you would find a great deal of road walking and what was not road walking would be walking long stretches of old rail bed. However, just recently the Canadian Government has announced $30 million in new funding for trail development and maintance. So hopefully in the next five years you will see the road sections replaced by wilderness trail sections... The Quebec and Newfoundland sections would be stunning!

[DAJA]

Just for claification, there is NO offical language of the United States. There is a movement to establish English as the official language, which I disagree with, and I don't think it will happen.

We also have two primary languages here in the states, English and Spanish. You can not anything without there being instructions in at least one other language, and if only one other language it will be Spanish. It's almost required for a business to interpret certain things in Spanish.

Funny story, in my teenage years I got pulled over by the RCMP for speeding and requested the officer speak to me in French (I don't speak French) and requested my ticket be written in French. Because he only spoke english he clearly couldn't respond to my request and continued to deal with me in english. I showed up to court on the date stated on the ticket and explained to the Judge that I requested to be dealt with in French and the officer could not and did not comply. The Judge scolded the officer and tore up my ticket...

[Mags]

I imagine hiking the Chic Chocs to Gaspe' would be the highlight of the IAT. What a way to end the trail!

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/r...ichardson.html
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/r...s-cartier.html

(links above for Chic Chocs..more for photos..sweet looking!

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/34414/dde4c/
(Nice photo of the cape itself)


As a piece of trivia, the original ending of IAT at Gaspe' has a 1990s version of the famous Springer Mtn plaque. Notice which way the hiker is facing!




IIRC, the IAT folks received the blessing of GATC to do a sister plaque (if you will)

..just for reference: