| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
Introduction |
||
|
Georgia has taken hold of the imagination of many out-of-door lovers. To Mr. Benton MacKaye, of Shirley Center, Massachusetts, belongs the disÂtinction of originating the idea. That the idea is not a dream, but a reality was brought home to me in a striking manner. Motoring north from Atlanta, Georgia, to the summit of Neel Gap, a large placard met the eyes:
APPALACHIAN TRAIL. STATE OF MAINE TO STONE MOUNTAIN, GEORGIA. 2,000 MILE HIKE.*
And there was the AT marker.
Later, on making the ascent of Clingman Dome in the Great Smokies, I found that Ranger R. R. Ozmer had blazed the trail with the AT marker. Recently this veteran woodsman had blazed a way over Mt. Guyot, doubtless the wildest and most rugged section of mountains to be found anywhere in the eastern half of the United States. Ozmer has this to say: "While this trail has now been blazed along the top of the mountain through the new National Park area, that fact does not mean that just anybody could go up in those mountains and expect to follow it. Even a good woodsman, well-equipped, would find it a very rugged experience." The New York Times of September 8, 1929, notes that "The Appalachian Trail is being sponsored by public and private agencies and outdoor clubs to meet the increasing demand for definite footpaths and camping routes well removed from motor highways. It extends from Mount Katahdin, Me., to Cohutta Mountain in the northern part of Georgia, and traverses some of the best-known scenic areas in the East. It includes southern branches to Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, and to Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tcnn. It runs partly through private land and partly in public parks and forests. In New York State it runs through Putnam and Dutchess Counties to Bear Mountain Bridge, through The Harriman State Park, around the west side of GreenÂwood Lake, along the New York-New Jersey border to High Point State Park and then on to the Delaware Water Cap."
Ballads and folk-songs accumulated during a fifty-mile hike across the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. No where do the Blue Ridge Mountains show to better advantage than in the northern end of this state. The valleys
* Note: Since the above was written, it has been decided to make Mt. Oglethorpe, Ga., the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. |
||
|
7 |
||