You are browsing the archives of appalachian trail.

1.5 million miles. That’s the estimated cumulative amount of long-distance hiking experience of the expected attendees of the 29th Annual Gathering of the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association at Concord College in Athens, W.Va., on October 15-17. ALDHA’s founder (and Blue Ridge Outdoors’ Outdoor Person of the year), Warren Doyle, who has hiked the A.T. [...]

Charles Leonard Sunset from the Appalachian Trail at the top of Burke’s Garden. Jedd Ferris On boating trips, I can’t help but stare at the stunning rock walls of the deep New River Gorge. Leah Woody The amazing geological formations of West Virginia’s Seneca Rocks. Will Harlan The ancient trees of Joyce Kilmer Forest. Missy [...]

North Carolina’s 962-mile footpath gets a surprise visit from the Obamas, and thru-hiker Scott Ward shares his tales from the trail. Spanning 962 miles across North Carolina, the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST) includes the highest mountains east of the Rockies down to the lowest points along the Outer Banks. It traverses three national parks, [...]

Blue Ridge Outdoors attended Trail Days last weekend in Damascus, Va., for our annual weekend of festival fun. In addition to visiting dozens of outdoor booths from our favorite organizations and outfitters, we enjoyed the thru-hiker parade, water gun fights, and the colorful celebration of all things A.T. BRO graphic designer Travis “T-Bear” Searcy was [...]

For the past decade, Chris Scott has been leading trips in Harrisonburg’s backcountry backyard—the George Washington National Forest—through his outfitter Shenandoah Mountain Touring (mtntouring.com). Scott was willing to share some of his hometown’s sweetest outdoor escapes. Quick Fix Day Hike Hike into Shenandoah National Park from Port Republic and head up Austin Mountain. If you [...]

The trail is not really the place to see if a relationship will survive, but it’s a great place for a relationship to become stronger and deeper. Here are some thoughts that may make your hike together a memorable and enjoyable one. 1) Both of you must be totally committed to the hike. There will [...]

Mike Hanson, a 44-year-old hiker from Minnesota, is attempting to become just the third blind person to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Unlike previous blind hikers, Hanson is relying on technology to guide him. Hanson—who has been blind since birth—has loaded his GPS-equipped cell phone with software that provides electronic voice guided directions [...]

Outdoor adventure doesn’t have to hurt The other night I found myself changing channels between Masterpiece Theater and the X Games. Masterpiece Theater had been on my calendar for weeks, but during a commercial, I came across two young men and women riding a halfpipe and hurling their bodies into the air, trying to achieve [...]

Second A.T. Thru-Hiker Gene Espy Recalls 1951 Trek 82-year old Gene Espy is recognized as the second person ever to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. In 1951, at the age of 24, Espy hiked from Georgia to Maine, taking four months to complete the 2,000-mile journey. Espy recently wrote The Trail of My Life, a book [...]

Welcome to Trail Town, USA. It’s a well-deserved nickname for Damascus—a tiny Southwest Virginia speck on the map that is a literal trail hub leading into the vast expanse of the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area. With the Appalachian Trail, Iron Mountain Trail, and Virginia Creeper rail trail slicing right through town, Damascus is a [...]

Davenport Gap to Hot Springs, N.C. April 30-May 2 This 38-mile weekend backpacking trip starts on the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and heads north to the town of Hot Springs. The highlight of this trek is crossing Max Patch Bald, an incredibly scenic grassy mountain meadow. tehcc.org James River Face Wilderness, Va. [...]

A.T. Chef Dishes Tips and Best Backpacking Recipes Georgia backpacker Glenn McAllister couldn’t stomach another pre-packaged concoction on the trail, so he began making his own. He now runs the website backpackingchef.com, where he provides free recipes and blogs about his cooking experiences while section-hiking the Appalachian Trail. All of McAllister’s dehydrated meals are one-pot [...]

A.T. Physical Exam Four-Year Study to Assess A.T. Health A hefty $1.15 million grant from NASA was recently awarded to examine the Appalachian Trail’s entire ecosystem. University of Rhode Island Professor Yeqiao Wang estimates the project will take four years as he uses a combination of satellite imagery and on-the-ground field observation to monitor the [...]

The night sky is more than a pretty backdrop for a camping trip. Dark skies can improve the health of people and the planet. There are over 400 billion stars in the night sky, but most people living in the South can see fewer than a dozen. Light pollution, the proliferation of bad outdoor lighting, [...]

It has been quite a few years since I first set foot on the Appalachian Trail. As I stepped forth from Springer Mountain on that early spring day, I was ready to revel in the grand scenery of the mountains, the far-off vistas, the roaring waterfalls, the crimson-gold sunsets. Oh, I might occasionally stop to [...]