Virginia's Appalachian Trails boasts a rich history.

Join Chef Glenn McAllister on his Appalachian Trail adventures, covering 1001 miles of rugged footpath, inspirational mountaintops, and unbounded nature. Glenn's eloquently written journal entries paint vivid pictures of the wildness of the AT, the fascinating variety of characters he met along the way, and the unexpected love story that unfolded between Georgia and West Virginia. Author of Recipes for Adventure: The Ultimate Guide to Dehydrating Food for the Trail, Chef Glenn includes a supplemental chapter with some of his favorite recipes, from unstuffed peppers to pumpkin pie, and the basics for preparing dehydrated meals.

In 1968, management of the Appalachian Trail shifted from control by an informal alliance of private-citizen volunteers to a designated responsibilty of the National Park Service. To protect it from adverse development, Congress had made the trail part of the national park system and endorsed an unique private/public cooperative management system involving scores of private organizations and public jurisdictions. The volunteers still have the lead role in defining the work, but public agencies have the accountability. This June 1987 history is the inside story of how the pieces of that puzzle were put together, by the chairman of a group of volunteers and state-appointed officials that crafted this model of private/public stewardship of public recreational lands.

"The Appalachian Trail was proposed by Benton MacKaye in 1921. Over a quarter of the Georgia-to-Maine pathway passes through Virginia, going across some of the state's best mountain scenery and affording access to small-town life. Now a component of the National Park Service, the trail was, and still is, primarily built, maintained, and overseen by volunteers. Selected from the archives of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the National Park Service, and local Appalachian Trail maintenance clubs, the approximately 200 photographs in Images of America: Along Virginia's Appalachian Trail provide a look at life in the mountains before and during the trails creation, how it developed, who its early champions were, the many relocations the trail has experienced, and the volunteers who have constructed and maintained it"--Back cover.

Appalachian Trail Central Virginia Guide Book Map Set

An account of the author's 2016 thru-hike of the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail.

Walk in the footsteps of Virginia's earliest hikers. For more than two decades hikers on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia walked through some of the most beautiful landscapes of the southern mountains. Then, in 1952, the Appalachian Trail Conference moved the trail more than 50 miles to the west. Lost in that move were opportunities to scramble over the Pinnacles of Dan, to sit on Fisher's Peak and gaze out over the North Carolina Piedmont, or to cross the New River on a flat-bottomed boat called Redbud for a nickel. Historian and lifelong hiker Mills Kelly tells the story of a 300-mile section of the Appalachian Trail that is all but forgotten by hikers, but not by the residents of the Southwestern Virginia counties that the trail used to cross.

Unlike counterparts on other sections of the 2,180-plus-mile Appalachian Trail who could locate the pathway within national parks and forests, builders of the 270 miles of trail detailed in Along the Appalachian Trail: West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania did not have vast tracts of federal lands on which to construct the footpath. Yet they succeeded in creating a trail within many of the states' scenic areas. Hundreds of vintage photographs--provided by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, National Park Service, state archives, and local trail-maintaining clubs--present an illustrated narrative of the Herculean work and dedication it took for volunteers to plan, build, and continue to maintain the trail in these states. Included are the glimpses of American history the trail passes by, the pathway's early (and later) supporters and hikers, and original locations that have been rerouted off of today's trail.

The history of putting the A.T. on the ground and protecting it.

The Appalachian Trail is America’s most beloved trek, with millions of hikers setting foot on it every year. Yet few are aware of the fascinating backstory of the dreamers and builders who helped bring it to life over the past century. The conception and building of the Appalachian Trail is a story of unforgettable characters who explored it, defined it, and captured national attention by hiking it. From Grandma Gatewood—a mother of eleven who thru-hiked in canvas sneakers and a drawstring duffle—to Bill Bryson, author of the best-selling A Walk in the Woods, the AT has seized the American imagination like no other hiking path. The 2,000-mile-long hike from Georgia to Maine is not just a trail through the woods, but a set of ideas about nature etched in the forest floor. This character-driven biography of the trail is a must-read not just for ambitious hikers, but for anyone who wonders about our relationship with the great outdoors and dreams of getting away from urban life for a pilgrimage in the wild.