Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR
AN IDEA BORN 100 YEARS AGO
Outdoors: Go Big, Go Long
Or go small and go short! That's one of the many beauties of the Appalachian Trail
through the Southern mountains-you can walk as little or as much as you like.
By KURT RHEINHEIMER
" L
iving has been considerably complicated
of late in various ways-by war, by questions
of personal liberty, and by 'menaces'
of one kind or another. There have
been created bitter antagonisms. "
Those words, perhaps as applicable
today as when they appeared in The
Journal of the American Institute of Architects in 1921,
were written by one Benton MacKaye near the opening
of " this little article, " as he called it, entitled " An Appalachian
Trail: A Project in Regional Planning. "
One hundred years ago, Benton MacKaye proposed " a
new approach to the problem of living . . . the development
of the outdoor community life-as an offset and relief
from the various shackles of commercial civilization. "
The project was to have four aspects in its setting of
" the Appalachian skyline from the Northwoods to the
great Carolina hardwood belt, " the first of which he lists
as " The Trail, with each section . . . in the immediate
charge of a local group of people. "
And so very soon began to come into existence what
we know today as the Appalachian National Scenic Trail,
almost half the miles of which are in the Southern Appalachians.
MacKaye's plans and vision-built around a series
of trail-connected shelter camps, community camps
and food-and-farm camps-soon clashed with those of
another A.T. pioneer, Myron Avery, whose vision emphasized
the footpath aspect of the ridge-line park.
These 100 years later, the Southern Mountains are
deeply enriched by the fruits of both visions: Our 1,030
or so miles of trail are a stunning, challenging and beautiful
realization of the footpath; and the accoutrements
of hundreds of connector trails, of 28 trail communities,
of a dozen trail clubs dedicated to maintenance of
trail and shelters are a latter-day manifestation of the
" camps " perspective.
For those of us lucky enough to live near the corridor
and its accompanying assets, it's not trail philosophy or
perspective that counts so much as does the existence of
a wonderful place to go outside and play. The hundreds
upon hundreds of access points can open
an outdoors day to walks ranging from
just getting out of the car and putting
your foot on the trail for the first time
to challenging, summit-including loop
walks lasting an hour, that day or longer.
There are so many versions of the perfect
outdoors day in these mountains .
. . the trout stream, the long run, the
sail upon the lake, the rail-trail bicycle
ride, the river paddle and more. But for
some of us in and of these Southern
mountains, the fullest manifestation is
out upon something conceived 100 years
ago, with your feet on the geography of
famous vistas and placenames, and upon
the footsteps of all of those-famous,
family and unknown-who have walked
before us on The Great Trail.
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021

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