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  1. #1

    Default Head up to old AT trail guides folks

    There is pretty big block of early AT trail guides up on ebay. Mostly 1st and 2nd editions, very pricey but generally very rare. The interesting part of the 1st editions that in many cases the trail was not complete and the route at the time varied substantially from the current one including that the southern end was on MT Oglethorpe I have been looking for awhile for a 1st edition AT guide to Maine. Its rare, supposedly MATC doesn't even have a copy. There is supposedly one in the Maine state library. I bid on one once several years ago that ended up selling for around $800.

    I do have a second and third edition of the Maine guides that are prewar (1934 and 1937) and only published three years apart, the difference was the second edition was written before the AT was finished while the third one it was. The AT in Maine was much different at the time, far more like the last section of the 100 mile wilderness past White Cap. The trail weaved around many of the mountains and many of the overnight spots were sporting camps on ponds and rivers. The big relocation onto the NPS corridor along with land claims settlement in Maine moved a lot of the trail up on the ridges.

  2. #2
    Registered User Ewker's Avatar
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    I donated 3 old AT guide books from the 40's and 50's to three clubs. (Maine, Virginia and Pa. I think) All off the guide books had the original maps in them.
    Conquest: It is not the Mountain we conquer but Ourselves

  3. #3

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    I searched ebay for Appalachian Trail guide and then sorted the listings by price and found the ones you are talking about...several very old books priced at several hundred dollars apiece.

  4. #4

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    The individual selling them pretty much controls the high end trail guide market on Ebay normally he sticks to the whites but he must have run into an estate sale that had these. He ruffled a few feathers locally. There is quite an active market for old AMC white mountain trail guides as many hard core hikers are techies from Boston with accompanying high incomes so if they see a guide they buy it as the whites is where they play on weekends. There used to be occasional deals on Ebay where AMC guides would pop up from estates but there are folks who will grab them if they go cheap. The goal of some folks is to get the entire AMC guide set which are quite a few volumes as the first edition is 1907 and they issue them every couple of years. Realistically they don't change much between editions, I have a sampling of about every ten years. The first edition AMC WMG usually runs from $700 to $1,700 depending on condition and if it has all the maps. I know one person who has a complete set and another couple who have his and her sets.

    The Maine AT trail guides have a far smaller market, they pop up on occasion but I don't think there were very many printed early on especially the preWW2 editions. Myron Avery http://appalachiantrail.org/home/about-us/history was a mainer and he really liked to write, the 1942 version which was carried forward into the 50s was an absolute "brick". Lot of interesting articles but definitely not ultralight. As most hikers have figured out, even the newer accompanying trail Maine trail guide is really not needed for the hike as all the info you need is on the maps.

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