Official: Pinhoti won’t be part of Appalachian Trail - Rome News-Tribune

[ed bell]

One of my favorite trails is less than 10 miles long. A route having components with different names takes nothing away from the journey that traversed them. An analogy, it's great that I-80 goes across the USA in one shot, but I'd wager that there is a better route one could piece together to enjoy the ride.

[dperry]

How about a set of Sgt bars like Rock's avatar - with multicolored bars and a train engine in the center or better yet - you get one set of rockers and bars for the Grand Funk Railroad Trail, the CDT and the PCT -- Sgt bars would be a triple crowner.

Yeah, but you only get the GFRT patch if you walk the entire trail while doing the Loco-motion, thereby giving rise to an entirely new form of purism.

[SGT Rock]

Hey Sgt Rock, let's run the trail through Blount County. We could use the Alcoa Hooters as a "trail shelter".

They don't alow tenting outside.

[chili36]

They don't appreciate passing out on the bar either.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Hey Sgt Rock, let's run the trail through Blount County. We could use the Alcoa Hooters as a "trail shelter".

The near-by Walmart might let us tent in the parking lot -- and then there's the old Pellissippi campus lawn......

[Tennessee Viking]

I would love the Key West portion of the Eastern Continental.

[Odd Thomas]

No problem. Georgia will trade you the terminus of the AT for the water in the Chattahoochee River.

Deal?

Brilliant!

[Mrs Baggins]

there is no ECT

Wow! That's really going to be news to M.J. "Nimblewill Nomad" Eberhart and Jojo Smiley! The whole thing must have been in their imaginations!

[Lone Wolf]

Wow! That's really going to be news to M.J. "Nimblewill Nomad" Eberhart and Jojo Smiley! The whole thing must have been in their imaginations!

there is no ECT in the U.S.

[Lone Wolf]

there is no ECT

actually there is but it's only a few hundred miles long and it's in canada
http://www.eastcoasttrail.com/

[chili36]

While there may not be any "official designation" of the ECT.....there are still a number of people who refer to the Key West to Canada hike as the "ECT".

Does it exist? By "official nomenclature"..no. Is it physically present and can it be described by those who refer to it as the ECT...yes.

[Krewzer]

Official: Pinhoti won’t be part of Appalachian Trail Rome News-Tribune, GA - Mar 31, 2008 Hikers familiar with the 2174-mile Appalachian Trail have started at Mount Katahdin, Maine, and ended at Springer Mountain in the Chattahoochee National ...

More...

I can't get this link to work....exactly who said what and why?

[Odd Thomas]

I can't get this link to work....exactly who said what and why?

direct link:
http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/68...ews890114.html

[Krewzer]

Never mind. I got it. Thanks.

[The Scribe]

Mm hmm, and maybe little rainbow rockers for thru-hikers?

Will dogs, shelters, and hiking poles be allowed on any trail Wolf coordinates?

[Two Speed]

Probably not. Wouldn't coordinate with the rockers and train engine.

[MOWGLI]

there is no ECT in the U.S.

It's a route. Not an official trail. Someone wanna claim it's not a route?

[minnesotasmith]

I think both the AT and the AL & GA Pinhoti are part of the GET and ECT already.

Let's face facts: the AT termini are etched in stone and the route is always going to be a single white blazed path with blue blazed emergency routes. It is what it is - no more and no less. If staying on a single path without alternatives is your thing, the AT is your kind of trail. If not, look at the GET and ECT.

Many of us have move on to the idea of developing the corridor concept in the eastern US - it is already in use on the CDT and PCT. This makes the Appalachian Trail only one trail making up a network of trails along the eastern coast that could become part of such a corridor - not the only trail nor the premier trail in the east. It is just one trail - just like the Florida Trail, Pinhoti in AL & GA, Benton MacKaye Trail, Long Trail, Cumberland Trail, Pine Mountain Trail, Allegheny Trail, Tuscarora Trail, Standing Stone Trail, PA's Mid-State Trail. Finger Lakes Trail and the International AT are trails.

As for overseeing organizations, if any mergers happen it would likely be the ATC that gets absorbed into another organization. The AT is just one trail - the other two are trail networks made up of several trails.

Some of the ATC's major long-standing issues (that their institutional culture is seemingly powerless to fix) might finally get addressed. (Most of them could get major starts in about a week IMO, but that's another story.)

Likewise, the GA Pinhoti trail club getting absorbed under the Alabama one would be a giant step towards making the Pinhoti adequate to AT levels (in the well-designed sections, such as [ironically] the AT in GA, most of VA, etc.) The AL Pinhoti club is manifestly much better at getting things done than the GA Pinhoti club, so far more needed work would get done if the AL club's region covered GA as well. It's analogous to how the GA AT club would do well by the AT in general to loan a top trail designer to eastern PA to at least show the trail clubs there some of the basics the latter have obviously long been struggling with.

[Cuffs]

Some of the ATC's major long-standing issues (that their institutional culture is seemingly powerless to fix) might finally get addressed. (Most of them could get major starts in about a week IMO, but that's another story.)

Likewise, the GA Pinhoti trail club getting absorbed under the Alabama one would be a giant step towards making the Pinhoti adequate to AT levels (in the well-designed sections, such as ironically GA, most of VA, etc.) The AL club is manifestly much better at getting things done than the GA one, so far more needed work would get done if the AL club's region covered GA as well. It's analogous to how the GA AT club would do well to loan a top trail designer to eastern PA to at least show the trail clubs there some of the basics they've long been struggling with.

MS: Please name the Alabama club that you think oversees the entire Pinhoti in Alabama? And the governing authority that is over trails in Alabama?

[Sly]

Many of us have move on to the idea of developing the corridor concept in the eastern US - it is already in use on the CDT and PCT. This makes the Appalachian Trail only one trail making up a network of trails along the eastern coast that could become part of such a corridor - not the only trail nor the premier trail in the east. It is just one trail - just like the Florida Trail, Pinhoti in AL & GA, Benton MacKaye Trail, Long Trail, Cumberland Trail, Pine Mountain Trail, Allegheny Trail, Tuscarora Trail, Standing Stone Trail, PA's Mid-State Trail. Finger Lakes Trail and the International AT are trails.

If the AT isn't the premeir hiking the trail in the East, which is?

Also, neither the PCT(A) or CDT(A) have a trail corridor aspect except in the minds of the hikers. There's official trail but many hikers deviate and take other trails. Of course, it's the same on the AT.