Several volunteers meet each week to maintain and clear portions of the trail. After a storm swept through Virginia, the volunteers chainsaw and remove trees blocking access to the Appalachian Trail near Catawba Valley, Va., July 11, 2012.
On a map, the Appalachian Trail runs in a generally straight line southwest to northeast, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in central Maine. But zoom in on the AT Conservancy’s interactive map, and you can see that the trail twists and turns through 14 states, working its way eastward in some places, northward in others. On some segments, the trail even heads south for a short clip. In the decades after the trail was completed, nearly 99 percent of the path has been rebuilt, moved slightly or transferred due to changes and development in the surrounding areas. As AT Conservancy executive director Mark Wenger told the Associated Press, as lands become available to purchase from private landowners, the trail will continue to shift slightly in the future. So while the trail will still run between the same end points, by its 100th anniversary it will likely look quite a bit different than it does today.