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This is the 100-year anniversary of an idea to build a trail spanning the Appalachian mountains.
Not many hikers know that when the Appalachian Trail was first proposed by the trail’s godfather, Benton MacKaye in 1921, he had envisioned something much more than a simple hiking trail.
Indeed, it would go on to become the world’s longest foot trail. But MacKaye saw it as something much bigger.
He dreamed of a utopia — complete with small, self-supported communal camps along the way that grew their own food and let hikers reap all the benefits of long-term mountainous living.
Of course, it never met those ambitious goals, but it still became known worldwide.
Here, Bruce Watson of Medium shares in his experiences and lets us all wanderlust over the magic of the trail.
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