Welcome to the free version of The Thousand-Mile Journey; a project funded entirely by reader subscription. Here, I share the best stories I read on Medium once a month — most of which are expedition-focused.
To sign-up for the subscribtion-based weekly edition, where I share tales from my own expeditions and travels, see here.
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.
Not following me on Medium? What are you waiting for!
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.