{"id":25,"date":"2011-03-15T10:20:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T10:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html"},"modified":"2011-03-23T09:16:14","modified_gmt":"2011-03-23T13:16:14","slug":"hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html","title":{"rendered":"Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Are you tired of fighting the good fight? <\/font><\/font><\/font>Wish you could just get away from it all? Go for a walk and not come back?<\/font><\/font><\/font><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"> <\/font><\/font><\/font><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">The Appalachian Trail is a great place to do that &#8212; a 2,181-mile-long public footpath stretching from <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Georgia<\/st1:country-region> to <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Maine<\/st1:place>. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><\/font><\/font><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">And in this four-and-a-half-minute video, you can make the entire trip! Right now!<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"295\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/20218520\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><\/font><\/font><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">So, lean back, put your feet&nbsp;up and enjoy the&nbsp;hike from&nbsp;<\/font><\/font><\/font><o:p><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><st1:PlaceName w:st=\"on\">Springer<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st=\"on\">Mountain<\/st1:PlaceType>, <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Georgia,<\/st1:country-region>&nbsp;to the top of&nbsp;<st1:place w:st=\"on\">Mount Katahdin<\/st1:place>, Maine. Kevin Gallagher&#8217;s video takes you&nbsp;across the wildernesses of <\/font><\/font><\/font><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><st1:country-region w:st=\"on\">Georgia<\/st1:country-region>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">North Carolina<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Tennessee<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Virginia<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">West Virginia<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Maryland<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Pennsylvania<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">New Jersey<\/st1:State>, <st1:City w:st=\"on\">New York<\/st1:City>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Connecticut<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Massachusetts<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">Vermont<\/st1:State>, <st1:State w:st=\"on\">New Hampshire<\/st1:State>, and <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Maine<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Gallagher took 4,000 photos as he hiked the trail from sourth to north over six months. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><\/font><\/font><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">The trail was conceived by Benton MacKaye, a forester who wrote his original plan shortly after the death of his wife in 1921. In 1922, his idea was publicized&nbsp;by the <em>New York Evening Post<\/em>.<o:p><\/o:p><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">October 7, 1923, the first section of the trail opened&nbsp;from New York&#8217;s Bear Mountain State Park&nbsp;west through <st1:PlaceName w:st=\"on\">Harriman<\/st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st=\"on\">State Park<\/st1:PlaceType>. <\/font><\/font><\/font><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">In 1929, retired Judge Arthur Perkins, his friend Myron Avery and Connecticut farmer Ned Anderson took on the task of mapping and blazing legs of the trail. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Avery became the first to walk it end-to-end in 1936, but not a &#8220;thru-hike,&#8221; non-stop from one end to the other. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">In 1948, Earl Shaffer of York, Pennsylvania, completed the first documented thru-hike. (Four Boy Scouts&nbsp;claim they walked it in 1938, but there are skeptics.)&nbsp;Shaffer also completed the first north-to-south thru-hike, making him the first to do so in each direction.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">In 1998&nbsp;at almost age 80, Shaffer again hiked the entirety of the trail, making him the oldest ever to complete a thru-hike.<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\">And you only had to click your mouse!<\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\" class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you tired of fighting the good fight? Wish you could just get away from it all? Go for a walk and not come back? The Appalachian Trail is a great place to do that &#8212; a 2,181-mile-long public footpath stretching from Georgia to Maine. &nbsp; And in this four-and-a-half-minute video, you can make the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,70,69],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-appalachian-trail","tag-boy-scouts","tag-hiking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are you tired of fighting the good fight? Wish you could just get away from it all? Go for a walk and not come back? The Appalachian Trail is a great place to do that &#8212; a 2,181-mile-long public footpath stretching from Georgia to Maine. &nbsp; And in this four-and-a-half-minute video, you can make the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-15T10:20:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-23T13:16:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","og_description":"Are you tired of fighting the good fight? Wish you could just get away from it all? Go for a walk and not come back? The Appalachian Trail is a great place to do that &#8212; a 2,181-mile-long public footpath stretching from Georgia to Maine. &nbsp; And in this four-and-a-half-minute video, you can make the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html","og_site_name":"On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","article_published_time":"2011-03-15T10:20:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-03-23T13:16:14+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html","name":"Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-15T10:20:42+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-23T13:16:14+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/03\/hike-the-applachian-trails-2175-miles-in-4-minutes.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hike the Appalachian Trail in 4 minutes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/","name":"On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Rob Kerby","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}