{"id":5200,"date":"2015-08-24T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=5200"},"modified":"2018-11-11T22:03:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T06:03:28","slug":"preserving-hiking-history-restoring-the-appalachian-trail-at-bear-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/preserving-hiking-history-restoring-the-appalachian-trail-at-bear-mountain","title":{"rendered":"Preserving Hiking History: Restoring the Appalachian Trail at Bear Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail<\/a> (A.T.) is one of the most storied and revered hiking paths in North America, if not the world. Spanning 2,189.2 miles from Georgia to Maine, the first section of this \u201csuper trail\u201d across the Appalachian Mountains was built in 1923 through Bear Mountain State Park<\/a> in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York State.<\/p>\n

Located about one hour north of New York City, the original 20-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail is still the most heavily used. Easily accessible by car and mass transit, Bear Mountain State Park welcomes three million visitors annually, with 100,000-plus hikers, runners, and day-trippers trekking across this segment of the A.T. each year. Here the Appalachian Trail passes through old-growth forest on its way to Perkins Memorial Tower atop Bear Mountain, with scenic overlooks and spectacular views of the Hudson River and Dunderberg, Bald, and West mountains along the way. The tower can also be reached by car, and a portion of the path at the summit is wheelchair accessible. Bear Mountain and neighboring Harriman State Park<\/a> serve as the gateway to more than 50,000 acres of backcountry habitat for the city\u2019s 8.4 million residents and adventure-seekers from around the globe.<\/p>\n

Due to the exceptionally large number of users and uncommon amount of wear on the trails in Bear Mountain State Park, an ambitious initiative was launched to safeguard this historic site. In 2006, the Bear Mountain Trails Project was created to build a sustainable trail system throughout the park, focusing on the most heavily used portion of the Appalachian Trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old trail was so worn out and degraded, it was a 10-foot-wide Medusa\u2019s nest\u2014people were wandering off and getting lost and injured,\u201d says Deputy Executive Director Josh Howard of the New York\u2013New Jersey Trail Conference<\/a>, a non-profit that partners with parks to create, protect and promote a network of more than 2,100 miles of public trails in the New York metropolitan region., \u201cThe State of New York and a number of conservancies realized we had to fix the problem.\u201d The Trail Conference\u2014whose volunteers built that original section of the A.T. in the \u201920s\u2014partnered with the National Park Service<\/a>, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Palisades Interstate Park Commission, and Palisades Parks Conservancy to create the Bear Mountain Trails Project<\/a> and ensure the mountain would not be \u201cloved to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organizations collaborated with Rutgers University, which brought in a professional trail builder who designed a footpath that can handle such a high volume of traffic. The result: A one-of-a-kind trail that will feature over 1,000 hand-hewn granite steps and over one mile of walkway supported by stone crib walls. Each step and wall stone has been and will continue to be split and shaped from rocks on site and maneuvered into place either by hand or via a series of overhead cables rigged up in the surrounding trees. It\u2019s no wonder Backpacker <\/em>magazine named this segment of the A.T. a \u201cmasterpiece trail\u201d built by \u201ckings of rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past nine years, more than 1,745 Trail Conference volunteers have logged nearly 65,000 hours of service on the project, completing 65 percent of the trail restoration. \u00a0Anyone with an interest in building and improving trails is invited to help the Trail Conference restore and reroute the A.T. on Bear Mountain. The organization\u2019s Trail University workshops offer award-winning instruction in trail-building techniques, free of charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what we wanted to do was use the project to recruit and train volunteers to construct the trail in this sustainable manner,\u201d says Howard. \u201cWe\u2019re serving the public by creating this pool of volunteers who can then go and preserve additional trails elsewhere.\u201d By 2017, the last 1,200 feet of trail will be completed, including the final 230 stone steps, thanks in part to support from REI. These upgrades to the trail will help control the flow of users, protect the land and allow all types of visitors, from wheelchairs users to thru-hikers, to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most significant trail projects that has been done to the A.T. in a long time,\u201d says Howard. \u201cWe are proud to have the responsibility of maintaining and protecting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

REI will donate $5.9 million in 2015 to help care for and increase access to more than 1,000 outdoor places in the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail (A.T.) is one of the most storied and revered hiking paths in North America, if not the world. Spanning 2,189.2 miles from Georgia to Maine, the first section of this \u201csuper trail\u201d across the Appalachian Mountains was built in 1923 through Bear Mountain State Park in the Lower Hudson Valley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,387,10],"tags":[25,400,8,113,155,115,1528,359,138],"internal-tag":[502,1675,1673,1676],"class_list":["post-5200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycle","category-hike","category-run","tag-cycle","tag-every-trail-connects","tag-hike","tag-national-park","tag-new-york","tag-nonprofit","tag-northeast","tag-run","tag-united-states","internal-tag-ali-carr-troxell","internal-tag-pre-redirect-cycle","internal-tag-pre-redirect-hike","internal-tag-pre-redirect-run"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/preserving-hiking-history-restoring-the-appalachian-trail-at-bear-mountain","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Preserving Hiking History: Restoring the Appalachian Trail at Bear Mountain","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/preserving-hiking-history-restoring-the-appalachian-trail-at-bear-mountain","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/cycle\/preserving-hiking-history-restoring-the-appalachian-trail-at-bear-mountain"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/08\/Appalachian-Trail-0021.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/08\/Appalachian-Trail-0021.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000"},"articleSection":"Cycle","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Angela Crampton"}],"creator":["Angela Crampton"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["cycle","every trail connects","hike","national parks","new york","nonprofits","northeast","run","united states"],"dateCreated":"2015-08-24T17:00:47Z","datePublished":"2015-08-24T17:00:47Z","dateModified":"2018-11-12T06:03:28Z"},"rendered":"