Talk:Appalachian Trail

I removed the following URL http://members.aol.com/visitnj/ from New Jersey. It links to a website that covers that state's portion of the Appalachian Trail. The site has interesting content but some links, including significant site pages, are broken, so I do not think it is the best quality website to link to from a Wikivoyage article. But it might help someone writing this article. -- (WT-en) Huttite 04:45, 1 Dec 2005 (EST)

Walk?
I've added the content that is currently under "Prepare". I included walking as part of the preparedness and am not sure that the stuff that I wrote about walking should be moved to the "Walk" section. If someone feels like researching various pre-AT regimens that specify exact distances and the speed at which one should increase I feel the "Walk" paragraph would be more for them.

Bear Mountain - Harriman
Not a biggie, but Bear Mountain State Park and Harriman State Park are technically not the same park. --(WT-en) Wandering 12:58, 13 November 2007 (EST)
 * I have never been there, but that is the way it is reflected on the National Park Service map-So that's what I entered, feel free to amend it to a more accurate description if you like. (WT-en) 2old 13:41, 13 November 2007 (EST)

Direction
Just a quick suggestion&mdash;any itinerary-style content should probably be in order from south to north, as that is the direction that 99% of the thru-hikers take for seasonal/weather reasons. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 15:21, 14 November 2007 (EST)

I agree, but the strip map runs N/S, I thought it best to keep them both the same direction for those doing research. My main idea was to link the cities in Wikivoyage to the article. I thought about turning the map 180, but then the print will be upside down. I think the map will fit the list, when done, but I fear the map will then be too big. If we want to remove the map, I could reverse the direction. (WT-en) 2old 09:33, 15 November 2007 (EST)
 * Well Peter, I thought about this last night, and looked at a variety of other sites on the subject. The thru-hikers are in the minority, to the tune of less than 400 per year. The vast majority of hikers choose to make shorter day or multi-day treks along portions of the trail. My intent with the list of Cities/Parks was to connect the dots, or other Wikivoyage destinations, for the purpose of access and lodging for the majority of visitors. So, for the time being, and as I continue to research the subject and reflect on it, I think I will leave it as is. I have been looking for information regarding those who used the AT as a migration route. (WT-en) 2old 11:02, 16 November 2007 (EST)


 * I don't think anyone ever used the trail as a migration route. Peter is right about the heading north bias of through hikers but 2old is right that most AT hikers (that includes me!) usually just do a section here or a section there and that the number of through hikers is quite small. For some reason, I always think of the trail as N-S, can't explain why though!--(WT-en) Wandering 16:12, 16 November 2007 (EST)


 * Fair enough, I don't think I noticed just how l o n g that map is. And in any rate, if a thru-hiker can't figure out how to read those destinations from bottom to top, they probably aren't cut out for the preparations that a real thru-hike would require. But if we ever try to break things down into a week-by-week itinerary (and I'm not sure we should), it should go south-north, as the only people who would need that information would be heading north. In any rate, I'm convinced you're right about keeping the "destination" list running north-south, to match the map. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 17:39, 16 November 2007 (EST)
 * Well, I think I have done all the damage I can to this article, so I shall move on. Could find no evidence of AT being used for migration other than animals/birds. I am considering doing the downhill parts of the AT sometime. 16:35, 19 November 2007 (EST)
 * May you damage many more articles! :-) --(WT-en) Wandering 19:52, 19 November 2007 (EST)

External link
I added a link to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. This is technically a violation of our Project:External links policy, but this seems like an obvious case for an exception to be made. Even the government nps site links to their site for nearly all relevant information. I'd say they are semi-official at least, since they take care of the trail upkeep. --(WT-en) Peter Talk 17:37, 1 October 2008 (EDT)

Appalacian Region Map
I think the Appalacian Region Map adds little because the trail isn't shown on it, and at times is outside of the region. Therefore I think this map should be deleted or moved much lower on the page. I think it would be much better to see an AT map in the top position instead.

Section about preparations should be moved to article about hiking in general
The section about how to prepare for walking the Appalachian Trail is well-written and informative. However, the contents apply to all long-distance trails. Why not move it to the article in WikiVoyage about "Hiking" in general? The section in the AT article could then be used for AT-specific preparations, such as maps and books, equipment for certain weather conditions, etcetera. DrMennoWolters (talk) 14:20, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

triple crown
Hello Appalachian Trail people, I just added some triple threat info for Thru hiking The Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, and Continental Divide Trail were the first three long-distance trails in the U.S. Successfully thru-hiking all of these three trails is known as the Triple Crown of Hiking. I've hiked parts of the other two trails but I appreciate the work that has been done on this trail and I was able to bring some info over to the other two trails. I'm sure we could develop these three together better so please take a look at the other two. Lumpytrout (talk) 14:08, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Usable?
Not very, in my opinion. It's full of red links and lacks specifics north of West Virginia. I'm downgrading it to Outline. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:04, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

why won't the full Appalachian Trail route load up in the dynamic maps?
I tried to get it to show up on the Hebrew article about the Appalachian Trail, but unfortunately only segments of the trail are shown. Is there any way to get the full trail to show up ? ויקיג&#39;אנקי (talk) 15:53, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
 * I think I have found out what is happening. In OSM, the Appalachian Trail has a relation that is tied to Wikidata. Instead of all the data being in that one relation, it has member relations with the data for the trail's path for each state on the AT. Only the Tennessee member relation is linked to the Wikidata object, while the other states are not. As for the other two blobs: The one in PA is a small segment that was assigned the main AT as a parent relation instead of the AT (PA) relation, while the one at the NY-NJ border seems to have something to do with a small national park set up nearby. It will take some time to show up on Wikivoyage, but I think I can fix these errors in OSM fairly easily (except for that weird park thing). MSG17 (talk) 20:00, 19 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks! ויקיג&#39;אנקי (talk) 23:50, 19 December 2018 (UTC)