Plans to extend America's Appalachian Trail to Africa

[bijou]

In 1937, the Appalachian Trail was opened, running from the southern US state of Georgia to Maine in the north. In future, could it be extended to Europe and even Africa?

Not far from where I live - deep in the hills of western Massachusetts - runs the famous Appalachian Trail, the 2175-mile (3500km) walking trail, getting on for a century old, and of which American east-coasters are understandably proud.

We see it when we drive to our local grocery store, where the trail crosses Route 23.

An arrow pointing left says simply, "Georgia" and to the right, "Maine", and in each direction the tiny pathway snakes off into the woods, in just a moment vanishing among the trees.

This is the time of year when we see people on the trail - bearded young men alone, or young couples staggering under giant rucksacks, heading north. ... And now there are plans to extend the track.

I meet the planners of this new "international" AT - most of them geologists - at a gathering beside an ice-cold lake in northern Maine.

Their plans are nothing if not ambitious.

They want to take the trail not just over the Canadian border and into Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and up to the tip of Newfoundland.

They also want it to go all around the North Atlantic Ocean.

They insist it makes good geological sense.

The forces that threw up the Appalachian chain 350 million years ago also formed mountains across North Africa, back when there was no Atlantic Ocean, when the continents were all one - the Pangaea supercontinent - and they were linked together.

So why not link them up again, by extending the walking trail and persuade people with strong thighs and a very great deal of time on their hands to stroll all the way from Georgia to the Atlas Mountains, north of the Sahara?


The idea, mind-bogglingly mad though it sounds, appears to be catching on.

Greenland has said it will cut a short trail across its ice-free southern tip. Iceland too, and the Faroe Islands.


There has been a communication from the people who administer the West Highland Way in Scotland to say they will probably get on board, agreeing to mark their trail with the little green AT triangles that are so familiar to us here, and painting white or blue markers, known as blazes, on trees (the origin of the phrase "blazing a trail").

The Isle of Man walking community is saying they want a piece of the action. In Ireland, walkers are full of enthusiasm.

In western France, and in Galicia - where there's already a famous walk to Santiago de Compostela - and down in the cork forest of southern Spain, there is interest.

And from there it is just a short hop across to Africa, and the hills of Morocco. The Berbers have been very accommodating, say the people in Maine, and especially the geologists in Casablanca.



All this talk is going on in the brooding shadow of Mt Katahdin in Maine, while it still has cornices of late snow on its upper cliffs.

Maps are brought out, routes planned, pictures swapped.

I tell the chief planner how I liked seeing the thru-walkers crossing Route 23 back near home, with the sign pointing to Georgia one way, and that maybe it would soon say Morocco instead of Maine. But then I ask: "What about the sea?"

"Ah, yes", he replied. "The sea. A bit of a problem, true, but we'll manage. Got to have the vision first. That's just a detail. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8828574.stm

[JohnnyReb]

Obama will personally walk on water and carry all those DUmmies that vote/voted for him acroos the sea parts of the route.....and he is going to pass a law to see to it that their welfare checks and foodstamps are mailed ahead for them while on the trail,

[CreativeChristie]

This doesnt seem possible since you have to cross an ocean to get to africa.

[dutch508]

This doesnt seem possible since you have to cross an ocean to get to africa.

Think they were planning on going north, over the ice cap, across Europe, through the Middle East and thus...Africa.

I may be wrong---maybe they were thinking of swiming the South Atlantic.

[CreativeChristie]

o okay and where does iceland connect to the polar ice caps? and even if they do now they wont be in a few years when they all melt.

[PatriotGame]

This doesnt seem possible since you have to cross an ocean to get to africa.

What about the moon?

[PatriotGame]

o okay and where does iceland connect to the polar ice caps? and even if they do now they wont be in a few years when they all melt.

Well then, who gives a crap? We'll all be drowned by then anyway.
Better hurry and smoke your dope before that happens.

[Randy]

I'm thinking this is just extending AT trail markers and blazes to existing trails in other countries. When you hit the end in Newfoundland you hop a boat/plane/raft/sub/transportation of your choice over to Iceland. Hike their trail then pick up a ride across the water again to Scotland/Ireland/England where ever the next trail head is and march down it as far as you can go. On and on till you hit where ever they decide to end it. IF they ever stabilize Africa I'll bet they'll extend it to South Africa.