Service Description

Every history of the Appalachian Trail tells the story from the top down, focusing on who proposed the trail, who built it, who maintain it, and on a few of the most famous hikers. A Hiker’s History of Appalachian Trail tells the trail’s history from the ground up, or more accurately, from the boots up. Several million hikers each year set foot on the trail for a few hours, a few days, or perhaps a few weeks. The trail was created for them, yet their role in its history is largely ignored. Working with trail shelter logbooks, hiker accounts submitted to trail clubs, newspaper and magazine stories about the experiences of casual hikers, Mills Kelly reveals what it was like to hike the trail from the late 1920s until the 2020s. Mills is a historian, podcaster, hiker, author, and a retired teacher who taught at GMU for 24 years. The speaker series will be held at the Mountain House located at 17405 Beverley Mill Drive Broad Run, VA 20137 on Saturday, January, 31st from 2 pm to 4 pm. Admission is free.