by Jim Foster, Secretary, KTA Board of Directors
Pennsylvania hikers don’t need to be introduced to the Appalachian Trail (AT). The most famous and most heavily used long-distance hiking trail in the US, the AT is along among the best-known trails on the planet. Stretching for about 2,185 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine, 229 miles of it are within the Keystone State. An estimated 3 to 4 million people hike a portion of the AT each year, and several thousand attempt a thru-hike.
Many KTA members are not aware that our organization was founded, in part, to coordinate management of the AT in Pennsylvania. However, KTA has not been involved in actively managing the AT for several decades. KTA would like to “return to our roots” and become the maintaining club for a 10-mile section of the AT in the vicinity of Lehigh Gap, near the town of Palmerton, at the Blue Mountain where Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties meet. To do this, KTA must recruit a corps of local volunteers to help us. We’ve already received pledges of support from the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, the Allentown Hiking Club, the Chester County Trail Club, and the Horse-Shoe Trail Club.
Interested in finding out more, as well as going on a nice winter hike? Please join us for two 5-mile hikes to explore this section of the AT and talk about the opportunity. Feel free to join us with no future obligation! The first hike will begin on Sunday, January 17, at 10 AM at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center (on the Winter Trail) and go northbound to Little Gap. The second hike will be on Saturday, January 23, also at 10 AM at the Nature Center and go southbound to Lehigh Furnace Gap.
For more information and to register, visit the “Palmerton Recruitment Hikes” link on KTA's website. Or you can join KTA’s meetup group at http://www.meetup.com/Keystone-Trails-Association-The-Voice-of-PAs-Hikers/ and register there. Preregistration is not required.