KTA has officially agreed to assume management of a section of the Appalachian Trail (AT) in Pennsylvania. This section is at and around the Lehigh Gap, located close to the town of Palmerton, at the Carbon County–Lehigh County line. The section includes a 10.3-mile stretch of the AT itself, plus 2 side trails on each side of the Lehigh River. Altogether, KTA is committing to maintain about 16 miles of trails. The section includes the famous Lehigh Gap Rock Climb, considered a highlight of the AT.

KTA will become one of 31 clubs that maintains a section of the AT, which extends for approximately 2,190 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine. There are about 229 miles in Pennsylvania. The AT is the most famous and most popular long-distance hiking trail in the country and among the best known in the world. Millions of people hike a section of the AT each year; also, over 15,000 have hiked the entire trail, beginning with Pennsylvanian Earl Shaffer in 1948. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is the overall manager of the AT.

In a sense, maintaining a section of the AT is a return to KTA’s roots. KTA was founded 60 years ago in part to supervise the maintenance of the AT in Pennsylvania, although we haven’t managed it for several decades. The section at Lehigh Gap was formerly supervised by the Philadelphia Trail Club, which elected to give up the section last year.

KTA has created the Appalachian Trail Section Committee to supervise and manage the section. Earlier this year, before agreeing to manage the section, KTA held 2 recruitment hikes. We were amazed at the turnout, with 50 people attending the first hike and 21 the second. So far, we’ve recruited about 35 people to help. Some may be asked to maintain individual short stretches of the AT or any of the side trails; others may be asked to help maintain the corridor boundary or attend group work days to help with tasks beyond the scope of individual maintainers. The first of these group work days will be on April 26 and 27 to work on the corridor boundary. It will be led by Ryan Seltzer of ATC’s staff.

For more information on our work on the AT section, join KTA’s Meetup Group: http://www.meetup.com/Keystone-Trails-Association-The-Voice-of-PAs-Hikers/. If you’re on Facebook, join KTA’s Lehigh Gap AT Section Group. We’ve set up a dedicated e-mail address for questions, comments, and reports on trail conditions: ktalehighgapat@gmail.com.

KTA TAKES OVER A SECTION OF THE AT