The Benton MacKaye Trail

After graduating from Harvard in 1905, MacKaye began a career in forestry. His work included consulting and research for the U.S. Forest Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the U.S. Department of Labor.

Just months after his wife's suicide in 1921, he published an article in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects entitled "An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning." The ideas presented in this article became his dream, which would be his driving force for the next 14 years.

MacKaye's vision for the Appalachian Trail included using shorter spur trails to enhance access to the long trail. As with some other features that were part of his plan, spur trails were not immediately implemented. World War II and the economy caused setbacks in seeing them become realized.

Then in 1975, the same year as MacKaye's death, an administrator in the Georgia Department of Natural Resources named Dave Sherman conceived an idea to create such a spur trail. It would honor MacKaye's vision by extending from the AT's southern terminus on Springer Mountain.

Sherman's idea was to create a sister trail of the AT, which would follow high ridges along the Tennessee-North Carolina border and in the Cohutta Mountains of northwest Georgia. It wasn't just a plan for a spur trail, however. He and others involved in maintaining the AT feared it was vulnerable to encroaching commercial development. If necessary, the AT could be moved to the new trail.

The Benton MacKaye Trail Association was formed in 1980 to facilitate the trail's construction. It wasn't finished for another 25 years.

Since then, several improvements have been made to the trail. One of them was a major reroute in 2014 to eliminate the need for walking on a dangerous highway.

The Benton MacKaye Trail now extends 287 miles. After leaving Springer Mountain just north of the AT's terminus, it crosses the AT a couple more times before heading north, then west, and then north again before crossing the Georgia-Tennessee state line. After reaching the Hiawassee River, the trail turns east, to cross the Tennessee-North Carolina state line.

After passing through Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Creek Wilderness, the trail meets up with the AT again near Fontana Dam. The dam provides access to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Inside the park, the BMT splits from the AT again. It then follows a series of the park's trails to Big Creek on the east side of the park near Davenport Gap.

Benton MacKaye may have been a visionary, but he was not known as a good manager. He had a falling out with Myron Avery over the construction of the Appalachian Trail and rarely remained long in any job. Still, his dream of a long-distance hiking trail is noteworthy, and the BMT is a fitting tribute to his pioneering work.

My thru-hike of this trail in late 2020 was a rewarding experience. The scenery was beautiful, and the trail was often challenging. The hike was made more enjoyable because I was joined by three friends who had hiked with me on previous long hikes.

You can read my daily reports of that hike here.