The Appalachians, perhaps more than any other mountain range, evoke emotion, passion and a sense of heritage. The massive, vast chain that snakes from Newfoundland to Georgia is home to a lore, history, culture and abstract altogether unique in the world. Natural splendor, without question, plays a major part in why the Appalachians grab hold of so many people. From UNESCO World Heritage Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with 10 million visitors a year, to White Mountains National Forest in New Hampshire, the Appalachians embody the wild, rugged and romantic side of North America that drew pioneers to the new frontier.

It was not until the publication and wide dissemination of Walking With Spring however, that the Appalachian Trail came to prominence. On his initial 124 day hike in 1948, trailblazer outdoorsman Earl Shaffer broke new ground, with a brave expedition not unlike Sir Edmund Hillary’s ascent of Mount Everest five years later. Unlike the much more famous Kiwi mountaineer and explorer however, Shaffer’s exploit, with grossly inadequate gear by today’s standards, flew under the radar. Thankfully, his poetic and thorough account of the journey from Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine has been both handbook and Bible to new generations of intrepid hikers since commercial release in 1982.

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In 1965, Shaffer beat his record trek by 25 days and became the first person to complete the Appalachian Trail in both directions. His hike from Maine to Georgia, a distance of almost 3,500 km, took just 99 days. Incredibly, at age 79, Shaffer made the hike one last time in 174 days and wrote another personal memoir about his Appalachian experience. Just four years later in 2002, liver cancer took the pioneer’s life. Shaffer’s legacy will live on however, with millions unable to resist the call of the Appalachian Trail or the priceless national parks that dot the mountain chain.

In 1994, in a case of better late than never, plans to extend the trail 1,100 km into Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were made. As mountain chains in Canada also comprise part of the Appalachians, there was always a sense of unfinished business at journey’s end (or commencement) in Maine for hardcore veterans of the trail. Now the International Appalachian Trail (or Sentier International des Appalaches for those in Quebec and francophone New Brunswick), with a recent 1,200 km extension into Newfoundland, provides a new challenge for gutsy explorers, who have to time the hike even more carefully now so as not to run into hazardous winter weather.

Despite the ominous threat of bad weather however, the portion of the Appalachian Trail in Canada is as hospitable as the span from Georgia to Maine. The original trail features myriad resources to help people navigate what is in essence, a nature path made for pedestrian use. Side trails lead to shelters, the occasional forest privy and small towns like Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Hot Springs, North Carolina and Duncannon, Pennsylvania, where hikers fuel up on trail mix and encouragement. As a result, so long as gear, plan and health is up to scratch, your Appalachian Trail experience will endure for life.

No amusement park or plastic monument can compare with the simple awe of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Parc de la Gasp?sie in Quebec, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania or Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Or the sense of accomplishment when you take on the Appalachian Trail and finish in sweet exhaustion. For more great material on the trail, check out the Thru-Hiker’s Handbook, A Season on the Appalachian Trail by Lynn Setzer and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson.

Photo credits: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8