AT Connector

The following is taken from an article written by ATA member R. Michael Leonard, which was printed in Alabama Conservation Magazine:

Many years ago, when the Appalachian Trail was completed, the southern end was placed in Georgia. However, the fact of the matter is that the southern end of the Appalachians is not in Georgia, but in Alabama! Anyone who has ever been to Cheaha, Little River Canyon, Oak Mountain, or even the Vulcan statue atop Red Mountain in Birmingham knows quite well that Alabama does indeed have mountains, and the time has come to connect those mountains to the AT.

The Pinhoti Trail is an important component in this scheme. The Forest Service has been working on this trail for quite some time, and it now stretches some 100 miles through the Talladega Mountains in East Alabama. Presently, the Pinhoti stretches from Highway 77, northwest of Ashland, AL, to U.S. 278, north of Piedmont, AL. To connect this trail to the AT, the ATA is presently running a trail northeast of U.S. 278 to Indian Mountain, just west of the Georgia state line.

From there the trail would tentatively descend into Georgia near the town of Cave Spring, and cross the Coosa River Valley. The trail would actually cross the Coosa River itself in downtown Rome, Georgia. The trail would then turn northwest, crossing Rocky Mountain and following the Simms Mountain rail trail north to a mountain named High Point, which lies at the south end of Taylor ridge, and just south of Summerville, Georgia. At High Point, the trail would cross onto federally owned land in the Armuchee division of the Chattahoochee National Forest.

It would then follow federally owned ridge tops all the way to Rocky Face Mountain, just west of Dalton, Georgia, where it would then have to make a 15 mile crossing of a valley to the North. Once this valley was crossed, the trail would reach the main portion of the Cohutta Ranger District of the Chatthoochee National Forest, within 5 miles of the Cohutta Wilderness. At present, the Benton MacKaye Association of Atlanta is constructing the Benton MacKaye trail which will connect the area near the Ocoee River to the Cohutta Wilderness, and on to Springer Mountain, the present southern terminus of the AT. Ultimately, the Benton MacKaye Trail is expected to run from the area near Springer to the Great Smoky Mountains via a route different from that of the AT.

At that point, the Pinhoti Trail of Alabama would be connected with the AT, with approximately 120 miles of trail in Alabama, and 100 miles in Georgia.