Sentinel readers: you're the bull's-eye for a great trail idea
GEORGE OWEN Contributing Writer

A map of the Southeast showing varied-colored intersecting lines. These represent 5,000 miles of interconnected trails. Approximately 3,500 miles of the long-distance trails maze is now complete.

Yes, Sentinel readers, you're sitting right in the center of the greatest trail dream in America today.

As I write this a map of the Southeast lies before me, showing varied-colored intersecting lines. These represent 5,000 miles of interconnected trails - some complete, others progressing and various portions in planning. Approximately 3,500 miles of this interconnected long-distance trails maze is now complete. Southwestern North Carolina and northern Georgia reside at the heart of this grand idea.

Links have already formed between significant regional interstate trails. Here in the heart of Sentinel newspapers' multi-county coverage, links include: North Carolina: Appalachian Trail to the Bartram Trail via the Chunky Gal and Fires Rim trails and another short connector developed by John Ray; Georgia: Pinhoti Trail out of Alabama to the Benton MacKaye Trail to the Appalachian Trail, with a Georgia-only Duncan Ridge Trail connecting the Benton MacKaye and Appalachian trails. Whew!

This is the dream child of some thirty southeastern hiking trail clubs representing thousands of people that have joined to form the Southeastern Foot Trails Coalition (SEFTC). The coalition is under the auspices of the American Hiking Society (AHS) and the National Park Service Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA).

Another venture now under way is the joint effort of SEFTC and hikers in the Northeast to build a Great Eastern Trail (GET). This would parallel the Appalachian Trail across eastern states, but be further west, using the Cumberland, Allegheny and other ranges. It would incorporate parts of several southeastern trails now existing.

The SEFTC and the 5,000- mile linkage concepbeganto form at a first-time planning and hiking conference of southeastern hiking clubs at Unicoi State Park, Georgia in 2002.

This was sponsored from the first by the AHS and the RTCA. Subsequently funding, including grants, were secured to provide the full-time director of the SEFTC, Jeffrey Hunter, a former manager with Verizon and a devoted hiker. A "Leadership Council" was established with a representative from each trail club to meet periodically and provide overall guidance for the SEFTC. Clubs represented from this area include the Benton MacKaye Trail Association, Mountain High Hikers, and the Nantahala Hiking Club.

Every other year a grand conference is held somewhere in the Southeast by the SEFTC. These feature workshops, programs, entertainment, and hikes open to the public. The fourth biennial conference was just held May 3-6 at Montreat, NC. Another is being planned for 2009, place to be determined. Along with the meeting this year, Saturday, May 5, a concurrent "Great Southeastern Hiking Festival" was held in Black Mountain, NC with programs, music and other entertainment, and hikes.

You who enjoy our mountain trails are invited to join in this effort. Give something back to the trails you love. Contact your local area trail club, SEFTC, or the American Hiking Society. All have websites that both inform you and tell how to become involved.

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