Section 1
The routes, and who drew them
The Appalachian Trail, the PCT, the GR network, the Camino.
The Benton MacKaye Trail near Wilscot, Georgia — the route that carries his name.
Photo: Benton MacKaye Trail near Wilscot · Wikimedia Commons
- A regional planner proposed it before anyone walked itBenton MacKaye's 1921 article proposed the Appalachian Trail as regional planning rather than recreation, and the route was completed in 1937.
- Three routes that became a setThe Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails were built separately and only later treated as a trio to be completed.
- Europe numbered its long pathsThe GR system marks long-distance routes across France, Spain and beyond with a single visual language, of which the GR20 in Corsica is the hardest cited.
- A route with a thousand years of infrastructureThe Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage route whose hostels, waymarks and daily stages predate the modern trail movement entirely.