Figure 4: cross-section Figure 1: Map of the Appalachian Trail Figure 2: New Hampshire with slope Figure 3: Map displaying elevation of Appalachian Trail Background Noted American naturalist John Muir is famously quoted as saying, “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks”. Nowhere is this adage more applicable than in The Appalachian Trail. Although the notion of a “super trail” had been a popular concept in New England hiking organizations and academic circles for decades, the implementation of such an inherently tremendous project required the efforts of political, environmental, topographical and entrepreneurial enthusiasts. In October of 1921, Benton MacKaye, a former forester, government analyst and newspaper editor, published “An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning” in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects. Universally regarded as the moment of birth for the Appalachian Trail, MacKaye’s published proposition encapsulated a series of work, study and agricultural camps along the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains connected by a trail. Ideally, the trail would connect highest point in the North, Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, to the highest in the South, Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina. The intent of the proposal was to employ the trail as a retreat from industrialized work life with hiking as a secondary focus. MacKaye immediately pursued his idea within his social network of friends and colleagues across the Northeast but it was the hikers who rallied most prominently behind his cause. Hiking enthusiasts such as Raymond Torrey of New York implemented the first crew building of the first Appalachian Trail-specific miles in Harriman-Bear Mountain State Park. The project was supervised under the guidance of Major William A. Welch who then shifted the initial goal to “Maine to Georgia” and designed the iconic diamond Trail marker. By March 3, 1925, MacKaye and the Regional Planning Association gained enough support to convene the first “Appalachian Trail Conference” which aimed to organize a body of workers to complete the building of the trail. Attorney Myron H. Avery assumed a leadership role in the hiking-focused cause, leading about 200 corps of activists focused on identifying and blazing routes, establishing local clubs from PA to GA, publishing guidebooks and maps, and negotiating with national parks and other federal agencies. On August 14, 1937, the Appalachian Trail finally was finished on the ground spanning 2,000 miles from Mt. Oglethorpe, Ga., to Baxter Peak on Katahdin in central Maine. Unfortunately, the combined obstacles presented by a major hurricane, the Depression and World War II thwarted the trail activists’ efforts to continue improving the trail. Although the end of World War II heralded a time of restoration for the Appalachian Trail, it also triggered an influx of residential and interstate highway development. This increase in residential and roadway construction threatened the trail’s existence, as almost half of the trail was on roads or private property desired for vacation homes. In the early 1960s, advocates from Maine and Washington, D.C. quickly responded to the imposing threats by campaigning to revive the federal government protection of the Appalachian Trail and its surrounding lands from adverse development. Hope for the trail was revived when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the National Trails System Act (NTSA) on October 2, The NTSA implemented within the national park and forest systems a new class of public lands, national scenic trails with the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail appointed first designation. The legislative act encouraged states to acquire lands for the trail and the National Park Service (NPS), with respective administrative responsibilities, and the USDA Forest Service authorized to do so. The trail became a national scenic trail under federal protection. The 1970s presented a surge of backpacking throughout the trail as well as the challenge to develop new methods for designing and constructing a durable trail. On March 21, 1978, the “Appalachian Trail Amendments” to the NTSA were signed into law which directed funds and public land acquisitions. On January 26, 1984, the National Park Service delegated to the Appalachian Trail Conference the responsibility for managing trail-corridor lands. For the past quarter-century, the mission of the conference has encompassed monitoring the trail environment to provide data to over 250,000 acres of public land. In 2005, the focus on conservancy required the Appalachian Trail Conference to change their name to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to reflect their contemporary mission. Objective The objective of this project was to determine good places to hike along the Appalachian Trail, based on a hiker’s ability level. The main parameter for determining this was the slope of the terrain. The analyses was to determine the state that was easiest to travel, the most difficult state to travel, and to plan a two-day hiking trip in New Hampshire for a beginner to intermediate. Methodology In order to map the Appalachian Trail, GIS data was downloaded from the Appalachian Trail Conservatory website. Data containing the latitude, longitude, and elevations along the trail was downloaded. Also, coordinates of shelters and parking locations were obtained. A base map of the United States and a terrain, relief model was downloaded from ArcOnline. These two layers were clipped to the extent of the states, which the Appalachian Trail goes through. One map was made to show the entire extent of the trail. State boundaries and major cities were identified on this. Clipping the features to the extent of New Hampshire created another map. Digital elevation models (DEM) for individual quadrangles were downloaded from NH Granit. The DEM’s were imported to Erdas Imagine, in order to mosaic them, creating one feature of the hundreds. Once combined using the mosaic tool, the DEM was imported back to ArcMap and added to the display. A slope tool was run to determine the slope of the elevation, in degrees. Data was then downloaded from NH Granit on land cover. This data was downloaded into ArcMap into the New Hampshire map of the Appalachian Trail. The states base map and Appalachian Trail with measurements was opened in ArcScene. Using ArcScene it was possible to convert the points to a three dimensional feature. The 3D feature could be rotated and viewed in a way, which showed the changes in elevation along the entire trail. Using chart wizard in ArcScene, a profile graph was created for elevation along the Appalachian Trail. Two maps created in ArcMap, a profile and graph from ArcScene were opened in Microsoft Power Point so a poster could be created. Text was added, and the layout was determined by graphical appeal. Figure 5: New Hampshire vegetation References "Appalachian Trail Conservancy - History." Appalachian Trail Conservancy - History. Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Web. 07 Nov "Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Plants & Wildlife." Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Plants & Wildlife. Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Web. 07 Nov "Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Terrain By State." Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Terrain By State. Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Web. 07 Nov "GRANIT: Layers by Data Category." GRANIT: Digital Elevation Model. Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, 1 Mar Web. 21 Nov "New Hampshire Land Cover Assessment " GRANIT: Metadata. Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, 1 Jan Web. 09 Dec Figure 6: Beginner course in New Hampshire Figure 7: Expert course in New Hampshire Results Based on the high peaks and continuous sharp elevation changes on the profile graph, Maine and New Hampshire contain, overall, the most challenging terrain to hike along the Appalachian Trail. Northern New England sits atop the scale of difficulty, being the most rigorous and severe weather conditions of the entire trail. The lower, generally continuous terrain in Pennsylvania tells me that it is home to the easiest travel on the Appalachian Trail. As for the hiking trip in New Hampshire, an assumption was made that an introductory hiker would travel at a pace of two miles per hour and would hike for a total of six and a half hours in one day. That makes for total daily travel equal to 13 miles. The southwestern portion of Grafton County contained a relatively long segment of gently sloping land. It was then decided the hiker or hiking group would park on Goose Pond road, in Lyme, New Hampshire. The hike would culminate at an Appalachian Trail shelter, which was 13 miles from the parking lot. Hikers would stay there for the evening and in the morning leave the way they came in to return to their car. North of the beginner section in New Hampshire, the Appalachian Trail increases in difficulty. As you travel north, you also ascend in elevation. This increase in elevation is accompanied by major changes in vegetation. As Figure 5 shows, tree type changes from hardwoods, birch, and pine at lower elevations, to alpine trees at high elevations. Alpine trees grow at the highest elevations that can still sustain arbor life. Discussion and Conclusion The results of these geographic information analyses fulfilled the objective of the report. By creating a graph with elevation and line segment data, interpretations were made about the overall difficulty of travel through states along the Appalachian Trail. For the New Hampshire hike, the topic of the analyses was focused on one state in particular. By implementing the mosaic of the digital elevation models, a slope tool was run for that area. When added to the map, the vegetation data generated from the GRANIT website fortified our objective with biological support. With the information the slope layer provided, and the available data that located parking and shelters, it was possible to plan a hiking trip. Figure 4: Elevation profile