The Appalachian Trail's Happy Hill Shelter is maintained by the Dartmouth Outing Club. ~~ Photograph by Robert Sutherland
The Facts of Life are few:
o Food doesn't grow in supermarkets.
o Internet access is not an inalienable right.
o Being skinny, rich, smart, educated or cute doesn't make life perfect.
o There's a reason drugs are called "dope."
o Chubby truck drivers have mastered the concept accepting their own bodies. You should too.
o Mastering Xbox and PS3 will not improve your chances of obtaining an easy, high paying job.
o Somebody has to do the dirty work.
No doubt, there's probably a website somewhere about how alien visitors created the Appalachian Trail. That cannot be true. Aliens would never survive the 100-mile Wilderness on foot (or pods, although I guess some kind of hovercraft might work).
The Appalachian Trail was blazed and is perpetually cleared and maintained by real-live human beings who do the dirty work. For free.
Flocks of such heroes are called AT Maintaining Clubs. If you're willing, they might even let you join one or two. Sorry. Whiners need not apply. Thank you.
The Secret to Life is ... ready? ... give more than you take.
The Appalachian Trail is a good place to begin a lifetime of giving.
Tags: Tourism, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Appalachian Trail, and Hiking
Published Jan 10, 2015. Do you know of someone who has contributed so much to the Appalachian Trail that they're worthy of induction into the Hall of Fame? If so, nominate them.
Published Jan 18, 2013.
The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference brings a hundred trail clubs together to inspire the exploration of 2,000 miles of trails in their states.
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