Pinhoti Trail

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Pinhoti Trail "turkey track" logo

The Pinhoti National Recreation Trail is the combined name for the Alabama Pinhoti Trail and Georgia Pinhoti Trail, a 335-mile hiking trail stretching from Flagg Mountain near Weogufka in Coosa County to connect with the Benton MacKaye Trail at Rich Cove in North Georgia's Cohutta Wilderness, which then connects to the Appalachian Trail at several points, including its southern terminus, Springer Mountain, Georgia. The name "Pinhoti" is a Creek Indian word meaning "turkey home", and the trail's logo mark is a turkey track, and its official blaze, established in 2007, is light blue.

The Pinhoti Trail is considered the realization of forester Benton MacKaye's original 1921 vision of a trail extending the length of the Appalachian Mountain chain, connecting several existing trails, and sprinkled with permanent camps and constructed to "stimulate every line of outdoor non-industrial endeavor," including recreation, recuperation, agriculture and study. He hoped to spark a "back to the land" movement to relieve the ills of urban industrial life.

In March, 1925, a two-day conference was held in Washington D. C. in which MacKaye presented his idea for a trail connecting Mount Mitchell in North Carolina to Mount Washington in New Hampshire. He also proposed future extensions of the trail to Katahdin, Maine and to Birmingham. The session resulted in the formation of an "Appalachian Trail Conference". The trail slowly expanded from its beginnings in New York through Connecticut.

During the 1930s, 40s and 50s, ATC director Myron Avery oversaw the expansion of the trail, now understood as primarily a footpath, with MacKaye's vision of work/study camps dropped. It was officially expanded beyond New Hampshire to Sugarloaf in 1937 and to Mount Katahdin by 1940. The first man to complete a through-hike of the entire route was Earl Shaffer in 1948, bringing significant publicity to the project.

The Appalachian Trail was designated as one of the first two "National Scenic Trails" under the National Trails System Act of 1968. The official route of the trail from Springer Mountain to Katahdin was mapped and marked in 1971, with efforts continuing to secure the entire route as public land.

Meanwhile, in 1970 the U. S. Forest Service, at the suggestion of their employees Jim Bylsma and Bobby Bledsoe, began developing a Pinhoti Trail within the confines of the Talladega National Forest. The first portion of the trail began in the Shoal Creek/Coleman Lake area, and later joined up with a section constructed southward from Mount Cheaha. Work was done by the Forest Service with help from its Youth Conservation Corps. By 1983 the trail extended about 60 miles and work began to continue it northward into the newly-designated Cheaha Wilderness.

In 1983 the Alabama Wilderness Coalition, led by Mike Leonard, formally proposed linking the Pinhoti Trail to the Appalachian Trail. An Alabama Trails Association was formed and the work of continuing the trail to the Georgia state line was begun. Land in Alabama was acquired from the Forest Service and through Forever Wild, and in Georgia through The Conservation Fund. Gerald Willis of Piedmont granted a permanent easement for the trail through his lands in 1990 and the 9,220-acre Dugger Mountain Wilderness was established in 1999. In 2000 the Pinhoti Trail was designated as a Millennium Legacy Trail in a White House ceremony. The Alabama portion of the trail was completed in 2002, with the association continuing to erect signage and build shelters and tent platforms for hikers. Meanwhile the Southern terminus was extended to the boundary of the Talladega National Forest and later along the 8-mile crest of Rebecca Mountain near Sylacauga.

Completion of the Pinhoti Trail connection was celebrated in March 2008 at Hernandez Peak in Cheaha State Park.

In 2023 the Alabama Forestry Commission, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the U.S. Forest Service agreed to form a governance board to develop, restore, and maintain the Pinhoti Trail corridor for public recreation.

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