The Great Eastern Trail provides a premier hiking experience on a series of existing trails that are becoming linked to each other into a long-distance footpath in the Appalachian Mountains stretching ultimately from Alabama to the Finger Lakes Trail in New York.

Benton MacKaye’s original vision for an Appalachian Trail in the 1920's showed a network of “braided” trails running the length of the Appalachian Mountains. In 2000 Lloyd MacAskill of PATC published an article in the Appalachian Trailway News calling attention to the existing trails to the west of the AT and saying “Don’t look now, but parts are already in place.” Click Maps/Trail Conditions to your left to find out where you can hike the GET today!

Beside Tennessee's Imodium Falls

The paradigm of this trail is volunteer effort. The organizational scheme will involve existing volunteer trail clubs, augmented where necessary by new volunteer groups. See Links to your left to meet our partners.

Volunteers will work closely with governmental entities, but the emphasis will be on volunteerism. Our model will be the original Appalachian Trail, which was initially constructed almost entirely by volunteer effort. Click Volunteer Opportunities to your left to see how YOU can help!

Descending Pennsylvania's Thousand Steps
Rob Danner photo

GET will be primarily a hiking trail, and its support comes from hiking trail clubs. There are parts of existing trails, however, where local public land managers welcome non-motorized riding activities, and there will be no attempt to change the nature of those trails, or the user groups. Thus parts of the trail will also be open to equestrians and mountain bikes. The Trail will be non-motorized throughout. No motorized segments will be incorporated, except when road shoulders must be used. The objective is to get the GET off roads entirely.

The initial mission of the project is to establish an organizational structure that will encompass the entire length of the trail, including all organizations involved, and begin building capacity for new trails in those areas where there are gaps. In August of 2007 the trail groups involved in the effort incorporated as the Great Eastern Trail Association, and held an organizational meeting in Virginia in November of 2007. See Organization to your left to find out more.