National Parks Traveler Podcast · Kurt Repanshek

National Parks Traveler Podcast | Rebuilding the Appalachian Trail

·46 min·2 clips

Joe Morris says some cutters spent six to eight hours and never had their feet touch the ground.

The storm hit hard. Hurricane Helene closed 431 miles of the Appalachian Trail and left snapped trees, washed-away treadway, missing bridges and crossovers, landslides, and flood damage behind it. The recovery was a major job. Kurt Repencheck frames the effort as resilience in the land and among the people who care for it, not just a cleanup project. Jan Childs takes over from there. She speaks with Joe Morris, who coordinates projects for the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club, and Franklin Tate, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's regional director. The scope was wide. Nearly 700 volunteers helped over the past year, including some who came from Japan to work on the trail. Their work mattered. Tate explains that the Conservancy's resiliency fund paid for on-the-ground fixes, from chainsaw crews to support for a hitch at Iron Mountain Gap. The fund reached beyond the treadway. It also helped AT community towns dealing with the storm's aftermath. Communication stayed important. The Conservancy kept updates online for hikers and others trying to track what had reopened and what was still closed. One river turned into a real problem. After the Nolichucky bridge in Erwin washed out, the group helped fund a raft that carried more than a thousand hikers across the river. Coordination kept growing. Morris and Tate describe task forces, regular assessments, and new agreements with the Park Service and Forest Service to bring in seasonal staff and keep workers like Tennessee ridge runners in place over a four-to-five-year window instead of one-off bursts. The Conservancy also has a milestone to mark. Tate notes that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is celebrating its 100th anniversary while still focused on the practical work of reopening the trail.

As heard by us

A grounded look at Appalachian Trail recovery after storm damage.

National Parks Traveler turns to the Appalachian Trail after Hurricane Helene, and the damage remains sobering: 431 miles were shut down, bridges and crossovers were gone, treadway was torn away, and trees were snapped and piled across the route.

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Why you'd press play

You want a grounded look at Hurricane Helene's damage to the Appalachian Trail and the recovery work that followed.

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