Though the Appalachian Trail ends in Georgia -- at Springer Mountain in the Chattahoochee National Forest -- that could change if a group from Alabama gets their way.
Tourism officials there are hoping to extend the Appalachian Trail into Alabama by way of the Pinhoti Trail, which runs from Springer Mountain into Alabama.
That could mean that part of the Appalachian Trail would be in Floyd County. The Pinhoti comes through Floyd near Cave Spring and extends north near Huffaker Road and Ga. 100 before crossing into Chattooga County.
Local hikers such as Jim Manis, the assistant scoutmaster of local Boy Scout Troop 113, would invite such a change, along with Joe Cook, director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative.
“I think it’s great,” Cook said. “It would be a wonderful thing for Rome to be connected to that trail system.”
But others don’t think that maps are going to be redrawn anytime soon.
“It’s not going to be included in (the Appalachian Trail),” Larry Madden, a board member on the Pinhoti Trail Alliance, said.
Madden explained that the Appalachian trail system, extending from Springer Mountain into Mount Katahdin, Maine, for over 2,100 miles, was originally to include the Pinhoti trail. However, various groups that oversee the Pinhoti trail have hit roadblocks on having the trail added to the overall Appalachian trail system.
There has been a recent push by groups in Alabama to have the Appalachian Trail system extended to include the Pinhoti trail, and put the end of the system at Flagg Mountain, south of Talladega, Ala.
However, if the Pinhoti’s southernmost point became the new starting point for the Appalachian Trail, it would require an amendment of the 1968 National Trails System Act, which defines the starting and ending point for the trail.
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Pinhoti trail map Detailed Pinhoti trail maps NPR story: Alabama Touts Path to Appalachian Trail in Georgia
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