Appalachian Mountains

The southernmost end of the Appalachians lies in Alabama, crossing portions of 15 other U.S. states and several Canadian provinces to end at Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Appalachian Mountains are a chain of mountains found in North America extending for almost 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to central Alabama in the United States. The chain runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, though inland by up to a hundred miles from the shore.

Medium sized, but rugged and bunched up

The Appalachian mountain chain formed through the collision of continental plates, approximately 500 million years ago. Older than the Rocky Mountains or the Himalayas, the Appalachian mountains are lower and may not look as imposing, but the rugged, steep, bunched-up formations, typically at around 5000', formed a barrier to European settlers hoping to move west in the early days of the United States. The highest peak in the chain is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet above sea level.

Only one way through for early European settlers

The wilderness road leading to Cumberland Gap was the only way to get wagons through the Appalachian mountains in colonial times.

For European settlers trying to go west starting anywhere from North Carolina to New Jersey, there were two southwest-to-northeast mountain ridges that had to be crossed: the Cumberland Mountain ridge (more westerly) and the Pine Mountain ridge (more easterly). There were two gaps across Cumberland Mountain, at either Pennington Gap (Virginia) or, about 40 miles southward, Cumberland Gap. However, there is no easy way across the easterly Pine mountain ridge in the vicinity of Pennington Gap. Thus, Cumberland Gap became the only feasible way through for wagon trains, and in 1775, Daniel Boone led an expedition to blaze a trail across the Cumberland Gap. Cumberland Gap became a famous place and is today the meeting point of three states, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky.

Forty years later (and much farther north), a more practical route across the Appalachians was developed when a canal was built through the Mohawk Valley, across New York State, to Buffalo, New York, at the eastern tip of Lake Erie.

Appalachian Trail

In the United Stated, a well-maintained, continuous hiking trail exists along the rim of the Appalachian mountains from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. This iconic, 2200-mile trail is used annually by around 3 million people, and about 3000 people attempt to hike it completely in one season beginning from Georgia in early spring; only about a quarter of those are able to complete the entire trail continuously in one season. It is generally considered a challenging route, requiring five to seven months to complete.