Monday, July 12, 2004

International Appalachian Trail Publicity

Wowzers! I was passing through juno.com earlier today and noticed that one of the 8-10 news articles they were highlighting at the time (one of two under the "Travel" heading) is one marking the 10th anniversary of the IAT. That's pretty high visibility publicity for a hiking venue, seems to me.

The "USA Today" article is unsigned, and is copyrighted by the Associated Press with their usual warning about not reproducing it. When I saw it online, it was accompanied by a color photo of Earl Shaffer and David Donaldson walking some boards in a muddy section of Trail.

The article gives a very quick background history for the northern extension to the AT, and opens with the question: "What's a hiker to do after completing Appalachian Trail, which meanders more than 2,800 miles from Georgia to Maine?" Their answer is to keep walking. It points out that 11 people have done the AT/IAT combination.

Kind of a nice little piece, although it doesn't point readers to anywhere they could get further information, maps, or whatever.

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