Adkins Crew Finishes its 2007 Hike

Leonard Adkins writes that

"The longer I hike and the more I learn about the Appalachian Trail, the more convinced I become that its greatest importance—much more than the recreational opportunities it provides—is its preservation of the natural world from the encroachments and destructions of the modern world (such as the Wintergreen Resort which displaced the trail before it became federally protected in the Blue Ridge Mountains)."

This is in the final installment of his series of articles on this year's thru-hike that appeared in the OurValley.org web site supported by various newspapers in southwestern Virginia. The article, titled "At trail's end: The value of the AT is it insures a 2,000-mile strip of land will be left in its wild and natural state," summarizes the end of the hike and contains more philosophizing by Adkins. It doesn't seem to be dated, but appeared around 4 December 2007.