The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,184 miles and begins in the middle of Maine and ends in northern Georgia. It crosses the Chattahoochee River’s uppermost headwaters. The Trust for Public Land envisions the Chattahoochee River as a way to allow Appalachian Trail hikers to continue south until they reach the Gulf of Mexico either on trails along its banks or in a canoe or kayak on the river.
When the Chattahoochee crosses the Georgia-Florida line, it becomes the Apalachicola River and it flows across Florida’s panhandle, entering the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachicola Bay.
The new route could become a reality within the next decade. The Trust has been working for years to acquire land along the Chattahoochee River at its southernmost point. Seventeen acres of land that touch 76 miles of river have already been acquired and set aside by the trust.
The Trust for Public Land was founded in 1972, and is a leading nonprofit working to conserve land for people. They have protected more than three million acres from the inner city to the wilderness and helped generate more than 34 billion in public funds for conservation.
