Off the Path: Where the Appalachian Trail began

Today, the origin story of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches more than 2,000 miles from Maine to Georgia. But it was a peak in southern Vermont that inspired the idea of the trail in the first place. Thanks to one of our favorite podcasts, Off the Path , for sharing this story with us. Here’s a link to the original web post. For more stories from the trail, check out our episodes, “ What’s it like to hike the Long Trail ?” and “ What’s the deal with Vermont’s fire towers ?” This episode was reported and produced by Davis Dunavin at WSHU Public Radio. The Brave Little State team is Josh Crane, Sabine Poux and Burgess Brown. Our Executive Producer is Angela Evancie. Theme music by Ty Gibbons; Other music by Blue Dot Sessions. As always, our journalism is better when you’re a part of it: Ask a question about Vermont Sign up for the BLS newsletter Say hi on Instagram and Reddit @bravestatevt Drop us an email: hello@bravelittlestate.org Make a gift to support people-powered journalism Tell your friends about the show! Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.

You can listen to Off the Path: Where the Appalachian Trail began online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Off the Path: Where the Appalachian Trail began is an episode from Brave Little State by Vermont Public Radio.

This episode is 14:08 long.

This episode was published on Jan 8, 2026.

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