A Hiker's History of the Appalachian Trail

with Author Mills Kelly

Lace up your hiking boots and jump into the mindset of those who have walked the Appalachian Trail (AT) as author Mills Kelly shares insights from his book. A Q&A will follow.

Drawing on trail shelter logbooks, hiker accounts submitted to trail clubs, and newspaper and magazine stories about the experiences of casual hikers, Kelly reveals what it was like to hike the trail from the late 1920s until the 2020s in his book A Hiker's History of the Appalachian Trail. 

Mills Kelly is a retired professor of history at George Mason University and a historian of the AT. He began hiking on the trail as a young Boy Scout in 1971, and today he maintains the Manassas Gap shelter and is the volunteer archivist for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. He is also the host of The Green Tunnel podcast, about the history of the AT. He is the author of several books, including Virginia’s Lost Appalachian Trail, which tells the story of the AT's original route in Southwest Virginia. 

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