National Park Guide: New Hampshire's Appalachian Trail

— -- The Appalachian Trail stretches 2,181 miles across 14 states, but its earliest pathways were formed when existing tracks were connected across Vermont and New Hampshire.

"The idea was to tie those trails together and head south," says Brian King of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry, W. Va. The trail went "from the Whites to the Greens and south from there," King adds, referring to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Green Mountains next door in Vermont.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the trail's official completion date: Aug. 14, 1937 — 31 years before the footpath became a national park. The stretch across the Whites and the Greens was finished well before that, King says. "Most of those connections from the Maine border to I'd say the Massachusetts border, they were pretty much done by 1928," because the existing trail network was simply stitched together.

And that led to another distinction for the White Mountains portion of a path enthusiasts commonly call the A-T: Some of its most demanding terrain cuts through New Hampshire.

"The geology is one thing," King says. "The other thing is the trails there were routed very traditionally, which means straight up, straight down. There aren't a lot of switchbacks."

Regular hiker Bill Warren agrees: "The trails can be very rugged." The 58-year-old from Enfield, N.H., says he gets on the trail to do "peak-bagging" — summiting mountains and checking them off a list. That puts Warren into the "day-hiker" category of Appalachian Trail users; there also are "thru-hikers," who attempt the whole trail, and "section hikers," who walk stretches of the path.

King says the get-away-from-it-all nature of the A-T in the White Mountains is part of what makes the challenges worthwhile. "People can really get the feeling they can escape for a little while. They can get away from work pressure, noise. When you get up there, it is worth it. Panoramic views. Alpine meadows. You don't find that anywhere else."

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About the park

Size: The trail runs through 14 states, from Georgia to Maine, and covers 2,181 miles. The New Hampshire stretch is 160.9 miles.

Visitors: 2 million to 3 million people hike at least some portion of the trail. Of those, 1,800 to 2,000 attempt to "thru-hike" the full trail, and one in four — about 500 — succeed.

Established: 1968

History: The hiking paths that would become the Appalachian Trail segments through New Hampshire already were in use when the 14-state trail was proposed in 1921. The full trail's first end-to-end hike was in 1948, by Earl Shaffer.

When visiting: There are about 21 parking areas near the trail in New Hampshire. The Appalachian Trail Park Office is located in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. Office phone: 304-535-6278.

Of note: 165,000 blazes mark the trail. The blazes are 2-inch-by-6-inch vertical stripes of white paint. Double blazes — two white stripes one above the other — can be seen before turns, junctions and other areas where hikers should be alert.