Leonard M. Adkins' New Book--Images of America: Along Virginia's Appalachian Trail
Learn About Leonard M. Adkins' Newest Book
The Appalachian Trail was proposed by Benton MacKaye in 1921, and more than one-fourth of the Georgia-to-Maine pathway passes through Virginia, going across some of the state’s best mountain scenery and affording access to small-town life. Now a component of the National Park Service, the trail was, and still is, primarily built, maintained, and overseen by volunteers. Selected from the archives of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the National Park Service, and local Appalachian Trail maintaining clubs, the approximately 200 vintage photographs in Along Virginia’s Appalachian Trail provide a look at life in the mountains before and during the trail’s creation, how it came into being, who its early champions were, the many relocations the trail has experienced, and the volunteers who have constructed and maintained it.
Leonard M. Adkins has hiked the entire Appalachian Trail five times, and is the author of 16 books about the outdoors, nature, and travel, including five concerning the trail. He has aided the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in identifying and protecting rare and endangered plants by being a Natural Heritage Monitor and a ridgerunner. He has also been on the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club’s Board of Directors, a volunteer maintainer of a trail section near McAfee Knob, and is a field editor for the foremost guide for Appalachian Trail hikers that is updated annually.
