The planning for the 2021 and 2022 A.T. Vista program has begun.

In honor of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Benton MacKaye’s 1921 article, “An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning,” the 2021 A.T. Vista program will be conducted as a virtual program with dispersed local hiking opportunities all along the Appalachian Trail (and perhaps even elsewhere!).

A.T. Vista is seeking to promote and have hikes conducted in all 14 States and need your club or organization to identify hikes that you would like to conduct on Saturday, August 7 and Sunday, August 8, 2021. The goal is to have at least 100 hikes for participants to join during the two-day period. The Association is also seeking someone from each state to lead the coordination of getting groups to organize hikes in their state.

The 2021 virtual program will be a 2-day event. A general itinerary is below (details are still in process):

  1. Saturday, August 7 and Sunday, August 8 from 8AM to 5PM: Local hikes to be conducted along the Appalachian Trail in all states (and other trails in your area) and based on workshop input will determine how to add recorded sessions for access.
  2. Sunday, August 8 Evening (time TBD): Pictures and videos from these hikes to be uploaded from the Social Media sites and made into a recording and shared for viewers to experience the weekend hikes and outdoor experiences.

If you have members of your organization that would be interested in making this a memorable and ongoing future event, email [email protected] with the details below for your hike or enter the information online at www.atvista2021.org by May 1, 2021.

Provide the requested information below and if you have other ideas, feel free to send those too. As A.T. Vista does not know the state of the COVID-19 vaccines by the time of this program, consider that the current social distancing practices may still be in place, so that may require limitation to the number of participants for any hikes.

Hike Submission:

  1. Leader Name and Contact info (email, phone)
  2. Co-Leader Name and Contact info
  3. Organization hosting the hike
  4. Location of the hike
  5. Trail Name/Section
  6. Description to be used
  7. Number of Miles
  8. Level (easy, moderate, strenuous)
  9. Roundtrip or one-way hike?
  10. Website link for participants to sign-up for the hike.

A.T. Vista is also seeking workshop proposals for topics that have been pre-recorded. Based on the number of workshops submitted we will determine how to integrate it with the virtual program.

Workshop Submission:

  1. Workshop Name
  2. Workshop description
  3. Workshop Leader Name and Contact info (email, phone)
  4. Length of session (average is expected to be no more than one-hour)
  5. Link to the recorded session.
  6. Would you also like to conduct this workshop online or in-person for the 2022 program?

A Monthly A.T. Vista Newsletter will also be used as a promotion to keep those that want to know up to date on the 2021 and eventual 2022 program as the plans develop. A newsletter sign-up link will soon be available but for now names and emails can also be submitted directly to [email protected].