It is May 28th, 1953, and Sir Edmund Hillary becomes the first
man to reach Mount Everest’s peak. It is July 21st, 1969, and
Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to traverse the moon’s
surface. It is September 3rd, 2012, and Jim Hallsey consecrates
the 35th anniversary of the NC Mountains-to-Sea Trail by hiking,
biking, and canoeing across North Carolina. Perhaps of less
grandeur than the former two celebrated moments in history,
Hallsey’s trek is a monument to the abundant humanism of
contemporary trail development. Jim Hallsey laid plans for the
935+ mile trail in 1977, in accordance with the 1973 North
Carolina Trails System Act. The trail, reaching from the
Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, showcases the
diversity of the state’s landscape through hardwood forests and
tea-colored swaps, fading tobacco crossroads and reviving urban
centers, courthouse square towns and rugged gorges, remote
lighthouses, and mountain overlooks. Beneath a purview of modern
design, the existence of vast hiking networ