This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

You're listening to our second episode of short stories all about what may be the original designed object. The Trail.

If you haven't heard the first episode yet, you should totally go back and listen to it. It's a lot of fun.

We're going to kick off this second episode with another conversation with author and trail expert Robert Moore.

Robert wrote an excellent book called On Trails, I cannot

recommend it highly enough. If you listen to the previous episode you heard him

explore the origins of trails and the way they're shaped by culture. Today Robert Moore is back to talk about his

first-hand experience hiking and learning about one of the longest most iconic trails in America. T.

So Robert, your book begins with you talking about this huge challenge of hiking the Appalachian Trail, otherwise known as the A.T.

Can you describe as the AT.

Can you describe what the AT is

and why it's such a massive undertaking to hike it?

The Appalachian Trail is a roughly 2,000 mile path that basically follows the spine in the Appalachian Mountains.

So it goes from Georgia to Maine.

Takes about three to six months to walk.

I did it in about five. And you know it's it's five months of

continuous hiking on a trail that follows a very rough route. You know a lot of

other hiking trails nowadays have been graded for horses so they will never go above a certain incline.

The Appalachian Trail is much older than that. It's America's oldest, very long trail.

And so even though the mountains of the Appalachians are not as high

as what you'd find in Colorado or California it's just really arduous on a day-to-day

basis and I think for that reason it's become a kind of American

...