S7E343 - National Parks Traveler Podcast | Rebuilding the Appalachian Trail

Nearly 700 volunteers, including some from as far away as Japan, descended on the Appalachian Trail in the past year in an unprecedented effort to recover a landscape forever scarred by Hurricane Helene.

The storm in September 2024 shut down 431 miles of the AT. Trees were snapped in half, piled in what looked like a bizarre game of pickup sticks. Landslides and flooding tore away trails and treadway. Bridges and crossovers were gone.

It was — and still is — a disaster of historic proportions. But it's also a story of resiliency of the land and the people who are...