Trailhead
New Boots • Gathering • Grapevine • Springer Fever
A.T. Companion • Headlamp Material • Work Trips • Side Trails
Welcome to the home page of the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association, also known as ALDHA. We know that you will enjoy what we have prepared for you and that it will serve as a good source of information for hiking and backpacking, not only for the new hikers, but also for those who have experience.
We are a “low-key” and “laid-back” group and we want it to remain that way. We are probably the most inexpensive organization you will ever join, $7 per person or married couple per year.
We are nonprofit; by that I mean that nobody makes any money .. not one cent of salary or transportation reimbursement is paid to our board of directors. We don’t issue membership cards and we don’t send personal reminders to pay your dues. If you don’t renew we will eventually stop sending you the quarterly newsletters and the yearly ALDHA directory with your name in it, but you’re always welcome to come back.
Our main function every year is the Gathering, generally on Columbus Day weekend in October. The idea of the Gathering is to meet your hiking buddies, learn more about hiking and backpacking, and help a new hiker if you can. The most important thing is to have fun! If you are interested, we hope you will join us as we begin venturing out onto this Information Trail into computerland. Our home page address is:
http://www.aldha.org
We need to keep all of this in perspective; i.e., the super highway of communications, hiking trails, and low-key/laid-back ALDHA. We welcome expansion of ALDHA, but not at the expense of changing our organization. The trail is a great equalizer! Money or status in life, “it don’t matter.” Man or woman, “it don’t matter.” Nothing matters out there on the trail except the basic needs of life and we all experience these about the same way.
Hiking in snow or freezing rain hour after hour or plodding along in the extreme summer heat... Everyone gets wet, cold, hot, hungry and thirsty. We all share enjoyment levels to some degree with one another. The majestic beauty of a high mountain overlooking where we have ventured, the sereneness of being in a shelter “snuggled” in your sleeping bag listening to the sounds of the loons, the sadness of seeing your hiking buddy drop off the trail for one reason or another, or the frustration with others who litter the trail.
Whether you are “computerized” or not, the only way to Katahdin is on your own two feet under your own power with your own ingenuity.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
C U at the Gathering,
“Horseman”
June 1996