The Benton MacKaye Trail (BMT), located in the southeastern United States, is nearly 300 miles of hiking in the Appalachian mountains. The BMT runs from Interstate 40 on the TN/NC border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.
A co-founder of The Wilderness Society, Benton MacKaye is best known as the originator of the Appalachian Trail (AT), an idea he presented in his 1921 article titled An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning. The BMT officially opened on July 16, 2005. After 25 years of preparation the trail attempts to follow Benton MacKaye's original more westerly route for the Appalachian Trail. The Benton MacKaye Trail passes through some of the most remote backcountry in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. We are hiking the Benton MacKaye Trail to link the Pinhoti Trail to the Appalachian Trail.