From the desk of sgt rock:

"In 1979 GATC members start working on an alternate route for the AT because they saw the AT getting too crowded. The initial idea was it would be a more remote wilderness trail and I got the idea that it was supposed to be without any shelters.

In 1980 the BMTA was formed mostly from GATC members and one of the early members is now the director of the ATC. The original concept was to get hikers to the Smokies and go over Gregory Bald and hook up with the AT using the original AT route into the park.

At some point in the 1980s the back country director of the GSMNP wanted the BMT to go through the park on a lower route as an alternative for hikers to use in drought or high snow years. So it was the park services idea in the first place LOL (remember that for later). Some old time hikers told me that back then even AT hikers were supposed to put an literary on the permit and there wasn't necessarily the thru-hiker system that existed up to the new pay system. Lone Wolf told me of a conversation with a park ranger sometime in the 1990's I think and at that time their opinion was if you got off the trail to go into Gatlinburg you were no longer a thru-hiker.

Between 1980 and 1985 the GATC built the BMT from Springer to Ocoee River by linking some existing trails and building trail. They had a route proposal up to Whigg Meadow but were negotiating with different land mangers for routes. Some trail had to be built, but the general rule is to use existing trail whenever was possible and they were working the process to get that built.

1986 the NEPA act was amended and now the entire process of getting trail built changed. It became a lot harder to get approval for anything other than minor changes. This basically reset any trail construction north of the Ocoee River and it looked like the BMT would forever end at that point and never fulfill it's initial role of an AT alternative. But the BMTA didn't give up. During this period the GSMNP implemented its "no new trail" rule where if you wanted to open trail somewhere, you had to close equal miles of trail somewhere else. The old AT to Gregory Bald is closed and that basically killed that link forever.

1990's At some point in the 1990s the rules change for thru-hiker permits to allow hikers to simply write thru-hiker on their permit if they were an AT thru-hiker. The Park Service seems to have generally stopped worrying about AT thru-hikers.

1996 A Walk in the Woods came out and thru-hike starting numbers jumped by 60% over the next two years (according to the ATC).

2000's With diligence and work of the BMTA the NEPA process started from scratch and routes were negotiated. Up until 2004 the last link between the park and Cherokee National Forest was in doubt, but though a couple of last minute compromises with the Park Service, the Forest Service, and private land owners, a connection was created between Tapoco and Twentymile ranger station. The trail was "completed" and opened in 2005 at Mudd Gap and one of the parties represented was the ATC and it was even mentioned in his speech that now we would look at making the BMT an alternative for AT hikers.

2006 and 2007 big droughts, some hikers considered the BMT alternative in the park. I don't know that any actually used it. But it was there.

2008 I do my hike and start working on what would become the thru-hikers guide. 2008-2009 it was a free download. 2010 it became a book.

2011 big snow hits the AT in the park. The park service recommends using the BMT alternative. Many hikers skip the Smokys. I was told by Fontana Village that the ATC was telling hikers if they use the BMT alternative they will recognize it but I have no first hand knowledge of it.

Summer 2011 they start talking about the new reservation system. The original system was so FUBAR they had to scrap it, much credit was giving to a couple of hikers who shall remain anonymous but they were BMTA members. We also vigorously started trying to change how the BMT and MST were going to be viewed by the Park Service. I got the feeling that they would like to limit AT hikers too, but had put that rule in back in the 1990s and sort of got pigeonholed into the system they have now.

2012 the new permit system is implemented. The AT hiker has multiple approved ways to get a permit and a trail service infrastructure to support NoBo at hikers. The NoBo BMT hiker doesn't have any way on the trail to get a permit and it becomes a huge hassle for NoBo BMT hikers to meet the requirement.

Late 2013 the Forest Service decides that the Yellow Creek Mountain Trail (old AT) might be a better option than getting a BMT hiker run over on the Dragon. Trail reconnaissance begins.

2014 Trail construction begins on the YCMT reroute and Fontana Village becomes the a viable option for BMT thru-hikers to get a permit, even though it is on the standard reservation system. My personal opinion is this is a great fix for the BMT thru-hikers and may be one of our ways to keep the general novice hiker off the BMT, but in my gut I still want them to recognize thru-hikers for the BMT and give them the same privileges as an AT thru-hiker.

Late 2014 the Forest Service gets the idea that the ridge trail with the balds on it might be safer than the Slickrock Creek Crossing and recommends we move there. It was our original route request anyway, so we start route reconnaissance. Now the Tapoco Lodge is also under new management and they want to help out hikers. Another way to get a permit before hitting the Smokys becomes available.

Late 2014 the ATC approaches the BMTA to find out what their position is on the BMT serving as an official alternate to the AT is. I give my input through the BMTA. Sticking point appears to be the GSMNP which now seems to think that half the AT traffic is going to start using the BMT and doesn't think that is sustainable despite the fact that the BMT in the park has 163% of the AT's campsite capacity with ~10% of the usage.

2015 route recon complete and new trail is built for the Slickrock reroute.

2015 AT Kick off Morgan Somerville addresses the crowed on upcoming AT issues with overuse. Reports are already of 30+ people in shelter areas during the thru-hiker bubble. They forecast 5K to 6K starters by 2017 based on the jump they saw after the 1996 release of the book. At that meeting it is specifically addressed that they are working with all land managers and trail clubs involved to explore naming the BMT an alternative route. Decisions not to be made until later after all stakeholders have time for comment.

Future: I think this will happen but I doubt we will get thru-hiker status from the GSMNP and maybe that is a good thing. In the distant future I would be the GSMNP gets tired of a bunch of AT hikers and makes it a total hassle for them as well, possibly even going as far as limiting thru-hiker starts through the park to so many per day. This will probably cause people to skip the Smokys or use an alternative trail or connection of trails. The AT and the BMT are not the only routes one could take. I also know the ATC is going to recommend more alternative forms of Thru-hiking like flip-flop, SoBo, etc so skipping the park and possibly coming back to it would fit in with their vision."

A glimpse of the future by sgt rock

"I think the entire AT should be set up on a corridor style hike and actually it is for whoever doesn't care about being pure or getting a patch, but that is another conversation.

First off we have stated emphatically that the BMT is not going to be an AT clone. We have been talking about this for years, the reason the BMT was even started is because in 1979 some GATC members thought the AT was getting too crowded LOL. We've been saying (and continue to say) that if you can't read a map, if you need blazes ever 200 yards, if you are scared of being alone for days, if you you have problems with fording creeks, if you need shelters, etc etc etc then you need to stay off the BMT. Our concern is rescuing all the hikers that are not prepared for the BMT. We actually hope to scare off most of the AT thru-hikers so they stay away if they cannot hack it. By our estimates and the ATC sort of agrees - we probably won't see more than 10% of AT thru-hikers move over to the BMT at the peak of our numbers. We actually think it will really be more like 5% of AT hikers that may come over, so you are really only looking at maybe 100 more BMT hikers in a couple of years of it building, and maybe 200 more at the most.

I think there are a lot of reasons for that, the two concerns I hear most are shelters and blazes.

It will stay a mostly shelter-less route. We have a total of three shelters on nearly 300 miles of trail. One is on private property and was built by the land owner so hikers in the area had a legal place to camp. Personally care for this shelter even less than most shelters. The next one would be the Fontana Hilton and that technically isn't ours anyway. The last is Laurel Gap shelter and we inherited that one when the trail was routed through there. Most of our trail goes through wilderness areas or the National Park where we couldn't get a shelter built if we tried. And the rest of the trail is on Forest Service Land (and a little of private land) where NEPA process would be required for any shelter at all. That takes at least 5 years and ain't free. We don't want to pay for it, when we do NEPA process is is for reroutes to fix parts of the trail that aren't sustainable. We don't have the assets or the money the ATC does to start getting this trail changed.

As to blazing, we follow the rules set by our land managers, so we will never be able to provide those easy to follow bread crumbs that many AT hikers depend on, especially the crowd that thinks carrying maps is some sort of imposition to their freedom.

But besides those two that most people ask about, I think there are some that are possibly more important:Attitudinal: I also think (based on many conversations) you have the purists or the people that start thinking they are purists and want to do the "real" AT. Then there are the repeat thru-hikers that either want to replicate their first thru or have their friends that they plan on seeing as they boogie up the trail. Then there are the social hikers that want to build those friendships on the trail and I think this one is probably why most new hikers won't consider the BMT because most young people these days are so into their facebook and social media like twitter, email, cell phones, etc that hitting a trail where they can't sit around a campfire and swap stories with 30 people they just met is going to turn them off to the solitude of the BMT. There there are the hikers that have read some journal or book and want to see how they stack up against the climb up Blood Mountain, or Albert, or the long slog out of the NOC. Sum it all up, there are social reason people will choose the AT over the BMT.

And finally there is resupply. A new hiker going up the AT has every advantage in the world to only need to get to the next town and figure it out there. A BMT hiker will have to think ahead on resupply especially if they have never hiked the BMT.

But there are some possible benefits to this proposal. One of which is we are campaigning to get our permit system in the GSMNP aligned with the AT thru-hiker policy. Anyone that has had to deal with the permit system knows this is something to work for. Another would be better infrastructure because there is talk of grants to deal with this change, this could mean more tools, work trips, better signs, etc to deal with the changes. Another would be for our service providers and in return to our hikers. More hikers means more business for Reliance Fly and Tackle or Green Cove Motel, or any other service provider you can think of. And more business means putting more stock on the shelves that hikers could use for resupply like canisters or denatured alcohol. It means more locals realizing they can add shuttle service to their list of things they can make a buck on so maybe a hostel gets added around Unicoi Gap and some local like Bill puts his number with the promise of a mail drop pick up or ride into town for groceries on his list of things to offer."

sorry, fixed it.

on another note we may have found our resident grammar nazi

its a great article.
not too many people really understand the relationships that need to be nurtured when planning and building a trail like the bmt or the at.you did an awesome job of showing how trail management is executed.
thank you.