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The IAT is the idea of Dick Anderson, a fisheries biologist and former commissioner of Maine's Department of Conservation. Dick had a dream, much like Benton MacKaye's dream of the Appalachian Trail. Dick dreamed of connecting the bioregion of the Northern Forest, on both sides of the US-Canada border.
"I visualized a trail that would connect two countries and cultures, link a state and two provinces and traverse two major watersheds--the Gulf of Maine and the Gulf of St. Lawrence."
-Dick Anderson
This would be a project that would foster international cooperation and promote understanding and protection of our common landscape. Recently the trail plan was extended to take the IAT all the way to where the Appalachians plunge into the sea at the end of the Gaspé Peninsula, Cap Gaspé.
The idea was first proposed to the public on Earth Day, 1994, by Maine gubenatorial candidate Joe Brennan. Two planning meetings were held to plan the International Appalachian Trail. The first one was held in New Brunswick at the Mt. Carleton Provincial Park on June 25, 1994. They were five people from Maine, one from Quebéc and nine from New Brunswick. Dick Anderson gave a slide presentation of aerial photographs of the proposed corridor which was done by Christopher Ayres, photographer. Cecil Freeman made a presentation on the New Brunswick Trails System. It was determined by the group that the trail would be named "The International Appalachian Trail/Sentier International des Appalaches." Six members from each jurisdiction (Maine, Québec, New Brunswick) formed the international committee.
A second meeting was held on July 22, 1994 in Orono, Maine. Trail locations, rules, logos and meeting schedules were discussed. In the years between 1994 and 2002, three meetings were held annually, one in each state or province. Since 2002 one meeting has been held each year. International meetings are held in a different jurisdictions each year. The meetings provide an opportunity to exchange news on trail development, discuss marketing issues and socialize with trail partners.
• Dick Anderson, president (Maine)
• Eric Chouinard, coordinator (Québec)
• Michel Albert, sec./tres. (New Brunswick)
Since 1995, the trail has been extended northward twice. First, it was extended from the original end at Mont Jacques Cartier to the east end of the Gaspé Peninsula at Cap Gaspé. Then, in 2002, upon a request from a Newfoundland delegation, the trail was extended through the Appalachians of Newfoundland to Belle Isle. The trail is now approximately 1400 miles long. Maps, a web site, trail guides and a companion guide have been written and are available for purchase through the Quebec Chapter site SIA/IAT store. More than 40 official campsites, consisting
of tent platforms, lean-tos or cabins, are now in place along the trail.
In October of 1997, John Brinda became the first person the hike the whole of the IAT, and the first known person to hike the entire East Coast of the North American continent in his trek from the Florida Keys to Cap Gaspé. Dick Anderson, who was anxious to see his dream actualized for the first time, gave him maps and guidance. Bushwhacking and road walking, patched together with recently constructed trails, allowed John to complete his journey.
The feat was repeated in 1998 by "Nimblewill Nomad" Eb Eberhart, a sixty year-old retired optometrist. Both hikers were amazed by the unspoiled beauty of the IAT's route. A highlight of their hikes was the view of a herd of Arctic caribou, the only herd south of the St. Lawrence, as well as the views of the ocean on both sides of them as he hiked along the Gaspé Peninsula.
Since 1998, a known total of 86 people have thru-hiked the trail from Katahdin to Cap Gaspé and 11 of those hikers, including “Nimblewill Nomad” have finished the hike at Belle Isle, Newfoundland. While many hundreds of hikers hike on the trail annually, only a few complete the whole trail and those that have describe it as a spectacular hike. All trails are ‘works-in-progress’. Chapters in Maine, New Brunswick, Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador continue to improve trail locations and maintain already constructed sections. All chapters have a commitment to maintain and improve North America’s only long-distance, international hiking trail.
OVERVIEW |
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The Appalachian Mountains of North America lie between Flagg Mountain, Alabama, USA and the north end of Belle Isle in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The Appalachian terrain continues as the Caledonides of Ireland and Scotland and terrains of western Europe and North Africa.
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The famous and long established Appalachian Trail (AT) in the United States extends from Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The IAT/SIA adds an additional 1,350 miles of hiking trails through breath taking views along the remainder of the North American Appalachian Mountains.
In Maine, the IAT/SIA connects with the terminus of the AT at Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park, then heads northeast in the direction of Mount Chase and continues on north to Mars Hill Mountain in Maine’s Aroostook County. It follows the United States and Canadian international borders northward to Fort Fairfield and crosses into Perth-Andover, New Brunswick. The trail then heads up the Tobique River through the village of Plaster Rock to Mount Carleton and Mount Carleton Park and then on to St. Quentin, Kedgewick and Upsalquitch Valley, crossing the Restigouch River into Québec at Flatlands, New Brunswick. The trail enters Québec at Matapedia
and proceeds north-eastward to Amqui then through the Reserve faunique de Matane to Mount Logan in the western portion of the Parc de la Gaspésie. The trail then turns eastward to Mont Albert, Mont Jacques Cartier and the legendary cliffs of Cap Gaspé in Forillon National Park.
After crossing the Gulf of St. Lawrence by ferry, one begins the Newfoundland Labrador section of the IAT/SIA at Port Aux Basques. The trail proceeds northward to Corner Brook, Cape Bauld. The IAT/SIA connects two countries, three provinces, one state, the English, French and Celtic cultures of North America, and some of the most spectacular landscape one could possibly imagine. Bus and train transportation is available from the city of Gaspé to all points in Nova Scotia including the North Sidney Ferry terminal.
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MISSION STATEMENT |
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The International Appalachian Trail/Sentier International des Appalaches is a symbol of US-Canadian commitment to work together as neighbors, to sustain our common environment and to celebrate the grandeur of our common landscape. It connects mountains, crosses rivers, threads through spruce and fir forests and connects the people and cultures of the state of Maine with the provinces of Québec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland/Labrador and Nova Scotia. Volunteer driven, the IAT/SIA is making considerable progress working with landowners, hikers, outdoor conservation organizations and with local, regional and international governments to maintain, upgrade, and improve the trail system.
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APPALACHIANS |
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Recent geological research reveals that for many millions of years continents and ocean basins have been moving over the surface of the earth on rigid plates of rock. About 260 million years ago, drifting continental land masses on Earth’s surface collided and merged to form a single, unified continent called Pangea.
The Appalachian Mountains formed as a result of this collision and uplift along the margin of the closing ancient continents. 200 million years ago, forces deep in the earth caused Pangea to break up and disperse into the continents we see today, separated by the newly formed Atlantic Ocean. The ancestral Appalachian Mountains are shown in blue on the map below which shows the North Atlantic region as it would have appeared at that time.
Each of the newly formed continents carried a piece of the original Appalachian Mountains with it. This origin and dispersal of the ancestral Appalachian Mountains confirms the truly international nature of an “Appalachian Trail” |
Pieces of the original Appalachian Mountains exist with their own trail or mountain names in many countries around the North Atlantic. The long-term goal is to locate sections of the IAT/SIA in all the terrains that were once the Appalachian Mountains of Pangea. A partial list reads as follows: United States • Canada • Denmark • Greenland • Norway (Svalbard Islands) • Western Norway • Ireland • Scotland • England • France • Spain • Portugal • Algeria • Other West African Countries
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