Tonight (Nov. 10): National Geographic Channel special on Appalachian Trail

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/appalachian-trail-3591/Overview

Repeating November 12.

Oops. Yes. Repeating November 17, not 12.

Thanks Raymond. I really enjoyed that and had forgotten all about it.

It was a good show, we really enjoyed it. It didn't document every single state, but did a nice job showing the major sections.

I wish I got that channel! I'd love to see the show....

Personally I'm a little miffed that they went straight from crossing the Hudson to New Hampshire and Maine...but other than that it was very good, well worth watching.

Missed it, but just set the TiVo to grab it Tuesday 11/17 at 4pm. Thanks for the heads-up!

Mountain Crossings in GA is a great shop... I have dealt with them professionally and have had a great experience.

Barkingcat said:

It was a nice show -- they fit quite a bit into one hour without it seeming rushed/crammed.

I particularly liked the vignette about what folks ship home after hiking the first (sourthern) segment of the trail and they figure out that they've packed too much.

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My Comcast On-Demand has it available for free as well - maybe yours does too.

Tim

Set the DVR for the 17th. Thanks for the heads-up.

Huh?

Makes me wish I had tellyvision. Almost. Nothing Positive Radio is getting tiresome.

Guess I'll just go and split some more firewood

I enjoyed the scenery, but on the whole was disappointed. It wasn't clear what the focus was supposed to be...scenery? people? preservation? critters?

Seems that presenting it in a one hour show (including commercials, of course), severely limited their ability to have a cohesive theme and give any kind of depth to the program. That's a long trail and there's a whole lot that wasn't touched at all, or only just briefly (like Vermont, PA, MA, NC, Tennessee).

I was interested to learn of the acid rain problems down south. I knew that there were air quality issues in the smokies, but hadn't heard about the acid rain.

I noted in a previous post that I liked it but agree that attempted to cover way to much in one hour.

I think I own most DVD's, if not all, available on the AT.
IMHO Appalachian Impressions was top dog. Two disc and covers each state with great hiker interviews.

As I watched this one I was wishing they had done a series rather than cram it all in.

Chip said:

Personally I'm a little miffed that they went straight from crossing the Hudson to New Hampshire and Maine...but other than that it was very good, well worth watching.

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Are there Mountains in Connecticut?

Maddy said:

I noted in a previous post that I liked it but agree that attempted to cover way to much in one hour.

I think I own most DVD's, if not all, available on the AT.
IMHO Appalachian Impressions was top dog. Two disc and covers each state with great hiker interviews.

As I watched this one I was wishing they had done a series rather than cram it all in.

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Anyone who attempts to put a special together on the AT should be commended. An AT program on television don't happen very often. Yeah, it's not perfect, but I still enjoyed it. People unfamiliar with the AT got a taste!

RollingRock said:

People unfamiliar with the AT got a taste!

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Bingo!
Agree 100% .......... my very-ill and dying mother watched it and the next day when I went to visit her, her exact words to me were "Now I know why you like to hike so much!"

Tom Rankin said:

Are there Mountains in Connecticut?

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PUDS. You go up to the ridges and back down to Rt 7 and 41 so often it feels like a carnival ride !

Rolling Rock said:

Yeah, it's not perfect, but I still enjoyed it. People unfamiliar with the AT got a taste!

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Great point. Can't hurt if there are more sympaticos out there.

RollingRock said:

AYeah, it's not perfect, but I still enjoyed it. People unfamiliar with the AT got a taste!

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I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't worth watching. I did enjoy it and recorded it. I enjoy any "taste of the AT".

With 2174 + or - miles and an average of 2 MPH, that is about 1087 hours of hiking. It would be real hard to come close to the real magic and beauty of the TRAIL in a 1 hour show.

In any case, the presentation was enjoyable and anything about the TRAIL is good viewing. I could spend an hour talking about every day of hiking the TRAIL.

Hiking the AT was one of the best things I have ever done and still treasure every step.

I watched it on-demand last night. Seems that they mainly concentrated on the first 500 miles and the last 5. When they got to New England they said "now it gets hard." That turned out to be too hard to drag cameras through the Whites, I guess. Some nice aerials of the Presidential Range. It was "OK" to watch.

Tim

I spent a night in New Hampshire at the beginning of October and caught a show on the Appalachian Trail on Vermont Public Television, but the show ended at the trail’s halfway point, in Pennsylvania.

It followed an episode of Ken Burns’s National Parks, and I was enjoying it and looking forward to the areas up here I might be familiar with, but then the credits rolled, and a different program entirely followed.

I should add that I read that the National Geographic program is coming out on DVD at Thanksgiving.