MARCH 1925 is considered the official birth of the Appalachian Trail, with the founding of what is now called the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC). Here’s a look at a century of natural bliss.

> Thru-hiking took some time. The first hiker to complete an end-to-end hike of the roughly 2,200-mile trail was Earl Shaffer, in 1948. It took him 124 days. “Peace Pilgrim” Mildred Norman Ryder, below, became the first woman to pull off the feat, in 1952.

> You can do it in pieces. It’s OK to knock it off in smaller sections over several years. Or just hike whatever bit pleases you for an outing.

> Bill Bryson didn’t hike the whole thing. The AT may be best known via Bryson’s 1998 humorous book A Walk in the Woods, later turned into a film starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, below left. But Bryson and his companion only covered about 870 miles.

> The oldest person to complete the trail was 83. The veteran thru-hiker M.J. Eberhart, above right, known on the trail as “Nimblewill Nomad,” set the age record in 2021. —Doug Schnitzspahn