First, an understanding of how the club acquired this historic guidebook. Mike Zimmerman, a hiker from Maine with connections to Bedford and Roanoke, hiked much of the NBATC section in 2018-2019. He is also a section maintainer in Maine, and quoting - "thus I appreciate a well-maintained trail. Your section was a pleasure!" He found the old guidebook in a used book store and sent it to NBATC in August 2020.
From the title, this guidebook covers much more than the NBATC section. The guidebook format with a 2-pin binder and removable pages is intended to allow the guidebook to be updated yearly by only publishing pages that need to be replaced or added. This accounts for the occasional page with odd numbering. The blank left facing pages before a new section were not reproduced and therefore a letter in the sequence is skipped. This format also facilitated the desire to only carry a small part of the guidebook and restore it after the hike.
Only the section that NBATC has historically maintained is reproduced here. Only the pages for hiking from north to south are included. NBATC originally had from Rockfish Gap to Mons (Peaks of Otter hotel). As the route was modified and other clubs requested to maintain portions, this progressed to NBATC now maintaining Tye River to Blackhorse Gap. This reproduction includes:
Enjoy reading the guidebook and have fun trying to determine where the Appalachian Trail used to be and what parts are still original A.T. or at least 1950 A.T. Note: The names and spellings of the Section titles are the ones used in 1950.