The 43rd Annual ALDHA Gathering will be held in Abingdon, VA at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center from October 10th to 13th. We will also have our usual trail maintenance trip on Monday the 13th.
Friday Night: We will kick off the weekend. We will do the roll call and celebrate the 2025 finishers, We will also honor those who have done so much work for the trail and ALDHA.
Our Saturday night KEYNOTE SPEAKER is
Steve Adams, or Mighty Blue. Steve came to hiking rather later in life. His first hike, at the age of 61, was a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Since then, he has walked over 6,500 miles on various trails, in America, the UK , and Spain. In fact, he spent part of this summer hiking the Camino in Spain, again.
In 2016 he published the story of his first hike, then found podcasting in an attempt to publicize that book. Mighty Blue on the Appalachian Trail soon established itself as a very popular podcast, so Steve invited other podcasters to join his network with their own shows, under HikingRadioNetwork.com.
With over 2.5m downloads, and nearly 500 episodes, Steve’s podcast has been an invaluable source of information and anecdotes for aspiring and accomplished hikers alike.
SUNDAY EVENING PROGRAM
Sunday nights speaker is Joe Morris. Joe is a semi-retired business owner and philanthropist that spends most of his time and energy involved in trail maintenance. He was named TEHCC Maintainer of the Year in 2013 and ATC Southern Region Volunteer of the Year in 2022. Also, in 2022, he was awarded the Presidents Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service. In 2025, he was awarded TEHCC’s Stanley A. Murray Award for Meritorious Service.
Afterward, we will have our ever-popular raffle and . . . the final results of our team games. Consider it a warmup for the campfire.
Registration is now open: REGISTER NOW!
If you are currently thru-hiking or recently completed your thru-hike you can attend the Gathering at no cost! That’s right, free. Enter the code THRUHIKER when you register and you won’t have to pay anything.
CAMPING: There will be free camping around the soccer field, next to the SWHEC.
HOTEL INFO: Abingdon Inn in Abingdon, VA, which is the former Clarion Point. Call 276 -676- 2222 to get ALDHA’s discounted rate ($89 per night) for the Gathering. Mention you are with the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association to get the discounted rate during this year’s Gathering!
If your trail club or hiker-related cause or business would like to set up a table at our Gathering Hiker Fair, fill out this online form: Hiker Fair Signup
Would you like to put on a workshop at this year’s Gathering about a trail you’ve hiked, or a trail-related subject you feel strongly about? Fill out this online form: Workshop Signup Form
