Hike It, Help It: Celebrating 200 Years of the Crawford Path

Believe it or not, hiking for fun hasn’t always been a thing. 

Back 200-plus years ago, people were just a little more concerned with plowing the fields, hunting for food, and fighting for independence. Walking in the woods was something you did every day as a necessity—not so much something you did on your time off. 

Mount Washington changed that. 

When the Crawford family built the first recreational footpath to the top of the region’s highest peak in 1819, it wasn’t supposed to be something radical. It was really just a way to make things a little easier for the tourists who came from the big cities to marvel at the snow capped, rocky peaks, towering over New England. Instead, it ignited the area’s second revolution in less than 50 years. 

Before long, hundreds and then thousands of people were making the 8.5-mile trek along the expansive, tundra-like domes of the Southern Presidentials to the top of Mount Washington. More trails were cut, campsites and huts were built, gear was developed, organizations sprung up, and a sport—at least on this side of the ocean—was born, right in our backyard. 

This summer, 200 years after the Crawford Path—America’s oldest hiking trail—was built, Eastern Mountain Sports wants to celebrate it. 

That strip of dirt leading up Mount Washington still holds some of the country’s most jaw-dropping scenery, and the past time that grew up because of it is a point of Northeast pride, so help make sure the Crawford Path and trails like it stick around for at least another 200 years.

Shop online (men’s/women’s) or swing through EMS locations in North Conway, Concord, and Nashua and pick up a Techwick t-shirt celebrating the Crawford Path’s 200th Anniversary and 20 percent of that purchase will be donated to the White Mountain Trail Collective, which organizes a medley of professional trail maintenance organizations to update and care for the now two-century-old trails in the Whites, ensuring they all last just as long as the Crawford Path.

Plus, wear your t-shirt in the Whites and post a photo to Instagram with the hashtags #goeast and #HikeItHelpIt for a chance to be featured on goEast and EMS’s social media.

That’s it! Take a hike where it all began and discover why, of all places, Mount Washington and the spectacular Southern Presidentials attracted hikers before hiking was even cool. And in the process, help EMS support the trails that will keep us hiking for another 200 years to come. 

See you out there!