TheTHe HikeHike Mini Thru-Hikes in the Mountains Don't have half a year to hike the full length of the Appalachian Trail? Consider these shorter and distinctive alternatives, able to be hiked in full in a week to a month or so. Text and photos by Leonard Adkins North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail passes through Stone Mountain State Park. Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail is a wonderful experience, but not everyone can afford taking five or six months to walk the 2,180 mile pathway. Luckily, we are in the midst of what I think is a golden era of trail building in the Blue Ridge region. Since the 1970s, volunteers from various organizations have created numerous shorter long-distance trails that can be easily walked in four weeks 16 BlueRidgeCountry.com or less. Here are a few that are worthy of your hiking time. This is not intended to be a "best of" listing, but rather a "get acquainted with" what is available. Allegheny Trail Volunteers of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association (wvscenictrails.org) began working on the Allegheny Trail in the 1970s, andhttp://wvscenictrails.org http://wvscenictrails.org