Cartecay, Ga. —- The whole notion sounds preposterous: Walk 2,175 miles from Maine to Georgia with 50 pounds on your back while fending off flies, mosquitoes, boredom, loneliness, pain and recurring doubts as to your sanity.

For what? Zenlike fulfillment, perhaps? A merit badge in sheer willpower?

Each year, 500 intrepid souls trek from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, or vice versa, and proclaim themselves Appalachian Trail through-hikers, a prized distinction among the hundreds of thousands of people who venture onto the trail each year, albeit for shorter stays.

Georgia, too, takes pride in its status as the trail's southern terminus since 1925. Now, though, some folks in Alabama want to wrest that designation from Georgia.

They argue, rightly, that the Appalachian Mountains end in Alabama, not Georgia, and that Springer Mountain isn't hallowed ground. (In fact, it's in the middle of nowhere.)

The trail is an ever-shifting entity, they note, having changed direction, length and termini countless times since 1925. And, already, a network of trails links Springer to Mount Cheaha, not far from the proposed ending near Weogufka.

So why wouldn't a hearty through-hiker relish another 300 or so meandering miles along the lower spine of the Appalachians?

"It's long enough," says Jimmy Ingram, who hiked the entire AT in 2000 and 2007. "It killed me twice doing it."

A bit of hyperbole, of course, something that Tom Cosby relishes. He's the chief marketing officer for the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and the brains behind Alabama's still-young efforts to snatch the AT's southern terminus from Georgia.

Cosby may offer publicity-inducing cash, possibly starting in 2010, to the first through-hikers who walk from the Heart of Dixie to Mount Katahdin.

"It would behoove Alabama's image for us to be publicly recognized as the end of the Appalachian Trail," he says.

But Georgians, grown used to bistate battles over water, football and auto-manufacturing plants, won't give up the AT terminus without a fight.

"Barring any compelling reason to move it, I think it would be best to leave it as it is," says Patrick McNally of Waycross while resting atop Springer earlier this week. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods!"

Pride plus revenue

Through-hikers aren't big spenders, but day-hikers and over-nighters buy gas, eat at restaurants and stay at local motels and B&Bs.

Georgia's tourist industry is not anxious to lose any of that revenue.

Alabama, a state not renowned for its outdoor amenities, hopes an extension would lure more young professionals and, consequently, jobs.

Location of the southern terminus, though, transcends pancake sales and economic development.

Gary Monk, trails supervisor for the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, the nonprofit that maintains the 74-mile stretch of trail between Springer and North Carolina, takes pride in Georgia's national recognition as the AT's jumping-on and -off point.

"It makes me feel good to walk up to Springer Mountain and stand at the plaque that says this is the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail," says Monk, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot who opposes extending the trail into Alabama.

Lengthening the AT wouldn't be easy. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy would need to be mollified and, although the trail's governing body hasn't taken an official position on Alabama's claim, Dave Startzell, the nonprofit's executive director, says he's not keen on extending the trail.

The U.S. departments of Interior and Agriculture, which control much of the land the AT meanders through, must sign off.

Congress would also have to amend the National Trails System Act that established the AT.

End has shifted before

At 3,782 feet, Springer offers a lovely westward (into Alabama) view, the peaks and valleys unfurling into a blue-gray horizon. Flies and bees buzz. Boulders and trees, stunted by storms, cover the summit. Posted warnings caution hikers against camping atop Springer "due to a history of bear incidents."

Two metal plaques bolted into stones commemorate the trail's end, although it's another 8 1/2-mile hike to reach Amicalola Falls State Park and some semblance of civilization.

Springer wasn't always the southern terminus, a fact noted by Cosby and other trail-shifting enthusiasts. In 1921, Benton Mackaye, the trail's visionary, laid out a footpath through the wilderness from the highest point in New England (Mount Washington in New Hampshire) to the highest point in the South (Mount Mitchell in North Carolina).

Four years later, Cohutta Mountain, west of Springer, was designated the terminus by the Appalachian Trail Conference. In 1930, though, the southern jumping-off point was moved to Mount Oglethorpe, about 20 miles south of Springer.

A statue honoring Gen. James Oglethorpe, Georgia's founder, was erected atop the eponymous hilltop.

Progress, in the form of a smelly chicken farm, surrounded the general by 1958, so the terminus was moved to more bucolic, less pungent Springer Mountain in the Chattahoochee National Forest.

"The trail is fluid, and since it's been changed before, it can be changed again," Cosby says. "If it is truly an 'Appalachian' trail, then why not end it where the Appalachian Mountains end?"

That made sense to Mackaye, the trail's creator, who proposed trail "extensions" to Lookout Mountain, Tenn., and down to Birmingham.

He even projected "branch lines," including one heading toward Atlanta.

Mike Leonard, who founded the Alabama Trails Association in 1985, has greatly aided Alabama's cause. The former Birmingham attorney helped map the state's Pinhoti Trail, which runs along Alabama's eastern edge, and worked to acquire the land via acquisition or easement.

The Pinhoti and its Georgia counterpart join at the line in Cave Spring, Ga., and eventually reach Springer, providing a near-seamless trek from Alabama to Maine.

Last March, the Birmingham Chamber unveiled a bronze plaque atop Cheaha Mountain, Alabama's highest peak, celebrating the "long-awaited connection of the Pinhoti Trail to the world famous Appalachian Trail."

Daniel Barton, a college student from Buckhead, relishes an expanded AT.

"That'd be cool —- there'd be more trail to hike and add an extra challenge," says Barton, who was caught atop Springer in a fierce storm last Sunday. "I never really thought it was that important if the trail started here."

 JEMAL R. BRINSON / Staff 
APPALACHIAN TRAIL 
The trail runs 2,175 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to
Mount Katahdin in Maine. A move's afoot to extend the trail to Alabama —- and steal Georgia's prized designation as the trail's southern terminus. 
Map of eastern United States shows the Appalachian Trail, the beginning of the trail in Mount Katahdin, Maine, and the end of the trail in Springer Mountain, Georgia. Map also locates the following:
White Mountain National Forest 
Green Mountain National Forest 
Harpers Ferry
Shenandoah National Park 
Great Smoky Mountains National Park 
Inset map locates the Appalachian Trail, Springer Mountain and the proposed trail's end relative to Atlanta.
Note: Map shows general boundaries 
Source: Research by DAN CHAPMAN / Staff