Our hiking columnist called experts along the Appalachian Trail to get a sense of the destruction left by Hurricane Helene

While it is true that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the nonprofit that helps manage the path and the lands surrounding it, has advised hikers to stay off the southernmost 865 miles, or its lower third, it is not true that those miles are destroyed. Sources I spoke to talked of toppled trees, down branches, and flooding.