You might find hiking the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in the coming year a bit easier than if you did it in 2023. That's because it shrank by a mile, according to the folks at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Just five years after an Interior Department investigation determined then-Gettysburg National Military Park Superintendent Ed Clark had "committed criminal violations by submitting false travel vouchers and by accepting more than $23,000 in meals, lodging, and other in-kind gifts from non-Government organizations," he has been appointed superintendent of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

It’s 10 a.m. on a Saturday and the visitor center at Booker T. Washington National Monument is temporarily closed, albeit for an unusual reason. “The Park Ranger is down in the Historic Area taking care of the animals,” an apologetic sign explains. “They will return soon.”

Before my first giddy moment alone on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in Virginia, I stood in a parking lot across from the trailhead studying a stern sign and feeling anxious.