If you go to the Great Eastern Trail

GREAT EASTERN TRAIL: www.greateasterntrail.org.

BUILDING THE TRAIL: To volunteer with the American Hiking Society to help build the Great Eastern Trail, visit www.American

Hiking.org or call Jeffrey Hunter, 423-266-2507. Volunteer opportunities in 2006 are as follows, with more planned for 2007:

— In Tennessee, Cumberland Trail State Park, Oct. 15-21, and Lula Lake Land Trust, Sept. 24-Sept. 30.

— In Kentucky, Pine Mountain Trail, Sept. 17-23, and Oct. 8-14.

HIKING THE TRAIL: Here are some portions of the trail that are accessible.

— Alabama Pinhoti Trail: 140 miles open for hiking, including Mountain Longleaf Pine forest, www.hmtc.org.

—Tuscarora Trail, 250 miles open in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maps available from Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, www.patc.net.

— Pennsylvania's Mid-State Trail includes part of the Great Eastern Trail. Maps available from phoenix.goucher.edu/MSTA/index.htm.

—Tennessee's Cumberland Trail, 165 miles open, including waterfalls, overlooks and forests on the Cumberland Plateau. Details at www.cumberlandtrail.org.

— Kentucky's Pine Mountain Trail, steep, rugged and beautiful, with elk and other wildlife. Details at www.pinemountaintrail.com.

— Maryland's Green Ridge State Forest was recently added to the Great Eastern Trail. Maps available from www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/greenridge.html.

— New York's North Country Trail — www.northcountrytrail.org — and the Florida Trail — www.florida-trail.org — are not technically part of the Great Eastern Trail but abut the trail at its northernmost and southernmost points.