The North Chapter of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club consists largely of PATC members in central and north central Maryland and in south central Pennsylvania. In Maryland, our trail overseers maintain 31 miles of the Appalachian Trail starting at the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry, WV. They also maintain 14 miles of AT side trails and the 26 mile long Catoctin trail. Our South Mountaineers trail crew conducts monthly trail work trips on the Maryland trails. In Pennsylvania, our trail overseers maintain 39 miles of the AT and 22 miles of its side trails from Pen Mar Park at the Maryland - Pennsylvania state line to Pine Grove Furnace State Park. In addition, they maintain the 110 mile northern section of the Tuscarora Trail, which runs from Hancock, MD to near Harrisburg, PA, passing through 3 state parks and 2 state forests. Our Yankee Clippers trail crew conducts monthly trail work trips on the Pennsylvania trails.

PATC publishes excellent maps for all of these trails. PATC also publishes guidebooks for the AT in Maryland and for the entire Tuscarora Trail. The Keystone Trails Association publishes a guidebook for the AT in Pennsylvania. PATC maps, guidebooks, and other products can be purchased from PATC's online store.

Membership in a PATC chapter is a good way to get to know the people in your local area that are interested in hiking and similar outdoor activities. The North Chapter has its own organized year-round monthly day hikes and trail work trips, which often include community meals and overnight stays in the club's southern Pennsylvania cabins. It is not necessary to be experienced in trail work to participate in our work trips as we offer "on-the-job" training. Families as well as individuals of all ages and experience levels are welcome to participate in our hikes and trail work trips. We also conduct occasional backpacking trips. While membership in PATC is not required of North Chapter members, there are a number of benefits of belonging to the club.

A schedule of chapter hikes and work trips can be found on the PATC online calendar of events which can be accessed by clicking on the Calendar menu item at the top of the page. The calendar has a search feature which can be used, for example, to find all Yankee Clippers worktrips for the entire year by searching for the word "clippers".

The North Chapter publishes a newsletter which discusses trail related activities in our area. An Adobe Acrobat version of the newsletter is available on request. Although there is no membership fee to belong to the North Chapter, members are expected to participate in chapter activities at least once a year to stay on the newsletter mailing list. To be added to the newsletter mailing list or to receive an information packet on PATC, contact Bob Wise, North Chapter president via e-mail at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Please be sure to include the following information in your email message:

• - That you saw our chapter Web page
• - Whether you are a PATC member or not
• - Your postal address if you would like a PATC information packet