Reporting an Incident on the A.T.
| In an emergency requiring immediate medical or law-enforcement response—call 911 or other local emergency number (other telephone numbers are listed on A.T. maps). Tell the dispatcher you are an Appalachian Trail hiker, and provide your location (include name and approximate distance of nearest town and nearest road if possible). Report the emergency, and then ask the dispatcher to contact the Shenandoah National Park 24-hour communications center at 800-732-0911. The communications center will notify the NPS chief ranger for the Appalachian Trail.
Report all incidents on the Appalachian Trail. Suspicious or illegal activity that does not require emergency response should be reported as soon as possible to local rangers or local law-enforcement. It also should be reported to ATC, which will share the information as appropriate with the NPS-A.T. Park Office and other agencies, law-enforcement officials, and Appalachian Trail clubs. Reporting incidents or suspicious behavior helps the land-managing agencies, law-enforcement officials, ATC, and the Appalachian Trail clubs become aware of criminal activity, vandalism, resource and facility damage, and possible threats to hiker safety on the Trail. This helps to determine steps that may need to be taken to resolve a situation. A seemingly isolated incident may be linked to others—if they’re not reported, no one will make that connection. The ATC incident report form can be filled out electronically and e-mailed or can be printed, filled out, and then faxed or mailed. Incidents also may be reported by telephone to ATC headquarters at 304-535-6331 during normal business hours, Monday through Friday. ATC offices are closed on most federal holidays, on the day after Thanksgiving, and on December 24. Submit completed incident forms E-mail: incident@appalachiantrail.org
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