International Appalachian Trail

International Appalachian Trail
The International Appalachian Trail is the Eastern Continental Trail's northern component. This map does not show trails through Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island nor the more recent additions on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
Length	1900 mi (3058 km)
Location	Maine, United States, and Canada
Trailheads	Mount Katahdin – Belle Isle
Use	Hiking
Elevation
Highest point	Mount Katahdin
Lowest point	Cap Gaspé

The International Appalachian Trail (IAT; French: Sentier international des Appalaches, SIA) is a hiking trail which runs from the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Mount Katahdin, Maine, through New Brunswick, to the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, after which it takes a ferry ride to Newfoundland, and then continues to the northern-easternmost point of the Appalachian Mountains at Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Further sections have been designated within Great Britain and Ireland, and there are proposals to extend it further within Europe and North Africa.

The IAT was proposed in 1994 by Richard Anderson, a Maine fisheries biologist, with plans to traverse the portions of the Appalachian Mountains in Maine, New Brunswick, and Quebec that the Appalachian Trail did not cover. Following route selection, construction of the trail took place through the late 1990s.

The first person to thruhike the IAT, as it then existed, was John Brinda from Washington State, in 1997. He did this as part of his thruhike of the Eastern Continental Trail starting in Key West, Florida. He was the first person to thruhike the entire Eastern Continental Trail.

The Newfoundland and Labrador extension to the IAT was proposed in 2003 and is still under construction. When completed, it will add an additional 1,200 km of trail. The official opening of the first trail section of the IAT Newfoundland was September 23, 2006.

The IAT extends northeast from the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Katahdin, Maine to Mars Hill, Maine, before following the U.S.-Canada border north to Fort Fairfield, Maine, where it crosses the border into Perth-Andover, New Brunswick. It continues up the Tobique River valley to Mount Carleton before crossing the Miramichi Highlands to the Restigouche River valley in Quebec and along the Chic-Choc Mountains of the Gaspé Peninsula, ending at the peninsula's easternmost point, Cap Gaspé in Forillon National Park.