Four MCM members and a dog in the woods in autumn

Who We Are

Our members enjoy outdoor activities including hikes, backpack trips, seasonal canoe and kayak trips, and trail work. We:

  • support Leave No Trace principles, work on local trails and on the nation’s first National Scenic Trail, the Appalachian Trail.
  • organize and lead hikes and other outdoor activities, such as camping, seasonal canoe trips and backpacking weekends.
  • have a year-round schedule with hikes in local parks, state parks, national parks, national forests, and sites in and around Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia.

Our year-round schedule offers regular hikes on Wednesdays and weekends led by experienced leaders.

  • Hikes are rated both by distance and challenges (elevation, stream crossings).  
  • Our schedule includes service-work trips to maintain and renew trails.
  • We offer canoeing/kayaking and weekend camping from time to time in various venues.  
  • We work hard at having fun!

We offer service. The Mountain Club of Maryland is proudly one of the 31 hiking clubs who share responsibility for maintaining sections of the Appalachian Trail, a 2,193-mile footpath from Maine to Georgia.

  • For more than 80 years, our volunteers have cleared storm damage and deadfall from the Trail, worked on repairing damage from ice storms, hurricanes and severe erosion.
  • We maintain four hiking shelters along the Trail in Pennsylvania.
  • Our monitoring teams regularly scout the boundaries of the Trail corridor, and our trail maintainers check on the trail conditions and participate in work trips to improve the Trail.

We are active partners with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the National Park Service that jointly oversee our nation’s first National Scenic Trail.