If mountain scenery were all that hikers craved, they could stroll the streets of North Conway, N.H., or wander the roadside of Virginia’s Skyline Drive.

But the traffic and signage would get in the way, mentally and physically. It takes a wilderness to make a wilderness trail. Hikers seek an alternative to the byways lined with pavement, groomed lawns, flashing lights, smokestacks, factories and ski lifts.

Groups like the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust are reaching out to the horizons to protect and widen the trail’s corridor. The land trust recently announced the acquisition of more than 2,000 acres of land along the trail near Saddleback Mountain and Mount Abraham.

When the National Trails System Act was passed by Congress in 1968, the Appalachian Trail crossed more than 3,000 parcels of privately held land.

A few miles of the 2,000-mile, volunteer-maintained footpath still traverse private land: less than 1 percent, fewer than 20 miles. Only a couple of those miles are in Maine.

Public ownership and stewardship will help protect this national treasure. But as the land trust has demonstrated, the protection must extend beyond the path to the vistas.

An escape from urban landscape can do wonders for a workaday drudge. Some find the respite in a picnic by the sea. Some find it in a drive on the Golden Road. For hikers, it takes wandering in the wilderness.

Hikers should thank the land trust and join its efforts; the rest of us can recognize the foresight in such an enterprise and offer our support. Most of us will never hike the Appalachian Trail, but it’s good to know it will be there, for us and our children, protected and preserved, if we need it.