One T-shirt for sale at Bluff Mountain Outfitters in Hot Springs, N.C., reads, “I’ve Hiked the Entire (Width of the) Appalachian Trail.”

PISGAH NATIONAL FOREST, N.C. — Some might call it cheating.

I’m up on Max Patch, a gem of the Appalachian Trail. Max Patch is a treeless, grassy mountain dome with a 360-degree view, much like the spot where Maria twirled around in the opening of “The Sound of Music.”

For a bit, I’m totally alone. I sit on the grass, humming. Tiny gnats fly by. A paint box of October color splashes the mountains. The blue Great Smokies lie beyond.

Then, here comes a man walking a little white dog named Ivy Jane. Here’s a young couple asking if I can take their picture. Here’s a classroom of schoolchildren on a field trip.

Max Patch is a hiker highlight along the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail. But I didn’t hike here. I drove from Asheville, parked in a gravel lot and walked up a hill.

Is it cheating to just show up on the Appalachian Trail and grab the scenery without paying the price of hiking long hours or days?

If it is, I have a lot of company.

The trail has 2 million visitors a year. But fewer than 2,000 are hikers traveling end-to-end on a five- to six-month odyssey.

About 16 percent are section hikers, attempting the whole trail, but over many years.

The rest are day users or just staying a night or two. The average hike? Less than 20 miles.

And some visitors are around for only a few minutes, says Brian King of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which takes care of the trail.

“A lot of people will stay for an hour and go in and walk a half-mile. There are an amazing number of people who do that. Or somebody is driving from Ohio to Florida and sees a sign. They run out 25 yards, step onto it, run back, then blog and say they were on the Appalachian Trail.”

Hiking for fun

On many Americans’ bucket list, the AT — as hikers call it — was completed in 1937. It winds through 14 states from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mount Katahdin, Maine.

Up on Max Patch, two day-hikers crest the hill carrying thick walking sticks. Chris Bishop and Brian Landers, of Chuckey, Tenn., would love to hike the whole trail at once, “but I’ve got twins at home,” says Bishop, pulling out a picture of his 2-year-old daughters.

“We do it just for fun,” says Landers, saying they usually try to do the trail in 13-mile chunks.

“We know a man at home who hiked the whole thing, and I felt sorry for him — he looked like he didn’t have any toes left,” Landers adds.

Then a hiker comes by with a really heavy pack, his golden retriever pulling ahead. Larry Kass, of Raleigh, N.C., had planned to go 20-something miles that day and went 370 miles this summer: His goal is to hike the entire trail in sections.

Kass does not begrudge sharing Max Patch or its view with day visitors. The AT is big enough for all — even a few strange folks who he thinks live on the trail and “who seem to have no destination,” he says.

And Max Patch is the scene of one of his all-time favorite memories. It was in June, at night, and the grass was still tall.

“At night, this whole place was covered with fireflies,” he says. “There were so many lights you couldn’t tell the sky from the ground.”

Max Patch is bald of trees because it used to be a farmer’s field for grazing cattle. The U.S. Forest Service keeps it mowed.

Up here, as along the entire route, the AT is marked with posts, each emblazoned with a streak of white paint. Those posts look like a fence line across the top of the world.

Town stops

Much of the Appalachian Trail is backcountry — and access points are limited. But the trail also cuts directly through some towns (see below).

Just 18 miles north of Max Patch is one of those towns, Hot Springs.

The trail goes right down the town’s main street, leading out of the woods onto the road, across the street and down the sidewalk. The trail is marked with white blazes and inlaid symbols.

The first place hikers see is the Smoky Mountain Diner. Many a hiker has spilled into the diner, dirty and hungry, yearning for a Skillet Breakfast piled high with a zillion calories of grub. In August, the diner delivered five pizzas to a Boy Scout troop up on the Appalachian Trail.

“Food is such an important thing to hikers,” says owner Genia Hayes-Peterson. She knows. She has hiked 850 miles of the AT herself over several years. She trained for the trek by hiking twice a day with a backpack full of 25 pounds of dried beans.

In Hot Springs, the trail passes the library, the post office, the hiker supply shop and the Hot Springs Resort and Spa — where for 12 bucks you can soak in a private, sheltered outdoor tub next to a babbling river. You also can hike to Lovers’ Leap or fish in the French Broad River.

It’s also a good place for souvenirs. One popular T-shirt read “I HIKED THE ENTIRE APPALACHIAN TRAIL” — but in small type after the word “ENTIRE” is the phrase “width of the.”

But don’t get the idea I just lazed around up here.

Up on Max Patch, I did hike, staying for two hours, walking first one direction then the other. I admit I was gasping just climbing the hill from the parking lot — I wasn’t used to the near 5,000-foot elevation.

And boy, I thought I was in shape — until I met a couple heading up as I headed down. They had huge, heavy packs. They were at least 20 years older than I. And they weren’t even breathing hard.

If I weren’t so lazy, I’d want to be them.

Cool Appalachian Trail towns

Many towns are near the Appalachian Trail, but only a handful are smack- dab on it. Here are the most notable, according to Brian King, spokesman for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy:

• Hot Springs, N.C. (population 690): Small but pretty outdoors mecca, and “the trail runs right down the sidewalk.”

• Damascus, Va. (population 1,070): Bills itself as the friendliest town on the trail; its Trail Days festival in May is a hiker favorite: “If you don’t include Damascus, the hikers will go crazy.”

• Kent, Conn. (population 3,000): Just named by Yankee magazine as best leaf-peeping town in New England: “A little high end but really nice. Right on Route 7.”

• Harpers Ferry, W.Va. (population 307): Headquarters of the conservancy and a psychological midway point for hikers.

• Boiling Springs, Pa. (population 2,770): A lake in the middle of town bubbles up from a spring: “A wonderful little town.”

• Hanover, N.H. (population 11,070): Home of Dartmouth College. “A high-end place; they have blazes (AT markings) directly on the sidewalk.”

If you go

• Getting there: Max Patch and Hot Springs have no airports. Lazy Appalachian Trail visitors should base themselves in Asheville, N.C., with its trendy inns, cell service and microbrews.

• Driving tips: The drive from Asheville to Hot Springs is 50 minutes on excellent roads. From there, it’s another 17 miles, about 45 minutes, south to Max Patch (wooded drive, gravel uphill roads, bad signage, so get good directions before you head out — I’ve posted them on my blog, www.freep .com/traveldiva).

• Other tips: Mineral bath at the Hot Springs Resort and Spa is $12 for 1 hour (www.nchotsprings.com, 828-622-7676).