Some of the trails you’re going to hike make up the northern half of Great Eastern Trail. Ever have the desire to hike the whole thing?
When I get done with this year, I’ll have a guidebook for the northern half of the GET done. Next year, I might try to hike the southern half so I can write a full guidebook. I don’t make any money off these books, but I know they help hikers. I get postcards from hikers on the MST all the time telling me how amazing the trail is. When people finish the A.T., they ask themselves, “Now what?” Some go over to the Pacific Crest Trail and hike that, but I want to bring attention to the trails people can walk right here.
Best of the Great Eastern Trail
The Tuscarora Trail is a 248-mile piece of singletrack in the Virginias created as a re-route for the A.T., but ultimately never used. In the 1990s, the trail was in danger of being abandoned, but the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club took over maintenance and restored it to a premiere hiking destination. The trail is much more primitive than the A.T., but it connects to the famous footpath at its northern and southern terminus, allowing hikers to knock out a massive loop hike dubbed the “Tusca-lachian Loop.”
