c) Andrew Carter, 2022
I started hiking the 254-mile Tuscarora Trail (TT) on April 5th. It runs from Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia to central Pennsylvania near Carlisle. The TT starts on the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the Park, heads west across the Shenandoah Valley, then due north through parts of West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennyslvania, where it rejoins the AT again.
The TT was created in the 1970’s before passage of the National Trails Act when there was concern that the AT might have to be relocated west to avoid housing development in Northern Virginia and the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania.
Probably 40 miles of the TT is currently on roads, mostly country roads, but sometimes fast-moving state highways. The trail portions of the TT are delightful. The road portions, not so much.
The Trails Act set aside money to purchase right of way for the AT so that the AT is now secure, but the TT is now threatened.
I’m in Hancock, MD right now, which is slightly north of the mid-point of the trail. I’ve hiked 146 miles of the TT to get here and have 108 miles to go. I’ll be done in about a week. Then it’s home to California.
Carter Hikes 