Roughly 250 miles, the Tuscarora Trail (TT) was originally designed as a bypass route of the Appalachian Trail as it crosses the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania. The TT never gained the popularity of the Appalachian Trail (AT); but I suspect this may change, since the AT is now well-known for being over-used. The TT begins at Mathew's Arm in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, and ends on Blue Mountain, roughly 10 miles west of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
I most recently hiked on the Tuscarora Trail in the spring of 2016. I hiked for a couple of weeks from Shenandoah National Park to Cowan's Gap State Park in Pennsylvania. It was hot and dry for my first day on the White Blazes of the AT, but there was snow in the mountains by day two!
The trail in Virginia and West Virginia was well blazed and signed. Most of the shelters were amazing as well. When I didn't sleep in a shelter, I set up my trusty ENO tarp.
Of course, there were low moments along with this trip. There is a whole heck of a lot of road walking along this section of trail. I had left before the spring leaves had opened, so the road walking was very hot from time to time. Of course, the upside to road walking is the opportunity to resupply with gear at stores, restaurants, and post offices!
There were many amazing views of the mountains and valleys along the West Virginia/Virginia border.
Photo credit: Eriks Perkons
The first leg of this my ended at the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. A few weeks later, I headed back to the border to day hike to Cowan's Gap State Park. Spring had now arrived, and the colors were amazing after a long winter.
Photo credit: Eriks Perkons
It took all day for Eriks and I to hike this 40+ mile section of trail. Of course, more than a quarter of the day was spent road walking. We were still able to get in a lot of great ridge walking on rocky single track trails.
Of course, this trail wasn't only rocks. There was a section or two that wasn't road, or rock, but was just an easy trail on a flat wide ridge.
Photo credit: Eriks Perkons
I still have roughly 90 miles left of the TT until I'll be completely finished. I'm looking forward to completing this trail soon, so that I can give a more thorough review of the trail. All hikers should be aware of a few logistical obstacles of the TT: some trail sections in PA are on private property and closed during hunting season, this trail is notorious for being overgrown and underused in the summer, and the ridges can be very dry during late summer and early fall. Happy hiking!
