Tuscarora Trail

The Tuscarora Trail is a long distance trail in the Ridge and Valley Appalachians that passes through the US states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. In the south, the Tuscarora begins at a junction with the Appalachian Trail (AT) near Mathews Arm Campground, south of the AT's crossing of Skyline Drive at MP 21.1 in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. In the north, it rejoins the Appalachian Trail at the top of Blue Mountain just west of the Susquehanna River and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, creating a circuit known as the Tuscalachian Loop. The Tuscarora Trail was built as an alternative parallel route for the Appalachian Trail. It was built farther west, in a more wild corridor, because it was feared that development would force closure of the AT, before passage of the National Scenic Trails Act of 1968.
Trail Sections.
The Tuscarora trail is divided into 22 sections with section 1 being at the northern terminus of the trail (the top of Blue Mountain) and section 22 being at the souther terminus of the trail (the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah National Park).
History.
The Tuscarora Trail was originally built as two separate trails: the Big Blue Trail in Virginia and West Virginia, and the Tuscarora Trail in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Throughout most of the 1960s a number of sections of the Appalachian Trail were in danger of being closed by commercial land owners. To ensure the trail's continuity, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began to consider alternative routes that could be used to bypass those sections which appeared to be threatened, with the goal of maximizing public land usage. Work began on the Big Blue Trail in 1967, just one year before the Appalachian Trail received protected status. Though a continuous footpath was now assured, the Keystone Trails Association and the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club decided to complete both trails for use as AT spur trails.
By the 1980s, much of the trail in Pennsylvania had been closed due to a gypsy moth onslaught that had killed much of the surrounding oak forest. The trail became overgrown with brambles, briars and other vegetation to become impassable. The trail has since been re-opened and is now maintained by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.
Today the Tuscarora Trail is an official side-trail of the Appalachian Trail and is blazed in blue.
The Tuscarora will eventually become a component of the Great Eastern Trail, which will extend from Alabama to the Finger Lakes in New York state.