Great Eastern Trail
The Great Eastern Trail is a north-south hiking route that runs roughly through the Appalachian Mountains west of the Appalachian Trail in the eastern United States. As of 2019, it is still under development. From south to north, it runs from Flagg Mountain in Alabama through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, ending in western New York state. A connection from Flagg Mountain south to the Florida-Georgia border is considered "Phase II Development".
It is a potential connector in the US National Trails System, linking the Florida National Scenic Trail in the south to the North Country National Scenic Trail in New York. In between, it would connect with and briefly overlap two other National Scenic Trails: the Appalachian Trail and the Potomac Heritage Trail.
Many sections of the Great Eastern Trail are already hikeable for day use and backpackers. The longest continuously usable sections are on the Pinhoti National Recreation Trail, and from Narrows, Virginia, northward through portions of Virginia, West Virginia, all of Maryland, all of Pennsylvania, to a junction with the Finger Lakes Trail carrying the North Country National Scenic Trail near South Bradford, New York.
The project enjoyed support from the American Hiking Society and the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program of the US National Park Service but then became an independent entity. The Great Eastern Trail Association was incorporated in Virginia on August 10, 2007, by signatories from the nine states through which the trail passes.
On January 10, 2013, "Hillbilly" Bart Houck of Mullens, West Virginia, and Joanna "Someday" Swanson of Willow River, Minnesota, started hiking in Alabama and arrived in New York on June 18, 2013, becoming the first to complete a thru-hike of the Great Eastern Trail. In October 2016, Kathy Finch of New Hampshire became the first to complete a southbound thru-hike from New York state to Flagg Mountain, Alabama.
Several other names were suggested and used earlier during the development of the trail, including the Western Appalachian Alternative. The northern terminus was once considered to overlay with North Country National Scenic Trail at Crown Point, New York, but was truncated to the NCNST junction in southwestern New York state.Trails in system
Route from south to north with gaps, according to the Great Eastern Trail Concept Plan:
- Gap to close in Alabama from Pinhoti Trail to Florida Trail
- Pinhoti Trail
- Gap to close in northwest Georgia to Tennessee-Georgia state line
- Cumberland Trail
- Pine Mountain Trail
- A new link from Pine Mountain Trail to the Appalachian Trail, passing through Matewan, West Virginia, Mullens, West Virginia, Hinton, West Virginia, and Narrows, Virginia
- Brief connection to Appalachian Trail near Pearisburg, Virginia
- Allegheny Trail
- Connecting trails on or near the Virginia-West Virginia state line
- Tuscarora Trail
- Diverges at Hancock, Maryland into two routes that form a loop
- Eastern route
- * Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath
- * Tuscarora Trail
- * Standing Stone Trail
- * Greenwood Spur of Standing Stone Trail
- Western route
- * Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath
- * Green Ridge State Forest trail system
- * Sections 1 through 8 of Mid State Trail
- Sections 9 through 20 of Mid State Trail
- Crystal Hills Trail, a branch of the Finger Lakes Trail
