Appalachian Trail Hike into Damascus

Heavy rain all morning forced us to abort the hike.

This will be a 7.6 mile north to south hike on th Appalachian Trail that will have Damascus, Virginia as its end point. The hike will be a one-way hike and will require an auto shuttle.

The hike will begin at Taylors Valley Trail at an elevation of about 2800 feet. The hike will begin with a decent to Straight Branch Creek ( Hwy US 58) which has an elevation of 2300 feet. The trail will run parallel to the Virginia Creeper Trail (bike trail) on the decent. 

From Straight Branch Creek we will ascend to about 3100 feet and Cuckoo Knob. After reaching Cuckoo Knob we shall begin a steep decent of about 3 miles down to 2000 feet and US 58 and Damascus , our end point. 

Plan on spending 5 hours on the trail for this hike.