19.1 mile AT Hike - Virginia

This nice, long, rough hike took all day. Over 12 miles of the hike ran across the ridgecrest of Pine Mountain and the borderline between West Virginia and Virginia. This was probably yhe wroung time of year to walk this hike as much of the Trail was overgrown which put us into some thorny situations. We did manage to average 2 miles per hour on the day.  A couple of balds gave us some views of West Virginia.

This AT hike of 19.1 miles will begin at Stoney Creek Valley, Va 635, and end at New River, in Pearisburg. The hike will be north to south (one-way) and require an auto shuttle.

One mile into the hike we'll cross Pine Swamp Branch and begin our ascent up Peters Mountain via the Pine Swamp Ridge. An ascent of about 1200 ft over the next 2.3 miles will bring us to Pine Swamp. 3 miles into the hike we'll reach the ridgecrest on Peters Mountain at an elevation of 3860 ft. We'll follow the realtively flat ridgeline for the next 12.3 miles. Then we begin our descent of about 2000 ft over the next 3.8 miles into Pearisburg and the end of the hike at New River.

This will be a clothing optional hike.

About 25 minutes driving time to the trailheads. Allow 11 hours of hiking time on the trail. We will be leaving for the trailheads at 7:00 AM sharp.