These images are from the northern terminus of the Tuscarora Trail, a 252-mile path from south-central Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. In the 1960s, the security of the Appalachian Trail was jeopardized by commercial land owners. Future-minded members of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began work on the Tuscarora Trail as a potential alternative, should the Appalachian Trail be destroyed due to commercial building.
Fortunately, in 1968 the Appalachian Trail received protected status due to the passage of the National Scenic Trails Act, but environmentalists decided to maintain the Tuscarora anyway. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club currently maintains the Tuscarora, and they plan to make it part of a future Great Eastern Trail, which hopefully will extend from Alabama to New York state’s Finger Lakes.
