Tuscarora Trail

[THEmapMAKER]

Anyone ever hike the Tuscarora Trail? I understand some of it is on private land. Anyone ever have any problems with the land owners? For those of you who have backpacked it, did you ever have any problem finding a campsite? How much of it is road walking? Thanks for you help.

[ki0eh]

Here's another thread, that links to yet another thread: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...ight=tuscarora

Legal camping is a bit of an issue in southern PA as the TT does not have the AT's dispensation to camp in State Game Lands. The PA section's reputation among the local hikers is that it's rockier than the AT locally. It also has better views and far less competition for the shelters.

Long road walks of 8-10+ miles at a time are generally limited to crossing the Shenandoah and Potomac Valleys; and to an area near the northern end, northwest and north of Carlisle, PA.

As I type this the guides are 12 years out of date and a number of shelters and off-road relocations have been placed since then. If you follow both links from the above thread you will find in turn a link to a recent trail journal that details what to look out for. PATC should be reprinting both guide and maps very soon.

I actually did have a negative encounter with a land owner on the TT a couple of years ago, north of Carlisle, who told me the trail would be closed as soon as he got signs to put up. I was as diplomatic as I could be and also reported it to PATC.

[Route Step]

I hiked down to Hancock MD last year the end of May and beginning of June. I hope to finish later this year. I went around the contested part of the trail by going down the Kennedy Valley on McCabb Rd. Camped out on a mans front lawn, although there is a camp ground on the road a couple miles down. McCabb road goes right up into Col Denning State park, but the trail was very poorly marked and I had to use a compass for a while. Ended up on a rock road surrounding a fenced in area of woods and eventually got back on the Tuscarora trail.

I missed the trail a couple of times so it is important to have maps and a compass.

Fire Ball has a good writeup of his hike on Trail Journals in 2006.