recently i hiked from damascus to mt roger's headquarters, ie, through an area where there was a major trail relocation and the old trail still exists as the iron mountain trail (as far as i know).

i had always just sort of assumed the reasoning behind the relocation to be making the AT more scenic or otherwise somehow better, but now that ive hiked it, one stretch in particular puzzles me...

just trail south of hurricane mountain shelter you come to the last (if youre hiking north) of multiple criss crossing of the old and new AT. from this point north to route 16 the trail routing, IMO, makes little to no sense. it descends to part way down the ride as it passes the shelter, then proceeds to countour around the ridge for what seems like eternity. its borrowing, repetitive trail that im sure was difficult to build, hard to maintain, is eroded badly in spots to the point of perhaps being dangerous in wet and muddy conditions. i havent hiked the iron mountain trail through there, but the map shows it as just sitting on top of the ridgeline and following it out to the road... sounds like a way better trail than the current AT to me, so what gives? why is the AT where it is now instead of where it used to be? its about 5 miles or so of trail that i dont see as a likely improvement over the old routing.

is it so that the shelter could exist? is it because the idea of the now iron mountain trail being a mountain bike trail goes all the way back to the original idea for a relo, and sharing it for even part of the way was deemed undesirable? or is it, as i tend to suspect, to avoid a roadwalk once you get to 16?

anyone care to speculate on these or any other ideas, or better yet, know the actual reasoning behind this? again, i am talking about one specific, relatively short stretch, not the entire relocation off of what is now the iron mountain trail.