Appalachian Trail Review: Section 4 – West Virginia and Virginia

This is the fourth post in my Appalachian Trail series, covering West Virginia and Virginia. This section is about 552 miles long and was my favorite part of the entire trail.

Below is a map of this section. The red markers represent state lines, the blue marker is Harpers Ferry, the orange marker is Front Royal, the yellow marker is Waynesboro, the purple marker is McAfee Knob, the green marker is Blacksburg, the brown marker is Grayson Highlands, and the gray marker is Damascus.

West Virginia

Although the West Virginia section is incredibly short, it is home to the Appalachian Trail Headquarters in Harpers Ferry. Hikers are supposed to stop in and get their picture taken for the logbook. Harpers Ferry is also home to True Treats Historic Candy, which is the only research-based historic candy store in the nation! I took some candy to go. I love Harpers Ferry.

Virginia

Soon after crossing into Virginia, I stumbled upon a mysterious hiker cabin and decided to camp there! The cabin’s caretaker gave me a popsicle. The next morning, my friend Ashley met me at a trailhead, and we got waffles. I also realized I was only 1,000 miles away from Springer Mountain!

I met back up with my hiking buddy Slip n’ Slide, and we spent the day in Front Royal before entering Shenandoah National Park.

The Appalachian Trail runs through about 101 miles of Shenandoah National Park. Slip n’ Slide and I decided to do some full moon night hiking. We did not turn into werewolves unfortunately.

One of the reasons I wanted to hike Southbound was for fall hiking, and it was definitely worth it.

The trail crosses Skyline Drive multiple times. I took advantage of this and stopped for blackberry milkshakes at almost every wayside.

After a few amazing days of hiking, we reached Waynesboro, which marks the end of Shenandoah National Park. This is also where Skyline Drive turns into the Blue Ridge Parkway. We celebrated by watching The Twilight Zone.

I fell quite ill and stayed in an extremely cheap motel in Buena Vista that only locked from the inside. The guy working the front desk explained that they “lost a bunch of keys and never replaced them,” which was a reasonable enough answer for me in my horrendous sickly state.

The James River is very pretty!

The Virginia Triple Crown consists of Tinker Cliffs, Dragon’s Tooth, and McAfee Knob. It’s one of the state’s most popular hiking areas. The Triple Crown loop follows the Appalachian Trail for a large portion of the loop.

McAfee Knob!

Cows on the trail and a quick side quest to get Hunt Brothers Pizza from the gas station.

I had never heard of the Eastern Continental Divide but apparently that’s a thing.

My friend Emma offroaded her car and picked me up in the middle of nowhere and brought me to Chipotle (best day ever). She also showed me around Virginia Tech.

Woods Hole Hostel was one of my favorite hostels on the entire trail. It was very cozy and my favorite hiking dog, Nola, was also there! The cabin in the photo on the left is made from American Chestnut Trees, which are practically extinct now.

Slip n’ Slide was almost engulfed by mist. Perhaps the same mist from Stephen King’s The Mist. Luckily, she was able to escape…or was she.

3/4 of the way to Springer Mountain!

As we got further south into Virginia, we started seeing more damage from Hurricane Helene. Entire mountainsides were covered with blown-down trees, and portions of the trail were completely gone.

By mid-November we had some very cold and rainy weather. This led to some shorter hiking days and evenings spent hiding in shelters drinking hot chocolate.

Grayson Highlands was a highlight of the entire trail. We entered the park at sunrise and spent the day with the wild ponies that live there.

After reaching the 500 miles to Springer marker, we had to find a detour for a section of the trail that was completely destroyed by Hurricane Helene. We pieced together a bunch of low-traffic backroads, frequently passing Christmas tree farms.

Made it to Tennessee! Our detour took us back into Virginia briefly and we spent some time in Damascus before fully leaving Virginia behind.

Virginia was my favorite state on the entire Appalachian Trail. Hiking during peak fall colors was definitely a big reason for this, but the rolling hills, wild horses, crisp weather, and beautiful country landscapes secured it in the top spot.