9-state trail · Long-distance trail

Great Eastern Trail

1,800 mi long · across 9 states

The Great Eastern Trail is a 1,800-mile route paralleling the Appalachian Trail to its west, from Flagg Mountain in Alabama through nine states to the Finger Lakes Trail in New York. Designed as a quieter alternative to the increasingly crowded AT, it is a network of existing component trails (Pinhoti, Cumberland, Tuscarora, etc.).

States: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York
Length: 1,800 mi
Trail type: Long-distance trail
Network: Regional (rwn)
Centroid nearest city: Asheville, NC · 135 mi · ~3.9 hr drive
Centroid coords: 37.4348°, -81.7543°
Official site: greateasterntrail.net
OSM relations: 8 sub-relations on OpenStreetMap

From Wikipedia: The Great Eastern Trail is a network of hiking trails forming a long-distance route in the eastern United States. North of Georgia, the route runs parallel to, and slightly to the west of, the Appalachian Trail. As of 2022, it is still under development and its current length is approximately 1,600 miles (2,600 km). Upon its completion the network is projected to be more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) in length. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Great Eastern Trail, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Termini

Start & end

Southern terminus: Flagg Mountain, Alabama.

Northern terminus: Finger Lakes Trail, New York.

Plan your hike

Practical notes

Maps + permits: long-distance trails like this often require permits for through-hiking, backcountry camping, or specific sections (especially in National Parks). Check with the maintaining organisation listed above and the relevant land manager before booking travel.

Water + supplies: water sources vary seasonally on most U.S. trails. Carry a filter and consult current trail-condition reports — through-hiker journals (PCT-L, AT Reddit, etc.) and the maintaining organisation publish regular updates.

When to go: hiking seasons vary widely with elevation, latitude, and snowpack. Through-hikers traditionally start the AT in March-April (Springer northbound) and the PCT in late April (Campo northbound). High-elevation western trails (CDT, JMT, Wonderland) generally aren't passable until July.

If you've hiked Great Eastern Trail and have current notes (water sources, trail closures, permit changes), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn.

Sources

Public data + curation

Trail data on this page is compiled from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), the maintaining organisation's public-facing materials, and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA where excerpts are quoted). Distance, terminus, and descriptive text for nationally-designated trails are hand-curated from federal land-manager websites and trail-association sources. We do not modify the underlying data; this page presents what is already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page.