Appalachian Trail Guide to Southwest Virginia

Official guide (book and maps) to the Appalachian Trail in the southern half of Virginia.

The official guide to the 170 miles of the Appalachian Trail in southwest Virginia, from the New River near Pearisburg to the Tennessee line at the southern boundary of the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area. This guide is a package of a guidebook and four maps (on two sheets of water-resistant, tearproof plastic paper). The book features "unidirectional" trail descriptions with water sources and overnight sites and a wealth of historical and natural-resources information, all compiled by the volunteers who manage the trail in this area and completely revised in 2015. The highly detailed, inch-to-a-mile mapsĀ are GIS-generated, span out three miles or more from the footpath, and include elevation profiles of the trail route.

Bill and Mary Ann Prueschner

Bill and Mary Ann Prueschner are Appalachian Trail Conservancy volunteers who, between August 2013 and the spring of 2015, walked every mile of the Appalachian Trail in southwest Virginia to measure and take notes of the route. Then then spent many days in libraries and archives to refresh the historical information in the guidebook.

Marketing & Publicity
  • Reflects the first complete walk-through of this section in ~20 years
  • Mt. Rogers NRA at southern end of section gets thousands of visitors a year
  • Appeals to stores in NW North Carolina and NE Tennessee especially