Hikers warned to stay off Appalachian Trail as damage from Hurricane Helene is assessed

Updated 1:20 p.m. Oct. 3: Shenandoah National Park officials reported Thursday that conditions have improved and the Appalachian Trail there is open. Up-to-date trail reports can be found on the ATC’s website .

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When it became apparent that the remnants of Hurricane Helene were headed for the mountains last week, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a volunteer-based organization that manages the 2,200-mile trail, posted a warning on its Facebook page: “Heads up, A.T. hikers!”

Weather conditions deteriorated rapidly. The trail was no longer safe for foot travel.

It is unclear how much damage was done to the path and its surrounding infrastructure, such as parking lots, bridges and roads.

“[We have to] just put our heads in there and see what we’re really dealing with,” said Doug Levin, trail manager for the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club.

“The places we’ve routinely used are not all going to be available, some of them probably not for a very long time,” he said.

The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday closed the Mount Rogers National Recreation area, which includes 91 miles of the Appalachian Trail. That area will be closed until Oct. 1, 2025, unless the order is rescinded earlier.

The ATC, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service are still focusing their efforts on immediate disaster relief.

Additionally, trail managers recommended that the public avoid using more than 400 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia for the time being — from the Tennessee-Virginia border north to Afton.

While it is too early to understand the extent of the storm’s damage to the trail, the ATC and Forest Service cited extreme damage and active states of emergency in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia. Many devastated towns along the Appalachian Trail also have emergency orders in place excluding visitors.

“The ATC is a private nonprofit and does not have the authority to close sections of the A.T.,” the organization posted on its website. “However … we are urging hikers to avoid the entire A.T. from Springer Mountain to Rockfish Gap (NOBO miles 0.0 to 864.6), regardless of formal closures.”

The trail north of Virginia 42 to Rockfish Gap is open, though the ATC advised hikers to avoid the area due to impassable streams and potentially dangerous conditions. The Blue Ridge Parkway is closed in that area; the ATC notes that there is no vehicular access to trailheads in this section.

Shenandoah National Park had extended the hiking advisory an additional 107 miles north to Front Royal due to impassable stream crossings. But conditions have improved and the trail, which sustained minimal damage within the park, is open, park officials said Thursday.

Up-to-date trail reports can be found on the ATC’s website .

The storm, which began battering Southwest Virginia and points south on Thursday, brought flooding rains, high winds, mudslides and tornado threats to more than a third of the trail’s range. Hurricane Helene is the largest natural disaster — in terms of geographic footprint — to impact the trail in its 100-year history, the ATC reported early this week.

In total, 972.4 miles of trail have been impacted, 506.4 of which are in Virginia.

Sandi Marra, president and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, made it clear in the news release: The communities’ needs come first. Trail towns, those communities that have embraced the trail and extend warm welcomes and oft-needed services to hikers, have been affected and need to be supported and restored. Damascus, Pembroke and Narrows, as well as Marion and Smyth County, are some of the trail communities the ATC lists as among the worst affected by the storm, the news release said.

“Our priority, first and foremost, is the safety and well-being of our staff, their families, first responders and all of our neighbors in the hard-hit communities in the Appalachian Trail landscape who lost so much in this tragic event,” Marra said in the release.

The ATC is eager to tackle the trail work that will be necessary, Marra said, but critical infrastructure comes first. Towns must have water, electricity and internet restored, and roads must be cleared in order for the ATC and its partners to evaluate the trail’s conditions.

Only then will the ATC put a call out for volunteers to help restore the trail.

“Landslides and falling trees could continue for some time,” the news release stated.

Volunteers stand by for assignments

In the Roanoke area, a small team of volunteers has begun the preliminary work of assessing the damage, said Therese Witcher, president of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.

The club maintains about 120 miles of the trail, beginning at Black Horse Gap along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Botetourt County and running down to Jenny Knob on Virginia 611. Members clear downed trees and hazards and maintain the treadways and drainage areas. When a storm hits, they take to the trail to survey the damage.

“We didn’t get the heavy, heavy rains that they got further south that caused the mudslides,” Witcher said, noting that most sections in the club’s service area had not yet been assessed for damage.

“We have not been told of any bridges that have been washed out or any trail buildings that have had anything fall on them up in our section. … It’s minimal,” she said.

The section of trail between U.S. 11 at Daleville and Virginia 621 at Craig Creek is passable, according to Outdoor Trails co-owner Andrea Futrell, who receives trail reports from the RATC and hikers who stop in her Botetourt County store to stock up on clothing, gear and trail snacks.

“There are a few downed trees on the south side of Dragons Tooth,” she said. “I talked to a couple section hikers who were able to get over them this weekend.”

“It wasn’t like [Hurricane] Hugo or the derecho, or even the tornado last year that touched down near Sawtooth ,” Witcher said, referencing a mountain ridge near Salem.

Anne Maio, a member of the Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club, went to Damascus on Tuesday morning. She planned to ascertain what trail work would need to be done once the community’s needs were taken care of, she wrote in an email.

Roads have been blocked by deputies to ensure that only essential personnel and residents are admitted into the area. She has been able to access just one trailhead on Tuesday, which was obstructed by brush a few feet in, she wrote. On the club’s website, she reported that the trail is a mess.

The next day, she drove to Elk Garden. She managed to hike a little farther down the trail there, but it was difficult, she wrote.

The team will need to return with loppers and saws.

“Our trail club members plan to help, but we are not being let in yet as volunteers to do that,” she wrote.

“Helping with Damascus cleanup will be prioritized over clearing the trail. People can’t live in that mess,” she added.

The Outdoor Club at Virginia Tech will also pitch in to help as it is able, according to club Vice President Logan Duff.

“Our priority is to the people who live in the A.T. communities of Pearisburg, Narrows, Pembroke and Rich Creek,” Duff said in a statement. “We anticipate that the ridge line of Peter’s Mountain has several limbs and trees across the trail. However, our work trips will be focusing on the community that has been impacted by Helene, not the trail itself.”

The club will take stock of the condition of its section of the trail at a later date, Duff said.

“Eventually we will be the ones who are going out there to see what’s going on and to ultimately try to restore it in whatever way it’s been affected,” said Levin.

A warning to be heeded

Levin’s team and others like it are trained in backwoods trail maintenance. Some are certified by the U.S. Forest Service as sawyers who have demonstrated the ability to safely use saws in the backwoods. Sawyers are also certified in first aid and CPR.

“It’s safer for us to be out there than for the average person who is not a frequent hiker because we have an idea of what we’re dealing with and what we’re going to see,” Levin said.

Trail workers are familiar with all the trail access points, Witcher said. Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club members traverse the trail, most often carrying loppers and saws. It takes time to check every switchback, every rock scramble, every dead tree.

Volunteers have been asked to cool their jets for now, Levin said. Entering the woods to clear a trail introduces too much risk.

“People are in peril and truly in disasters,” he said. “Given the resources that are required to help people in a wilderness situation, it becomes more of a stress on resources that cannot afford to be stressed.”

Levin’s region includes some of the most popular hiking areas in Virginia: the High Country. The Appalachian Trail runs across Mount Rogers and White Top, Virginia’s two highest peaks. Visitors flock to see the area’s wild ponies.

“Section hikers, day trippers, families — everybody gravitates towards that area,” said Levin.

For the next year, the Grayson Highlands will be off-limits .

All visitors should heed the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s advisory and avoid hiking in the areas that have been affected by Helene, Levin said.

“People should not be creating situations or potential situations, where [emergency] resources are going to be pulled from somewhere else,” he added.

Hikers who disregard the advisory may find that they have to negotiate more trail hazards, Levin said. The risk comes when hikers have to leave the trail to work their way around large areas of downed limbs and trees.

“Maybe you have to get off the trail a lot, and maybe you risk getting turned around, where that’d be a search and rescue,” said Levin.

The footing can be bad, whether due to mud or slick rocks and leaves. Large holes may have been created by root balls. Slips and falls can easily occur. All of a sudden, you’re dealing with an injury, Levin said.

And water sources might be contaminated with raw sewage, Witcher said: “That can be for a few days to a few weeks.”

South of Virginia, it just gets worse.

“There are bridges that are completely washed out so they’re not accessible. So are some of the fire roads and access roads,” Futrell said of North Carolina. “I know most of North Carolina, part of Tennessee, parts of the Smoky Mountain National Forest are also closed and not accessible.”

“In the end, we’re going to be the ones in 99% of the cases that are going to be resolving those issues,” Levin said of the trail clubs.

Looking for a little trail magic

The number of southbound Appalachian Trail thru-hikers visiting Futrell’s Daleville store has not slowed down in recent days — the wave started about six weeks ago, she said. Some say they will go as far south as they can before abandoning the trail. Others are just trying to make it to Roanoke so they can get home.

“We’ve got the airport, the train station and the bus station. So there’s multiple ways to get home, out of here,” she said.

“Hikers are leaving, going home,” said Marion Outdoors owner Andrew Livingston, known as “Coach” on the trail.

He opened his business in 2022, operating an outfitter and store below a hiker hostel in downtown Marion, one of Virginia’s 17 recognized Appalachian Trail Communities. During the worst of Helene, 20 hikers were staying in his hostel.

Livingston spent his weekend doing what he could to provide trail magic, those little sprinkles of kindness to brighten someone’s day. He discounted stays to allow hikers time to find a way home.

He helped parents and spouses locate missing hikers — three families called asking him if he had heard from their loved ones on the trail, he said. He had; those hikers were found safe.

His hostel manager has spent hours shuttling hikers to Roanoke’s airport and bus station.

Livingston expects that a lot of the southbound hikers will still push through to Marion and reassess the situation when they arrive.

“Usually a hiker hikes about 2 and a half to 3 miles an hour, and one said that they were going half a mile an hour, having to climb over trees and blowdowns,” Livingston said.

“It’s definitely a tough trail and pretty dangerous. You don’t know if limbs are just hanging and might fall,” he added.

The risk overnight is worse; loose limbs may blow down and fall on campers, Witcher said.

“We’re definitely asking them to be careful and stay off the trail for now,” said Livingston.

Livingston’s business relies on Appalachian Trail hikers, thru-hikers in particular. The southbound crowd was just starting to arrive, with the peak expected to begin hitting in another two weeks.

“It’s a big part of our business in the fall. Now we’ll be losing a lot of that business because of, you know …” Livingston said, trailing off. It is hard to receive shipments right now. With fewer customers, his income is affected. He may have to reduce hours.

“I have two employees, and it is going to get tough to keep them on, if it continues like that,” he said.

Southbound hikers only make up about a quarter of the number of thru-hikers that Futrell usually sees in Daleville; still, she anticipates that business will drop off as they leave the trail.

“We rely on our local customers as well. That’s who really keeps us in business, and our doors open year-round — our local customers who support us throughout the year,” Futrell said.

In addition to volunteering with the Mount Rogers ATC, Levin owns The Lamb’s Ear in Abingdon. The Airbnb hosts a lot of guests who are interested in the area’s outdoor attractions, he said.

The town’s economy circulates around the trails, including the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail, Levin said. There are a lot of outfitters, inns and shuttle companies that rely on these outdoor amenities.

“The town itself needs to be rebuilt, cleaned up, but those resources that attract people also need to be available too,” said Levin.

“Where’s the magic wand for all that?” he asked.

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