While doing research for the Greenbrier River Trail and the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail Distance Calculators I discovered that the distances given for these trails from different sources were all over the place. For example one source said that the Greenbrier River Trail was 77 miles long, another, 78 and one person in a post somewhere said that it was 80 miles long. A fourth source said that it was 77.7 miles long. The only section of this trail that I have hiked is between mile markers 25 and 41. What further confuses things is that the maps show the trail beginning at mile 3.1 and ending at around mile 80.1. So I went with 77 miles for the distance of this trail.
As for the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail I had totals coming in anywhere from 64.8 to 71. Since I did hike this trail in it’s entirety in sections over a six year period I felt that 70 was a good number. And the mile markers ended at 70. So I went with it.
Though I couldn’t find exact dates when both of these trails were completed I believe that they were finished in the early 1980’s. This is before modern day GPS’s and trail recording apps. It was during this time that most trail builders were using a measuring wheel to record trail distances. Other methods employed included measuring a distance of a nearby road and adjusting it or just eyeballing the distance and going with that. And when early GPS devices came out they only measured distances “as the crow flies”. I believe that nowadays these devices use the actual mileage walked to record trail distances. This would compensate for meandering trails.
I will keep researching these trails and possibly reconning them at some point so I can get these distances as close as possible. But I do believe that they are both reasonably accurate within these distance calculators.
