Over the years there has been some debate about what the Four-State Challenge actually consists of. Yesterday I hiked the long version with a marathoner fried of mine, in about 20 hours. The 2018 data book says this route from the Pennsylvania—Maryland line to West Virginia—Virginia line is 58.3 miles. When you account for the walk along Pen-Mar Road to the Pennsylvania—Maryland line and the hike from the West Virginia—Virginia line up to Bear’s Den, where we camped, this totals 61.8 miles.
The reason why this is the long version has to do with the way the West Virginia—Virginia line relates to the trail. When the AT goes South out of Harper’s Ferry it heads uphill to Loudoun Heights, where both the trail and West Virginia—Virginia line follow the ridge crest for 17 or so miles. We took the perspective that the challenge was not over until the trail fully went into Virginia, just to the North of Snicker’s Gap.
Another version of the challenge assumes that one endpoint is the state line at the top of Loudoun Heights; this would make the challenge 46.1 miles. Both this point and the more Southerly state line near Snicker’s Gap are marked with state line signs.
There is a third version of the Four-State Challenge, which is the one that some thru-hikers attempt. This 54.9 mile hike is from the last shelter in Pennsylvania to the first shelter in Virginia, or vice versa. This one is a bit different since most likely a hiker going from Deer Lick Shelters to David Lesser Shelter would do so with a full backpack.
I suppose that of the few things that people agree about on the Four-State Challenge is that it occurs within a 24-hour period.
My hiking partner used a GPS app on his smartwatch to track the miles, but lost GPS signal around the Pogo Campsite. When he gets a chance to review how the GPS accounted for those gaps I will post the mileage. Usually these sort of things have trouble accounting for switchbacks, but
I will also post an entry on trail journals when I get back from the Gathering.