Hot, sweaty day on the AT! Had an absolute blast in a special, fun section of forest. This route is so good; fairly simple to navigate, water is spaced out well, very runnable, and has long-ish climbs, with tons of flowy flats/downhills, plenty of rocks but those sections aren’t very long.
I started later at 9:30ish on route 16 outside of Waynesboro and headed north. Carried 1 bottle full to keep my pack lighter, with a quick water stop at Old Forge/Camp Penn around 4.5. Started out climbing a bit but rolling hills into Camp Penn for water then next was the climb up to Chimney Rocks which is rocky and starts out tough.
After chimney rocks, was a pretty rolling, flowy section up on top before dropping down into route 30 and Caldonia SP. I filtered water from the stream here because I didn’t bother looking very hard for a spigot. You pass thru 2 picnic areas, probably some there somewhere?
Caldonia was about 15.2, and leaving there is a few smaller climbs that all morph into one large section of mostly climbing. Until you cross Ridge + Stillhouse Hollow Rd, then it’s pretty crushable rollers on top of the ridge until you descend into route 233 and Pine Grove Furnace SP at mile 35ish. That 20 miles seemed to be the crux, in my opinion. Stopped a few times for water, at Milesburn cabin first, a few of the shelters have streams nearby. Found enough but had to be strategic/carry enough thru this stretch.
Found water nice and easy at PGF SP, just off the trail along the front of the General Store there was a blue water spigot. Out of PGF SP it was a very runnable grade, until it starts descending into the finish. About 7.8 for the home stretch. The end of this route is great! Very manageable and downhill into the finish line.
Road crossings were mostly straight forward, plenty of them and a few are not directly across but marked well enough. Navigating thru the state parks is a bit tricky.
I hope this was helpful! I highly recommend this route, the shuttle is about 1:45 but it’s worth it. Not highly populated trail and tons of fun.