Route: Foothills Trail (NC, SC)

Here's what GORP says about the 76-mile long Foothills Trail:

The Foothills Trail may be the most unsung, underused, and underrated long trail in the Southeast. It traverses the Cherokee Foothills of the Southern Appalachians in North and South Carolina, through state parks, national forests, and state-owned preserves. In these lands are high ridgelines, wild and scenic rivers, deep rock gorges, wilderness areas, mountain lakes, clear trout streams, towering forests, and a number of incredible waterfalls stretching from one end of the path to the other. There are so many cascades along the Foothills Trail that I wonder why they didn't name it the Waterfall Trail. -- Johnny Molloy, on GORP
 

Jason Sullivan has organized several group starts on the Foothills trail, and has set up a website dedicated to thru-runs.