Beartree Gap Trail

File:Placeholder.jpg Trail Name Beartree Gap Trail Nearest City Damascus State Virginia Trail Marking Purple(?)/Yellow Trail Use/Features Difficulty Rating Medium Hiking Time 22 Hours <br />0.125 Days <br />120 Min <br /> Distance, round-trip 3.23.2 mi <br />5.15 km <br /> Climb/Descent Elevation 667667 Feet <br />203.302 Meters <br /> / {{{Elevation Loss}}}"{{{Elevation Loss}}}" is not a number. High Point 36333,633 Feet <br />1,211 Yards <br />1,107.338 Meters <br /> Nearest Medical Damascus, VA Trip Reports Click Here Loading map... {"type":"ROADMAP","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"270px","height":"180px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":8,"layers":[],"controls":["zoom"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":36.65532499999999771489456179551780223846435546875,"lon":-81.690211000000005014953785575926303863525390625,"icon":""}]} Show Large Map

Trail Overview

Connector trail between AT and Iron Mountain Trail - North.

How to get there

From Kingsport, TN

1. North on I-81 into Virginia.
2. Take Exit 19 (Abingdon) and turn right/east onto US-58.
3. Go 12 miles to Damascus.
4. Continue through town on US-58 and travel another 7 miles to the campground entrance on the left.
5. Free parking on right in the fisherman’s lot.

Route Description

Beartree Gap Trail is Forest Service Trail # 4551. Two different blazes reported as purple (rectangles?) – or yellow diamonds.

Distance from IMT (mi)	Distance from AT (mi)	Elevation (ft)	Feature
0.0	3.2	3570	Iron Mountain Trail - North at Shaw's Gap
0.1	3.1	3560	Shaw Gap Trail - 1.01 mile to Beartree Rec. camping area
1.6	1.6	3225	Intersect Yancy Trail – 0.26 mile spur to Beartree Gap Road
2.4	0.8	2970	Cross Beartree Campground Road/FS Road 837
2.6	0.6	3040	Fisherman’s parking lot
2.8	0.4	3000	Cross dam for Beartree Dam
3.0	0.2	3050	Cross Highway US-58
0.0	3.2	3025	Appalachian Trail

The Mt. Rogers AT Club suggests that Beartree Gap Trail could part of a 25 mile loop hike on the Appalachian Trail, Iron Mountain Trail, and Feathercamp Ridge Trail.

Another proposed 11.2 mile loop hike involving this trail would be to start at Fisherman's parking lot, take this Beartree Gap Trail across US58 to the AT (~0.5 mi), southbound towards Saunders Shelter to Virginia Creeper Trail (4.1 mi), left/westbound on VCT through Taylors Valley to rejoin the AT (4.2 mi), southbound to Beartree Gap Trail (1.2), and back to the parking lot. Suggested that it could be done in six hours.

Fees, Permits, etc.

Park for free at front lot (outside gate). Main gate is open 7 AM-10 PM during April 15 through October 31 with $5 day use fee per vehicle.

Misc. Information

Beartree Recreation Area website

Maps

Beartree Gap Trail is shown as red line below, while the Appalachian Trail is in yellow.

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="36.665" lon="-81.687" type="terrain" zoom="14" scale="yes" height="500" icons="http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/marker{label}.png"> http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/Beartree_Gap_Trail.kml http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/AT-MRATC.kml

(A) 36.655325, -81.690211 Parking area for Beartree Gap Trail (G) 36.677971, -81.681869 Shaw's Gap (G) 36.664319, -81.691153 Junction with Yancy Trail (L) 36.654610, -81.693317 Wooden footbridge (G) 36.651197, -81.689068 Junction with AT </googlemap>

Photos

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