To ensure the trail's continuity, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began to consider alternate routes that could be used to bypass those threatened segments of the AT, with the goal of avoiding high-demand areas and maximizing public land usage.

[4][5] By 1997, a crossing of the river via a road bridge had been approved, and the two trails were combined to form a continuous 252-mile route known as the Tuscarora Trail,[3] because it largely traverses ridgetops above the Tuscarora Sandstone formation.

[6] During the 1980s, several segments of the Tuscarora Trail in Pennsylvania had to be closed due to damage from gypsy moth infestations.

[6] North of the town of Siler, the trail passes into West Virginia and for about the next 37 miles crosses that state's Eastern Panhandle region.

The trail crosses the Potomac River via the road bridge for US Route 522, and enters Maryland at Hancock.