Six decades after the idea was conceived by an Appalachian Trail through-hiker, the Virginia portion of a new cross-country trail is nearly complete.

And though the Virginia drag has technically existed for years, progress has been made to close several gaps and label the stretch as part of the Great Eastern Trail.

The trail will ultimately link 2,000 miles between Alabama and New York.

Tom Johnson, president of the Great Eastern Trail, met with representatives of the National Park Service, and the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Roanoke recently to discuss the trail's presence in the region.

He now will work on writing an overall memorandum of understanding to indicate how the Great Eastern Trail would be maintained.

In the New River Valley, the Great Eastern Trail could extend into Pearisburg.

One option for that includes the Great Eastern Trail overlapping the Appalachian Trail out of Pearisburg and into West Virginia. This would co-align the trails for a brief stretch, and is a subject that has yet to be discussed in great detail.

Brian King, spokesman for the AT, said the trail had not yet had any official discussion with the GET, though he openly said future involvement was probable.

"This happens a lot with trails," King said. "From time to time, we'll get together and say, 'How did you deal with this or how did you deal with that?'"

King said he had no information about a possible co-alignment, noting that most GET maps he has seen show the trail running entirely to the west of the AT.

He noted that some trails co-align with the AT now, and the only prerequisite for such is that the trail be for hiking only.

The alternative to co-alignment would bridge the trail gap with a series of other paths winding through Virginia and West Virginia.

Virginia Tech's Community Design Assistance Center scoped land tracts in Giles, Tazewell, Buchanan and Dickenson counties to digitize trails and potential routing information.

CDAC project coordinator Kim Steika said county boundaries, roads, parks and state parks were all taken into consideration, as well as local government cooperation.

"We didn't want to force a trail where there wasn't willingness," Steika said.

Approximately 247 miles of trail were proposed on a northern loop that runs from the Pine Mountain Trail in Kentucky to the southern terminus of the Allegheny Trail on Peters Mountain just north of Pearisburg.

This corridor of trail will be used by the Great Eastern Trail, Steika said, though the Pearisburg junction is up in the air.

One of the major gaps in the trail falls in this stretch under the project's purview, through West Virginia and Kentucky, where Johnson said there are 200 miles of land that need work.

He said the most difficult segment will likely be through 181 miles of coalfields.

The trail is rooted deep in the Appalachian Mountains, and the concept plan indicates walkways 1 foot narrower than the AT's standard of 4 feet. The trail's distance from towns will make resupplying and showering for through-hikers more challenging as well.

Johnson, an avid outdoorsman, estimated that a through-hiker could carry no more than five to seven days of supplies before restocking, and said it was imperative to establish legal campsites throughout the trail.

Perhaps the most important element to the trail, Johnson said, is the designation of places to tap into drinking water. Johnson said it wou ld be no less than 15 years before such amenities begin to appear.

The concept of the Great Eastern Trail was formulated in 1948 by the first AT through-hiker, Earl Shaffer. His desire was to link together existing trails west of the AT to form a new passage.

Half a century later, representatives from trail clubs in the mid-Atlantic and the National Parks Service dubbed such a connection the GET. Now, Johnson proudly proclaims 70 percent of the entire trail hikable.

The GET is "every bit as beautiful," as the AT, Johnson said, noting that many of the overlooks and elevations are comparable.

And despite the nearby location of the AT, Johnson said the GET will complement the aged trail well.

"It will divert some of the traffic off of the AT and bring it over to the Great Eastern Trail," he said. "There's some feeling that the AT is being overused."

Johnson said the AT would be less crowded, and noted that while he does play a large part in seeing through the success of the GET, the AT is also near and dear to his heart.

"They're both equally important," Johnson said. "The GET is one part of my life, but the AT is still another."

King was less confident the GET would reduce congestion on the AT, citing the iconic nature as a draw to the AT.

He said the prospect of another trail is always welcome, but added he was "not sure it would change the actual patterns, because it's a different trail."

Johnson helps maintain a 3.5-mile stretch of the AT in Northern Virginia, and said he sees shelters becoming overcrowded on summer weekends. Johnson also said litter is a problem, though mainly closer to trail heads.

"Backpackers don't strew litter on the trail," Johnson said. "People will take a short walk though and mindlessly throw down a candy bar wrapper near the trail head."

Johnson said the GET is still five years from being a continuous ribbon and decades from having amenities true through-hikers would like to see.

And even when it is completed, Johnson said, the Great Eastern Trail will likely always be more primitive than the AT, which has been developing its infrastructure for nearly 75 years.