Trans-America Trail — Ranger to Clifton Forge via the Allegheny Highland Divide

This stretch of Sam Correro’s Trans-America Trail punches north from Ranger, West Virginia, across a tangle of USFS logging roads and ridge-top double-track before dropping into Clifton Forge, Virginia — roughly 120 miles of some of the most genuinely remote trail east of the Mississippi. The Monongahela National Forest owns most of the corridor, and the roads have the character you’d expect from decades-old timber tracks: loose shale climbs, off-camber shelf roads through second-growth hardwood, and creek crossings that require actual attention. Williams River Road and the ridge roads above Cranberry Glades are the kind of tracks where you won’t see another vehicle all day. The forest shifts dramatically by elevation — rhododendron tunnels at creek level, exposed ridge-line blasted by wind a thousand feet above.

A capable dual-sport or high-clearance 4WD handles this segment fine in dry conditions; wet weather turns the clay sections into serious mud, and snow can persist on high ridges into May. No permit required on USFS land; dispersed camping is legal on National Forest ground off established roads. Fuel up in Marlinton or Elkins before heading in — there’s nothing reliable in the corridor. The nearest fuel at the Virginia end is Warm Springs or Clifton Forge. Cell coverage is effectively zero. Best run May through October. This is classic TAT territory: unsupported, self-reliant, and quietly spectacular.