I know nothing but Studlintsean on TOS recommended it to me. You can probably ask him some questions.

It's liberating to show up at a trail without a plan and see what happens.

Take a GPS for the wilderness area, at several places it's difficult to tell which trail to take, a friend had Gaia on his phone when we did it and it saved us taking the wrong trail a couple of times, it's a nice hike, would have been better if I had not had a pulled groin...every step hurt but the views were still good.

The half north of the Blue Ridge parkway is really nice. It goes through dining rock to the Daniel Boone Boy Scout camp. There are a few tricky intersections where multiple trails converge. Try to camp at Ivestor Gap which has great views. At the end of the trail there is a campsite at the southern end of the BSA camp on a trail that goes from the BSA camp to Ivestor Gap. That campsite is besides a big creek. If you wanted to extend the hike that trail is worth an extra day.

Review from Alltrails.

I am stingy with 5 stars. This is 5 stars without a doubt. I have seen it billed as all of the benefits of the AT in a weekend and while that is an exaggeration, I get the comparison.

I started at the boycott camp and walked South, which means you lose overall altitude. 4 miles or so up and then I tool the spur up to the top of cold mountain and slept there. It sounds better than it was. No views, but hey, they named a movie after it so I checked that box.

You then go South through the Shining Rock Wilderness and pass through an area called the narrows, which is just really tall weeds/plants and a little eerie. Then a really solid ridgline with some scrambling. Past some pines and eventually into the open where you hit Flower Gap and are treated to about 6-7 miles of awesome vistas with a lot of up and down over the peaks.

Past black balsam knob and you go down to cross the BRP. Then it is about 18- 20 more miles of peaks with vistas at most of the tops. Much more forested and the climbs get smaller as you get nearer the end. Finish through rhododendron tunnel and out into the campground area.

A couple pieces of advice:
1. Locate water sources before you go. there are not a lot of them so miss one and you will get thirsty
2. If you go late summer/fall be advised when you are in the open area the bees are nuts. Just suck it up and go because you will not avoid them. I did not get stung but the hum of the bees was like a plane
3. Look at a picture of the junction in shining rock. You can take a wrong turn very easily and walk for quite a way
4. I backpacked it and took 2 nights. Take you time and enjoy but...
5. Most of all, do this hike!

facebook.com/groups/JasonHikingPage/

Be sure to check on bear canisters for this hike. I'm not sure if it's required there, or not. I do know places in the area are in forcing and writing tickets.... I'll try to call The Cleaner and see if he knows.

The bear canisters are required north of the parkway. I was there last week and the signs are everywhere.

Part of the trail was closed when we hiked it due to bear activity, we played dumb (not hard to do) and went anyway (waiting for the sermon)...got caught by the rangers when we crossed the BRP and got a long lecture.... bla, bla bla, bla bla, bla is all I recall of it, we were about ready to tell the guy to either ticket us or shoot us...we can't take it any more.

If you see a sign, turn your head before you can read it.

It's only 12 miles from the parkway to the BSA camp