North Country doesn't have to worry about it because it's not routed through the AEP ReCreation Land. But when BT hikers are unsupported, they face the question of how do they hike The Wilderness and the main loops without hiking 30 miles redundantly. And the conventional answer is that you have to hike those 30 miles. However the unconventional method can shave 11 miles and 2 days off of that.
On the BT in the clockwise (CW) direction, hike the Whipple Section in the counter clockwise (CCW) direction first, then the Road Fork. When the unassisted thru hiker reaches the Village of Belle Valley in Noble County, they should hike the Belle Valley Section CW to the present day Point 26 on the E side of I-77. At that very spot, they'll need to get pedestrian directions to a camp shelter between Stockport Section, Points 06 - 07. If done on road like that, it will take a 3 day, 30 mile redundancy and turn it into an 8 hour, 19 mile (you might get less) by-pass.
8 hours assumes that the hiker is traveling at 3.0 MPH average with a break or two. Of course it could be done at a lower speed, but just like walking from the trail to an amenity, it's just that it's not on trail (better to get it done and over with kind of thing). Since the unassisted thru hiker traveling CW on the main loop would have stared the Whipple Section first, the they would have already claimed the AEP ReCreation Land area of the trail. Any many might feel that hiking it over again is just unnecessary because it's counterintuitive to progress.
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