15-20 mile loop near Northern Virginia (Shenandoah, GWNF, etc.)

Cranberry Wilderness in WV is a few hours closer than the Sods.

Get yourself the Circuit Hikes in the Shenandoah book. You can do all sorts of long hikes and overnighters with the trails that connect along the AT. Jeremy's Run is a nice area..heavy bear population though. White Oak canyon loop…Riprap Hollow…you can also begin at one of the lodges and leave your car there and follow the AT to one of the circuit hikes and loop back to the lodge. Lots of creative options. You can also use ATdist.com to figure your mileage for the day. I've stealth camped the area, but there are shelters if you want to be in a place with lots of people.

There is also Midatlantic hikes website that will show some backpack options as well

Hmm, Andy for me Dolly Sods is 3 hrs, Cranberry is almost 5. I haven't made it to Cranberry yet but I want to!

I am no expert on the park but I had a great 2 night trip in Shendoah last October. I was in the Big Run area which is one of the few wider areas where you can do good loops. The details of my trip, including the route, can be found here:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=84414&skip_to_post=720189#720189

Just head a little further west. You could easily make 15 to 20 mile loops in the GWNF in the Massanutten area or around great north mountain. Starting from the Wolf Gap parking area south of Big Schloss you can make make many loops. See http://www.midatlantichikes.com/ and look at the trails illustrated map for Great North Mountain/massanutten. There are a lot of hikes on the website. I wouldn't bother with Shenandoah. There is better, more isolated hiking only another 30 minutes to and hour more away in the GWNF without all the red tape with permits and so on.

Agree with Ben on the suggestion to head to GW for overnighters. It's very easy to piece together some 15-20 mile loops in the Big Schloss area with some great views and access to Little Stoney Cr if you fish. One of my favorite loops in GW is the AT-Mau Har loop in 3 Ridges Wilderness. There's quite a bit of elevation gain, but it pays off with excellent views of the valley.

We've got a cabin a couple miles down the mountain from Big Meadows, so I spend a lot of time day hiking and fishing SNP around the Rose River and Rapidan. It's one of my favorite areas of the park, but it definitely gets crowded on nice weekends. I do the occasional overnight there, but I usually find myself hiking back out come evening. If you're dead-set on SNP, the earlier recommendation for Big Run was a solid one. The Brown Mt-Rocky Top loop outlined on midatlantichikes.com is about 18 miles, includes access to Big Run if you fish and great views of Massanutten and the valley from Brown Mt and Rocky Top. As an added bonus, I always see a ton of wildlife on these trails since the southern area of the park receives much less traffic than the central and northern districts.

Thanks Brendan, I've been to the Big Run area before and I think I am leaning toward heading back now. This looks like it was a great hike for you!

Ben and Brandon,

In general, I TOTALLY agree with you on heading to GWNF instead. I haven't backpacked around the Trout Run Valley yet, but I've hiked Tibbett Knob and Big Schloss, as well as numerous other parts of the northern GWNF. I always point coworkers and friends that way instead of Shenandoah because there's no entrance fee and less people.

All that said, for some reason I'm itching to get back into Shenandoah and now we have a family thing in Charlottesville that I need to make following my trip. I think southern SNP is sounding good and I'll link up with my wife on her way down 29….