RIDE RECAP: Rail Trails near Mt. Rogers National Recreational Area
Background
My wife went on a fun trip to Nashville with friends that she has known since grade school, so I was going to be home alone for several days. I thought what the heck, I might as well make a biking adventure out of this opportunity. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go, but I’ve always wanted to ride the Virginia Creeper and New River Trails in southwest Virginia so I started to investigate how to make it happen. I kind of waited till the last minute to plan this trip so I wasn’t sure where I was going to stay. I figured I could bikepack and camp, but when I looked at the forecast it predicted nighttime temperatures in the low 30s to upper 20s. My comfort ratings on my sleep system really don’t support those temperatures nor do I like to sleep in those temperatures, so I decided to find lodging for the nights and just do day rides. I started searching for last minute lodging options along the Virginia Creeper Trail near Damascus, Virginia and anywhere between Pulaski and Galax, Virginia along the New River Trail. I was able to find a couple of nice looking and “cheap” places on AirBnB and both were right on the trails. The Damascus location was just outside of town but an easy walk to town on the Creeper Trail. The Ivanhoe location was literally right on the trail and next to the Ivanhoe trailhead. I could actually see riders on the trail from the AirBnB.
The only unknown was what to do during the day of travel from Damascus to Ivanhoe. I basically had the entire Mt. Rogers National Recreational Area to choose from so there were a lot of options. My youngest son did a five-day hike on the Appalachian Trail for his high school senior trip and mentioned that the Grayson Highlands wild ponies were one of the highlights of that trip. Since it is relatively close to Damascus, I decided to go to Grayson Highlands State Park and see if I could find the ponies.
With most of my plans in place, I headed west to the Virginia Creeper Trail and after about 7.5 hours of driving on Rt. 58 I arrived in Damascus ready to ride the trail the next morning.
Day 1 - Virginia Creeper Trail
Link to Virginia Creeper Trail Information
68 miles and 2300 feet climbing riding from Damascus to Whitetop and back before lunch then from Damascus to Abingdon and back after lunch.
I woke up early and got on the trail shortly after the sun came up. It was a cold, crisp and clear morning so I started out with several layers of clothing that I could peel off as the temperatures rose throughout the day. The leaves were turning and it made some amazing fall views with multiple shades of yellow and red including a splash of green still showing. The early morning sun really made the colors pop enhancing the scenery at the beginning of the ride. The trail heading to Whitetop from Damascus is pretty much a continuous climb for 16 or so miles. Since it is an old railroad bed, it never really gets too steep but the end closest to Whitetop does get to between 3.5 to 4% grade for several miles with the remainder being between 1% and 3%.
This is the reason that so many people come to this trail. The businesses in Damascus cater to bicyclist and there are at least five different shuttling services that will take you and your bike (your own or rental) to the trail head at Whitetop so you can ride down the trail. For the first 10 or so miles as I was going up the trail towards Whitetop, I never encountered another rider. I did pass a few Appalachian Trail backpackers making their way to Damascus, but I did not see another rider for the majority of my way up the trail. I felt like I had the entire trail to myself until I got to within about 5 miles of Whitetop when all of a sudden a wave of bicyclist came down the trail. They weren’t riding too fast but there was a steady stream of them. Around 8:30AM or so, the shuttle services finally make their way to Whitetop and start dropping off about 10-15 riders at a time. I believe this pretty much continues throughout the day as the vans with riders and trailer loads of bicycles kept arriving at the Whitetop trail head while I was there taking a break. It actually looks like a great service. For those who are not comfortable climbing, they have an opportunity to ride 16+ miles mostly downhill with very little effort. I noticed a lot of people riding, including children, that probably don’t get a chance to ride a trail as beautiful as the Creeper for that amount of distance. The more people who ride bikes the better.
The trail doesn’t end at Whitetop so I continued to the end of the trail which terminates right on the North Carolina border. This part of the trail doesn’t get a lot of use and it has turned into a nice little section of single track and is worth the time to extend the ride to the most eastern part of the trail. I turned around and headed back to Damascus looking forward to taking advantage of the negative grades. It was a lot of fun as I was able to get up over 20 miles an hour on a rail trail. I just kept an eye out for the other cyclist making sure I slowed down and had good communication with them before I passed them. I returned to my AirBnB and had a good lunch of left-over pizza from the night before.
After a nice break for lunch, I got back on my bike and headed towards Abingdon, VA. Again, this ride is mostly uphill but the grade is very low rarely getting over 1% or so. The scenery is very different as well. Heading to Whitetop is very remote with a sense that you are deep within a beautiful forest as you follow the rugged Laurel creek up the trail. On the Abingdon side, the view opens up and you see a lot more farmland nestled amongst some very nice rolling hills. As you approach Abingdon, you also encounter some exclusive housing developments. Abingdon is a very nice small town, but I would describe it as a bit more high end and artsy compared to Damascus. Damascus focuses on the trails and seems to be a bit more laid back. Both are excellent and are great places to visit though they have a different vibe about them.
Day 2 - Grayson Highlands State Park and Mt. Rogers
Hiking 10 miles and climbing 1900 feet.
I arrived at the park somewhat early in the morning with clear skies and temperatures in the 40s. However, the Highlands are at a high elevation and there are very few trees to block the wind, which was pretty stiff and steady throughout the entire day especially on the most exposed areas. I asked the park ranger for a recommendation on where to find the ponies and headed towards the Massie Gap parking area. There are over 150 parking spaces in this area but they were filling up quickly so if you go to this park on a busy weekend make sure you arrive early. I headed out of the parking lot searching for the ponies and after a mile or so of hiking I was successful. The scenery, long distance views and ponies are all worth the effort as it really is amazing how far you can see at top of several of the ridges in the park. Some of the ponies didn’t seem to care if you got close and others would move away as you got near them. They mostly did what horses do, which is eat grass and then move and eat some more grass. They are really cool little creatures but unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to feed them like the OGG’s do the famous donkey on I believe the Homer Route.
One of the main trails that runs through the park is the Appalachian Trail (AT). After I found the ponies, I was thinking about heading back to the truck and continuing my drive to Ivanhoe, but I saw a sign that said Mt. Rogers was only 3 miles away. All I had to do was follow the Appalachian Trail and then take a “short” side trail to the summit of Mt. Rogers, which is the highest peak in Virginia at over 5700 ft. in elevation. I figured since I was pretty close and had time to do it, I would hop on the Appalachian Trail and summit the mountain. Carpe Diem! I shortly found out that this portion of the AT is very rough with a tremendous amount of rocks and boulders that you have to walk on and navigate around to make your way to your destination. There were many backpackers and hikers on the trail and I would even say that it was crowded. I think the long Columbus Day weekend and good weather may have brought a lot of people out to enjoy the beautiful wilderness areas around Grayson Highlands and Mt. Rogers. I ran into a group of about 10 college students spending the weekend backpacking on the trail and trying to get a group photo with the amazing mountains behind them. I asked them if they wanted me to take the photo and they quickly responded yes. They were all students at Ohio University in Athens so that was another nice little connection to the OGG riders.
I made it to the top of Mt. Rogers with the summit being a dense forest of spruce trees. The experience was actually kind of anti-climactic because you can’t see anything because of the trees and the summit is this tiny little rock that you would walk right by if you didn’t see the sign that someone graciously made and put next to the “summit”. I climbed the rock and found the geographical survey marker allowing me to check off another highest point in a state climb.
I started the decent back to my truck and with a mile or two remaining I started to feel the effort in my legs. I can ride a bike all day but climbing and descending on the AT sure was using another set of muscles in my legs and they were letting me know that they were not used to it. For an ad-hoc day of adventure this was one if not the best part of the trip.
Day 3 - New River Trail
Link to New River Trail information
65 miles and 590 feet of climbing riding from Ivanhoe to Pulaski and back.
I got up early again and was on the trail within about 30 seconds of leaving my AirBnB. I headed towards Pulaski and immediately started to encounter some very interesting sites. The Jackson Ferry Shot Tower is right next to the trail though you have to get off of your bike and walk up a short hill to get to the base of the tower. The Shot Tower operated at the beginning of the 1800’s making lead shot for guns. It was originally developed by Moses Austin whose son was Stephen Austin, who is considered the “Father of Texas”. I then passed through a ragged rock and relatively small tunnel before coming to Foster Falls State Park. This looks like an excellent park with a lot of amenities including camping so it could be a good starting place or stopover on future trips to the trail. The park is completing the renovation of an old mining company hotel with several rooms for rent so if anyone wanted to stay in a boutique hotel in the future this one looks like it is going to be extremely nice.
The portion of the trail that runs next to these sites is pretty much flat and runs right along the river. Eventually, I crossed over the river on a very long and gorgeous truss bridge and started a long climb that took me inland away from the river towards Pulaski. Even though the trail starts going uphill the climb is very low-grade all the way to a small town called Draper. Draper has an old mercantile and restaurant right off the trail. I stopped on the way back from Pulaski to check it out and it looks like a good place for a break and a meal.
The grade actually started to drop again once I passed Draper giving me a long downhill pretty much all of the way to downtown Pulaski. I was looking for a good place for lunch but since it was Sunday almost every restaurant that wasn’t a fast-food restaurant was closed. I did find a small Italian restaurant downtown and took a long break while eating a steak sub. I hopped back on my bike and headed back to Ivanhoe arriving before dinner.
The next morning, I had a quick breakfast, packed the truck and headed towards I-77 so I could take it south where it intersects with Rt. 58. Once again, I stayed on Rt. 58 for several hours until I reached my house. Though this was a last-minute trip, I really enjoyed exploring and learning more about both of these trails. If you have the time, I would definitely recommend visiting and riding both of them. If you only have time for one, I would recommend the Creeper Trail over the New River Trail. However, I actually think the visit to Grayson Highlands State Park, seeing the ponies, hiking on the Appalachian Trail and climbing Mt. Rogers was the highlight of the trip. Yes, it didn’t involve my bicycle, but I probably wouldn’t have done it if not for the bicycling trip.
