Grayson Highlands Traverse and TransVirginia Bikepacking
Overview
Well its that time of year for another bikepacking adventure and Jay Walls and I decided to head to the mountains of Virginia this time. We talked about connecting the Virginia Creeper Trail and the New River Trail on a bikepacking adventure after I rode both of them last fall (Creeper and New River Trails recap). After doing some internet research, I found a couple of predefined routes that were developed by David Landis of Harrisburg, VA that looked promising. The first is the Grayson Highlands Traverse (Link to Traverse) and the second is the TransVirginia Bike route (Link to TransVA). We targeted five days total shooting for about 50 miles a day. The routes intersect on the New River Trail so they were easy to combine to create a 250ish mile route starting in Abingdon, VA and finishing on I-64 near Clifton Forge, VA.
We tried to get our buddy Lee Scruggs to join us on the entire trip but were unsuccessful as he doesn’t have the equipment, yet, to do a multiday bikepacking adventure. However, Lee did offer to drop us off and pick us up so we quickly said yes and the planning of our trip was finalized.
So off we went from Smithfield, VA spending the night at Lee’s house in West Virginia then getting up early so we could travel the additional two hours or so to Abingdon, VA to start our trip.
Day 1 - Abingdon, VA to Grayson Highlands Inn
Total distance 53 mi with 3,976 ft of climbing.
We got up at o-dark-thirty so we could arrive in Abingdon relatively early as we had a decent day of riding ahead of us. After getting our bearings straight on where the Virginia Creeper Trail started, we arrived at the parking lot, got our gear on our bikes, which takes considerable time, and headed out on our adventure. Lee drove to Damascus and started to ride back to Abingdon so he could join us for brunch at the Damascus Diner. Lee found us a few miles from Damascus and then we all went to the Diner for an outstanding breakfast at a very reasonable price. There actually seems like a lack of restaurants in Damascus, but the Diner is fantastic and we all highly recommend it.
With our bellies full, we started the long approximately15 mile uphill climb to the end of the Creeper Trail at Whitetop. It’s a pretty mellow climb with a constant grade of 1 - 4% but it never really levels off so you always have to put a little extra effort into the pedal strokes especially since we were on fully loaded bikepacking rigs. The other challenge is dodging all of the riders who are coming down the trail. Many people come to Damascus so they can take a shuttle that drops them off at Whitetop and then they have a nice long downhill ride back to Damascus. Everyone seems to be enjoying the ride but to be honest many of the folks don’t seem comfortable on a bike with a little speed so you have to keep your concentration high to be ready to avoid these riders.
We made it to Whitetop and were feeling good as we only had about 20 miles of riding left for the day but had only climbed about 2000 feet. The Grayson Highland Traverse route website stated that we would climb about 4800 feet the first day so we were a little concerned that we were going to get into some serious climbing the remainder of the day. We said our goodbye to Lee as he turned around and became one of the many folks who enjoyed the downhill hill ride back to Damascus.
Jay and I took off and proceeded to wreck ourselves on not one but three 20+% grade climbs seeing up to 24% on one of them. We quickly realized that the key word in the title of the route is Traverse as it seemed like we were traversing every peak in the general area. Jay and I are both in decent bike condition but neither one of us really was able to do any serious climbing training prior to this ride as we live in the flatlands of southeast Virginia. Even though we were both in a bit of misery, the gravel roads on this route were in excellent condition and the weather was superb allowing us to really enjoy ourselves while we became bike climbing fit.
We crossed into and out of North Carolina twice and at one point Jay got to play with a very aggressive dog. Jay had him fetch some pepper spray and amazingly he turned around, went home and was no longer aggressive!
We finally made it to the Grayson Highlands Inn where we set up our tents next to a nice babbling creek. Paula is the new owner of the Inn, which includes a restaurant, convenience store, rooms to rent and an option to camp. The Inn is kind of an oasis in the middle of the Highlands and we both highly recommend the stop as showers and laundry are also available if you camp. Paula is very accommodating and even opened the kitchen up for us in the morning so we could order a hot breakfast before we started riding.
Butterflies everywhere in the creek along the Creeper Trail.
Day 2 - Grayson Highlands Inn to Double Shoals Campground
Total Distance 44 mi with 3,130 ft of climbing
Jay and I normally get up and get out on the road at a pretty early hour in the mornings, but the opportunity to get a hot breakfast before we started riding was too much to pass up. Paula opened the kitchen at 8AM and by the time we started riding it was nearing 9AM. The previous evening, Jay and I started strategizing on how we were going to approach the next day as we were feeling the effects of our lack of training and the steep climbing. We noticed that the defined Traverse route would always drop south off of Rt. 58 and then return after finding some very nice gravel roads and significant climbing. We postulated that maybe the route is zig-zagging all over the place just so we can ride on gravel. Now we love gravel as much as the folks who come to this site, but when your not in tip top shape you start questioning your commitment to the “Spirit of Gravel” and consider alternative routes that might be a bit more direct. Based on our analysis of the second day’s route, it looked like we were heading back towards North Carolina then we would cross Rt. 58 again before heading more northeast towards Fries, VA and the beginning of the New River Trail. So after some deliberation, we just decided to start on Rt. 58 and head straight to the gravel road that would point us towards Fries. This decision was made because there is very little traffic on Rt. 58 in this area of Virginia and it looked like the cutoff would save us significant climbing and some milage as the predicted climbing for the day was a very nice 5700 feet. You’ll notice that we made this type decision a few times during this ride as the route included with this write up does not 100% follow the Traverse and TransVa routes identified in the links. It’s kind of fun to navigate your way through some decision points and make some adjustments based on how you’re feeling at the moment. It all seemed to work out fine as we continued to see beautiful countryside, have some interesting interactions with people and still made our overall goals.
We had another perfect day of weather though smoke from the Canadian fires was definitely visible as there was a nice haze that limited some visibility. We originally thought it was just the humidity that can have a similar affect in the mountains but after chatting with some locals at a convenience store in Independence we found out it was the smoke from the fires. The condition of the gravel roads continued to impress, and the steep climbing continued with many double-digit grade climbs though nothing compared to the multiple 20+% climbs of the previous day.
We also noted that the Grayson Highlands seem to be the perfect place to grow Christmas trees as there were Christmas tree farms everywhere.
We got stuck in a bit of a traffic jam on a back country gravel road. Someone was building a house up on a hill with a view and their construction company was working very hard to get a huge crane onto the property via a very sharp turn on a narrow gravel road. We got held up for about 20 minutes though it was quite entertaining watching this huge crane and its support vehicles shimmy back and forth multiple times to make the turn. The crane had four axles with two in the front and two in the back. All four axles had steering so watching the driver manipulate each wheel to make the turn was fascinating. They eventually made it into the field at the bottom of the hill but they still had a lot of work in front of them to get the crane up the hill so they could support the construction of the house. Unfortunately, we had to keep moving so we didn’t get to see that part of the entertainment.
We ran into some Texas Longhorn cattle, which was a huge surprise as we didn’t expect to see something like this as we were riding along the back country roads of Virginia. We stopped and took several pictures as we both thought they were so cool and neither of us realized that the long in their title really means loooong. It sure seemed like they would get their horns caught in the corral fencing that they were near, but they seemed to be able to move between the fencing without issue.
We finally made it to the beautiful Double Shoals campground right on the New River. The campground is a first come first serve location sandwiched between the New River and the New River Rail Trail. It really is a beautiful location, and we were the only ones there, which made it even better. There is a port-o-pot but there isn’t a potable water supply so we just filtered water for dinner and breakfast the next morning.
We did notice that there were some long winged bugs that kept coming around as we were setting up camp and relaxing through the evening. At this point, we weren’t sure what they were.
Day 3 - Double Shoals Campground to Pulaski, VA
Total distance 41 mi with 331 ft of climbing.
BUGS and a lot of them!
Right before daybreak, I was rudely awakened by a family of Canadian geese. They were a few feet from my tent and let out one of their classic and very loud honks. I guess having nature provide a natural alarm clock is pretty cool but maybe they could have given me another 30 minutes of sleep? Now fully awake, I slowly rolled over on my back and looked up at the roof of my tent and saw what I thought was a very concerning event. There were hundreds of bugs between my tent and the rainfly. They looked similar to the bugs that were around the camp the previous evening but somehow, they all decided to hang out under my rainfly for the night. After getting out of my tent while carefully trying to limit the chance of them getting into the tent itself, I quickly learned that Jay had experienced the same thing in his tent. We weren’t sure what type of bugs they were, and we didn’t have cell service to do a quick Google search to figure out the identity of our new friends. Luckily, they seemed pretty harmless but the whole experience was pretty weird and creepy when you see something like this after just waking up especially when they are only a foot or so away from your face. We later found out that these bugs are Caddisflies and we just happened to be next to the river when they were emerging. We also found out that they go everywhere, and we were still finding them in our bags and tents two days after we left Double Shoals.
We got a little rain over night and the weather was overcast most of the day with a small amount of drizzle during the first couple of hours of the ride, but the temperature was cool, and we never experienced any heavy rain. We were on the New River Trail all day and stopped to check out the Shot Tower, took a break at Foster Falls State Park and had lunch at the Mercantile Restaurant in Draper. The Draper Mercantile is highly recommended as a place to visit for lunch, but don’t get the grilled cheese sandwich as Jay wasn’t that impressed. However, the food we pretty decent and it is a nice stop for a hot meal along the trail.
We made it to Pulaski and stayed at the Jackson Park Inn right at the end of the New River Trail. The Inn is a nice little boutique hotel that is bike friendly with decent rates, laundry, and a pretty good restaurant. We even walked over to the Dollar General for a resupply of our junk food snacks and then we headed to bed to get a nice night’s sleep in a comfy bed.
Day 4 Pulaski, VA to White Rocks Campground in the Jefferson National Forest
Total distance 53 mi with 5,453 ft of climbing. Jay’s new Wahoo Roam showed >6000 ft so I’m not sure who was right but >6000 ft sounds better than almost 5500 ft.
We awoke with the anticipation of our biggest climbing day with a very intimidating climb starting right out of Pulaski. Luckily after three days of riding and a good night’s rest in a hotel our bodies had finally become fit for climbing. I find that on most of my bike tours my body normally revolts a bit on the third day regardless of the amount of climbing I do then on the fourth day my body just seems to be ready to go and take on any of the challenges ahead. This was pretty much what I experienced on this trip as I just kind of felt blah the previous day even though we were on the mostly flat New River Trail.
Rested and ready to go we headed out of Pulaski knowing that the most challenging climb of the route was just ahead of us. Just as we got to the bottom of the valley Jay had a flat tire so we stopped to fix it. During this time, I was able to get a couple picks of some interesting wildflowers and kept peeking up the gravel road that we were about to enter and seeing “the ridge” we were about to climb staring right at me.
Jay got his tire fixed and we started heading up the nicely maintained gravel road to the top of the ridge. Even though the road was in good shape, the climbing steadily became steeper eventually reaching 24+% grade. We ended up climbing over 420 feet in .8 miles only stopping once for a quick break. Once we got to the top, I walked back down the road about 20 yards so I could climb up a rocky outcrop with a lot of graffiti and see the view from the top. What an amazing view it was! Off in the distance and way down in the valley I could see the place we stopped to fix Jay’s tire and the very straight gravel road that took us to the challenging climb. I returned to talk to Jay and noticed that his bike looked like it just came out of a swimming pool. I asked him if he dumped some of his water all over the bike and he said that it was all sweat. Jay is a heavy sweater, but I have never seen him perspire this much. It looked like we could scoop up all the moisture, filter it and refill our water bottles.
The beauty of riding the mountains is if you go up you must come down. After our quick break, we got back on the bikes and started down towards Alum Springs expecting a steep decent with a pretty good gravel road. The road did not meet our expectations as it was rutted with loose rocks everywhere. We slowly made our way down the road realizing that when you're on steep rough gravel roads downhill is more mentally challenging than climbing steep inclines. You have to have 100% concentration, or something could go wrong very quickly.
We made it down the challenging decent and continued our journey along a nice valley heading towards Pembroke. When I was investigating this route on the TransVirginia website, there was a warning for an aggressive dog with an apathetic owner near Alum Springs. This stuck in my mind as both Jay and I don’t care for dogs while riding our bikes, so we had our pepper spray ready. We found the spot as a huge white Pyrenees came barreling out from beside a house barking loudly and charging towards us. However, as it neared its property line you could tell that the dog wasn’t going to go any further as it started to do the front leg hop prior to stopping. Though it was certainly intimidating, it was far less concerning than many of the other dogs we have encountered during our journeys.
As you spend a lot of time on these tours, conversations lead to stupid stuff just to keep you entertained. Both Jay and I ride indoor smart trainers using Zwift as our interface. It’s similar to many video games where there are prizes for accomplishing certain feats such as distance or time. We started joking that Zwift should create a power boost mode that is based on a dog barking. Every time we hear a dog bark on these tours, we immediately smash the pedals and turn up our senses trying to read the situation as quickly as possible. It would be hilarious to see them integrate something like that into the game.
We made it to Pembroke and stopped at the Bluegrass BBQ for lunch. It was highly rated on Google, so we gave it a try and were not disappointed. The BBQ and sides were all excellent and after a nice rest we headed out again with our bellies very full of a nice satisfying lunch. Unfortunately, we encountered some additional steep climbing right out of town, which created a little regret for eating so much.
Later in the day as we were getting near the Jefferson National Forest, we had another very long climb on pavement with double digit grades. This was a multiple mile climb but as stated before the reward for the climb is normally a nice downhill on the other side and boy, we weren’t disappointed. We experienced a wonderful multiple mile steep downhill where I saw 43 mph on my Wahoo, which was a blast even with a fully loaded bikepacking rig. Sometimes the reward seems to outweigh the risk and you just go for it! During the moment, it reminded me of one of my favorite Rush songs - Red Barchetta.
Wind in my hair
Shifting and drifting
Mechanical music
Adrenaline surge
Well-weathered leather
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware
What an amazing memory!
We were close to our destination, the White Rocks Campground, and decided to take our last break on the side of the road. We were munching on some of our Dollar General junk food snacks when all of a sudden a black bear just walked out of the woods and stopped in the middle of the road about 20 yards in front of us. I told Jay to look, and we both started to reach for our phones so we could snap some pictures of this pleasant surprise but right as we got to our phones the bear turned and looked straight at us. As soon as he saw us, he took off at a full sprint into the woods and we never saw him again. It’s amazing how fast a bear can actually run when they want to.
We made it to White Rocks Campground and setup our tents for the night. A quick note about the campground. It was pretty run down or maybe a better description is not being maintained. Most of the sites were overgrown, the water was turned off and the facilities were closed. They did provide some very clean port-o-pots, but this campground has a lot of potential. The National Forest Service just needs to invest some funds into upgrading and maintaining it. I think the word is out as there were very few people camping. However, it was fine for us as we were just staying the night and planned on getting up early the next morning.
Day 5 - White Rocks Campground to Covington, VA. Final day of bikepacking
Total distance 46 mi with 1,302 ft of climbing.
Our final day on the Grayson Highland Traverse and TransVA route. Actually, we decided to alter the last day and just roll down the Potts creek watershed all the way to Covington, VA instead of taking the original route that would have taken us further east near Clifton Forge, VA. This was a little closer to Lewisburg, VA where Lee was waiting to get our signal to come and pick us up. This also allowed us to finish a little earlier giving Jay time to drive home to Smithfield, VA as he needed to take care of some personal and business items.
This was our coldest night camping and Jay and I both thought that the temperature got down into the 30s. We weren’t sure how low, but it was the first time I’ve had to go full mummy mode on my sleeping system to stay comfortable. We got up as the sun was just starting to rise and got a pretty early start on the ride. The temperature was brisk especially since most of the morning was pretty much downhill, so the cool temps and increased speed put a chill on the body requiring an extra layer of clothing. We stopped for a break and at that time we could see the sun starting to come out over the top of the mountain ridges shining the gentle morning light down the valley. Moisture from the previous night starting to lift out of the valley making for an inspiring start to the ride. I really love riding in these eastern mountain valleys with the calming expansive views stretching to the tops of the ridges that surround you. They give me a sense of gratitude that I’m able to be there for that moment.
Further down the road we were getting into a nice riding groove when all of a sudden, we came upon a herd of buffaloes, which were a huge surprise as we were in the middle of nowhere in Virginia. We stopped to admire them and take several pics knowing we probably weren’t going to run into something like that anytime soon.
We then stopped at the very quaint and small village of Paint Bank and had brunch at the Swinging Bridge Cafe, which is very cool. The cafe is in the back of an old general store and looked like the food was going to be good, so we decided to have a brunch since we started early and had a simple breakfast at the campground. Paint Bank also has a couple Bed and Breakfast and looks like a pretty cool place to come and spend a few days. I’ll have to bring my wife back here for a few days and explore the area more.
As we were getting closer to Covington, we came upon a small convenience store and decided to take another break. I love stopping at these places as sometimes you can find some interesting items and have a chat with the locals. We got both. They had RC Cola and Moon Pies, so I had to get one of each planning on drinking and eating those classic Appalachian delicacies in celebration of the end of our trip, which was only a few miles away. Jay got a Monster for his celebratory drink. While heading outside to load up our bikes with our newfound prizes, one of the locals came over and we spent quite a bit of time chatting with him while learning about the local history of the area. It was pretty neat. I also noticed that the old timer was practicing his second amendment rights so if any baddies showed up at the store, they might get a little more than what they expected.
We finally made it to the Walmart in Covington, VA and as soon as we turned the corner into the parking lot, we saw our good buddy Lee waiting to pick us up. After some congratulatory high fives and thanks, we packed up and headed to Lee’s house eating and drinking our celebratory delights along the way.
Conclusion
David Landis at TransVirginia.com really did an amazing job putting these routes together. They really highlight the beautiful ridges and fantastic valleys of western Virginia providing ample resupply, lodging and camping opportunities. Every gravel road we were on was excellent with the only exception section being the downhill side of “The Ridge” outside of Pulaski. His hard work provided the inspiration to make this journey ours.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather as it was truly amazing. The daytime temperatures ranged from the high 60s to just above 80 degrees throughout the whole ride. The nighttime temperatures were just perfect for sleeping ranging from the 30s to low 50s. We only had one night with a tiny bit of rain that carried over to the next morning. Other than that, we mostly had blue skies.
It’s hard to believe but this is the very first bikepacking adventure where I didn’t experience a mechanical issue. Not even a flat tire so I feel lucky about that as it almost seems like a tradition that something will happen. I’m happy that tradition was finally broken.
It may sound like I complain a lot about the climbing, but I love getting out into the mountains and just seeing the amazing scenery, meeting interesting people, spending time with great friends and just enjoying the moment of the adventure. I was in the Navy so as they say, a bitching sailor is a happy sailor; therefore, I guess I’m pretty happy about this ride. I find that when things don’t go as planned or weird situations occur those are the events that you remember the most. Being able to grasp the moment and realize how lucky I am to be able to get out and experience an adventure like this is greatly appreciated and something I will always remember.
Bonus Day - Burkes Garden
Total distance 16 mi with 991 ft of climbing.
I stayed an extra day at Lee’s house as my wife was going to pick me up on her way from our home in Windsor, VA to Fayetteville, WV. Lee had already signed up for a half marathon because running is actually his real passion. Lee has run the New York Marathon at least 20 times. Since Lee has always been so generous with his support for our rides, I thought I would pay some of that back and drive him to and from the race, which was a couple of hours from his house. We got up at 4AM so we could get there well before the race started. Burkes Garden is a really interesting location. It is a remote bowl-shaped valley in the middle of the mountains, and it really isn’t much of a tourist destination. It is somewhat like Canaan Valley in West Virginia except that the valley is largely farmland with many of the farms owned and operated by Amish families. The race route followed a loop road that went completely around the valley so my plan was to ride the route in reverse so the runners could see me easier, and I could cheer them on as they ran by. There were a couple of Amish stores along the route, so I stopped in to check both of them out. I bought a drink at the first one, but the second store had fresh homemade donuts, so I had to try one of those. It melted in my mouth and was absolutely delicious. I passed Lee about halfway around the route and took his gloves as the early morning coolness was lifting and he was starting to get warm.
I finished the ride and waited at the finish line for Lee. He put in a solid time for an old fella!
An interesting observation. At the intersections in the valley there are signs that give you directions to individual families with the name of each family and the distance to their house on the sign. I’ve never seen anything like that before and it really sparked my curiosity.
Gear Update
I’ll give you a quick update on a few gear items. I’m still running most everything that I outlined in the Loop de West Virginia ride on this site, so if you want the details of everything go to this link.
Water capacity - I upgraded my fork bottle cages to King Cage Many Things Cages. Their made out of titanium and weigh next to nothing. Instead of carrying regular water bottles, I strapped two 32 oz Nalgene water bottles to them, and it seemed to work perfectly as I never felt like I was going to run out of water like I have on previous trips. The only issue is the bolt heads contact the bottles, which looks like over time will create a problem, so I put a couple layers of tape over the heads to help slow down the abrasion. I plan on trying some different screws to see if it helps control the situation better. Also, my forks only have two bosses on each side, so I bought Wolf Tooth’s b-rad system which increases the mounting points to the normal three bolts. The system worked fine without any issues.
Tire pump - I changed my tire pump to a One-up high volume pump with an external mounting system that attaches to the water bottle bosses on the downtube. This allowed me to move the pump outside of my frame bag as the mount fit neatly next to the bag without fouling while I was pedaling. This gave me some extra storage in the frame bag, which was greatly appreciated as I was carrying up to three days of breakfast and dinners in the bag.
Flat pedals - I’ve converted from SPD clipless to flat pedals. The main reason is I have taken several sports injuries in my legs over the years, and I was experiencing significant numbness in my foot when I ride long distances. Using flat pedals with a large toe box shoe that puts very little pressure on the top of my foot seems to work great. I’m using Astral Brewer Water Shoes and they are really making a difference. They are lightweight, dry out rapidly, easy to walk on when you are not on the bike and the souls have a level of stiffness so power transfer is not compromised.
