Virginia Creeper Trail by Iphone from David Cate on Vimeo.
This summer, one of my favorite adventures has been a regular visit to the Virginia Creeper Trail in Damascus, VA.
“The Creeper Trail” is a 34 mile bike trail that used to be a railroad path from the mountains of North Carolina to Abingdon. Back in the 1970’s they pulled up all of the railroad ties and laid down a fine gravel that makes for a perfect biking trail with uphill grades barely noticeable on the trail.
There are more than forty trestles that cross rushing mountains streams adorned with mountain laurels, open pastures and national forests. You can ridge from Abingdon, VA to Damascus and then onward to he top of White Top, North Carolina. The Appalachian Trail bisects the trail at this part of the journey and you can also pass through three states – Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina.
The complete round trip is about sixty miles and so far, I’ve logged well over 100. I have a personal goal to travel the entire trek in one day before my birthday and recently bought a brand new Trek Navigator to take make the trip.
Recently, I took my Iphone with me on a part of the trail that leads from Damascus to Abingdon. It’s a bit shaky, but it’s probably one of the first ten-minute samples on the web using a cell phone. The video starts out in one of my favorite meadows and you can hear the crickets during the late afternoon and it crosses over trestles along the way and you may even spot cows and horses who seemed amused by my cycling through the forest.
Hope you enjoy. I’ll upload Part 2 shortly and wish me luck.