SKYLINE DRIVE & THE CREEPER TRAIL

The weather for the last week has been great here in the New River Valley. So I decided to take advantage of it and take a couple of short day trips.

Last weekend I managed to take a little day trip and rode through the Shenandoah National Park on the Skyline Drive.  I got on at the top of Afton Mountain and travel the entire 105-miles to Front Royal. I was also able to get a couple of more stamps for my National Park Passport book. The views along the way were magnificent.

SKYLINE DRIVE

Monday (May 14, 2018) I was up early and got in a short 2-mile walk before Brittany and Georgia arrived and we headed down to Damascus. Brittany and Georgia are two friends that I worked with at my previous jobs.  They still work there and it is seldom that they get the same days off so we are taking advantage of the good weather and going to rent bikes and ride The Virginia Creeper Trail. The trail follows and old railroad bed that runs from the top of White Top Mountain all the way to Abingdon, some 34 miles away.  The entire 34 miles is probably a little bit much for us so we cut it in half and only rode from White Top back to Damascus. This is the easiest part of the trail as it is either all down hill or level.

VIRGINIA CREEPER TRAIL

We called ahead an made reservations at Creeper Trail Bike Rentals & Shuttle. These guys are great.For just a little over $28.00 we rented bikes and they shuttled us to the top of White Top Mountain where we began out 17-mile ride back to Damascus.  This is the easiest part of the trail as it is all down hill for the first 10 miles or so and then level the rest of the way to Damascus.

About 10-miles into our ride we stopped at the Creeper Trail Cafe for lunch. This is a well known spot for riders and hikers. The folks that run the cafe are friendly and the food very tasty.  They have great sweet tea and you can't leave with out trying a piece of their "World Famous Chocolate Cake." The cake was as good as advertised.

WORLD FAMOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

After lunch it was just a 6-mile ride over level ground into Damascus. The entire 17-mile ride including a stop for lunch took us about 3-hours. It was a wonderful adventure through some beautiful country

Finally, I did find the time to edit a couple of more videos from my Texas Adventure. One has been posted on My YouTube Channel and the other should be coming up in the next day or so. I am in the process of getting a few more videos edited and ready to post.

In the mean time here is the first video from my stop in College Station Texas.