A last minute decision to join friends Will and Kim in Abingdon necessitated an early morning start to our Saturday morning. After a 9-mile run for me and 52-mile ride for John, we grabbed some stuff for the weekend, loaded our “mountain” bikes on the back of the car and headed to Abingdon.
Abingdon is a pleasant drive from Knoxville, all interstate that is fringed with broken patches of Appalachian mountains…absolutely beautiful. We arrived in the small resort town in time drag the bikes inside, change for dinner and meet Will and Kim in the lobby. We had dinner reservations at House on Mainbefore our theater reservations at Barter Stage II.
This was our first visit to this restaurant and dinner was fabulous! We each ordered something different and tasted around, except Will a vegetarian, who stuck to his squash and eggplant lasagna. I had a Maine Scallop dish and John, goat cheese ravioli. My mouth still waters thinking about it.
After dinner, we hurried to Barter Stage II, an intimate theater across the street from the original Barter. Stage II was constructed in 1829 as a Methodist Church and converted into a theater in 1967. The intimate space holds about 170 people and provides the opportunity for theater goers to be very close to the stage. It’s a wonderful space but the play, Violet, not so good…. Enough said about that!
Sunday morning was all about bike riding. Although Abingdon is famous for its hiking and Virginia Creeper multi-use trail, a lesser known trail lies some 1.5 hours southeast of Abingdon, the New River Trail. This 52-mile trail is another rails to trails conversion and runs from Galax, VA to Pulaski, VA with a side leg to Fries (pronounced Freeze if you want the locals to understand you). The New River Trail was our destination.
We arrived outside of Galax (at the Shot Tower parking lot) around 10:00 AM where we were met by a shuttle service. As it turned out, our shuttle driver considered himself the unofficial promoter of all things Galax, VA. A local bicycle racer, married to a successful local runner, our shuttle driver is the son of the Galax mayor. During the school year, he teaches high school chemistry, during the summer he shuttles New River Trail bikers and races. He took us on a quick tour of the small mountain town, talked about the challenges of unemployment in a community who had been dependent on furniture and textile mills for survival and suggested places for us to eat and stay. Fun!
The shuttle was quick, about 20 minutes , after all, Galax is not a big town. We unloaded our bikes at the trail head and noticed a number of other cars in the parking lot. As with the VA Creeper, this is a multi-use trail and includes not only runners and bicyclers but also HORSES. We are not fans of horses on multi use trails due to the random dropping of horse poop and the skittish nature of trying to pass horses, with on bikes or foot.
Much of the trail is in the shade, which made for a pleasant ride on this hot, summer day. The surface is the same gravely surface used on the VA Creeper Trail and with the recent dry conditions, we stirred up a lot of dust that stuck the suntan lotion we had sprayed on our legs.
I had not been on a bike in almost a year and it didn’t take too many miles on the rough surface for me to feel the effects of sitting on a bike seat…a discomfort that got progressively worse as we road the 27-mile section of trail. Luckily the scenery along the trail was distracting.
The trail followed several water ways. Cooper Creek ran mostly along side the trail from Galax to the Fries turnoff. From Fries turnoff to the Shot Tower, the trail followed the New River.
Along the way, we crossed a number of railroad bridges and rode through a couple of tunnels.
The bridge below crosses the New River at the Fries junction.
We also stopped to explore a couple of power plants.
With all the stops to check things out and eat lunch, we finished the lower section of the trail in just under 4 hours.
Post ride, John and I jumped in the car and drove home, we had my parents 65th wedding anniversary to celebrate today. Will and Kim hung around the area another day to explore.
A great trip! More photos and commentary here .
