Cycling The Virginia Creeper Trail.

While hiking the AT with friends Scott and Kathy they mentioned that when they were driving down they stopped in Abingdon, VA. They checked out a path called the Creeper Trail and recommended it to us. Here we are! The trail meanders right by our campsite and that happens to be the exact halfway point of the 34 mile long bike path. We chose to take two days to ride the entire thing. Each day we left our campsite and headed out 17 miles to both termini and then back. Absolutely gorgeous trail!

Waiting patiently for the photographer and the cyclist that will push my big butt along the trail.

We also found some really cool colored rocks lining the trail; this would make a great oil painting.

This is what the old railroad bed looks like..

Just to think that this oak tree started growing around the time the Civil War was going on.

Who said cows have no intelligence? It was 90 degrees and they are either in the water or in the shade. This pic was taken from one of the trestles we rode over that used to carry the trains.

We think this gal had no idea what we were doing up on the trestle. The bike makes a freight train like noise when it goes over the now wood planked trestle/bridge.

Our tandem bike is set up for riding on the road with skinny tires. Although the trail is very nicely done and maintained it is still not a road. Much better suited for mountain bikes. We always carry a spare tire and a few tubes. And, yes, just in case of multiple flats, we have a patch kit…..we think we packed it?

Our first flat came about 1/3 of the way back to our camper. It was on the front tire which is much easier to fix than the rear.

10 minutes later……hssssss….another flat, this one on the rear tire! We had already used the spare tube on the front and the old tube from the front was not patchable as it split at the seam from hitting a large rock at high speeds.

We did find an old patch kit in the front bag and managed to stick a patch to the rear tube after failing a few times. This made me very nervous as we still had 10 miles to go with no other available fixes if we got another flat. We held our breath those last 10 miles and did make it back to the Bullet. In the morning I drove to one of the many bike shops in town and bought a new patch kit and a bunch of spare tubes! Fool me once……the saying goes.

A view of what the trestles look like as you approach them on the trail.

Most of the trail followed an awesome creek/river. There were many spots to pull over and cool off if one desired.

There was still an old station in operation at Green Cove. They turned it into a museum and concession shop. Very tastefully done.

Here is what the station looked like back in the 1800s

They told us that When the owners sold it to the conservancy they simply left all the items on the shelves and they have been left that way since.

Some of these items were a bit before our time but we did have some memories.

I did not use one of these during my 32 years teaching!

As the depot was also the local post office they had the prices of stamps throughout the ages. Check out the drop in price from 1917 to 1918.

There were tons of cool old black and white pictures of people in the old station way back in the day. The furniture and items in the station were exactly the same as 2019! Check them out:

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