Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail

When doing some research of things to do in the area, I discovered that the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail (which had very good reviews) was about an hour's drive from the campground.  Because Saturday was supposed to be the warmest and least windy of our days here, we decided to bike the rail-trail that day.

We crossed the summit of the Shenandoah Mountains on Hwy 250 and stopped at this overlook that looked out on the Shenandoah Valley.

We turned south on Hwy 151 and stopped at a farmer's market where we could hear Rocky Top being played by a bluegrass group at the market.  Now that's a great way to start your day!  We walked around in the farmer's market and tried a peanut butter cookie whoopie pie and a pumpkin whoopie pie.  The peanut butter whoopie was good but the pumpkin whoopie pies are still our favorites.

We continued heading south until we reached the trailhead parking lot in Piney River.  We decided to take snacks along with us and wait and eat lunch when we got back from our ride.

As you can tell from our jackets, it was a cool day for a bike ride -- particularly when you were in the shade.

The rail-trail followed along the Piney River giving us glimpses of its glistening water along the way.

While the trail is kind of narrow for the first couple of miles, it opens up later making it easier to bike side-by-side until you meet an oncoming biker or walker.

We had a few bridge crossings and stopped at a couple of them to look out at the river below.

We saw a few deer along the way and one smelly dead one in the ditch that had apparently gotten hit on the overpass above.  We also nearly ran over a small black snake -- something Chuck usually always manages to find even though he would rather not.

The trail was very nice with picnic tables or benches every half mile or so.  Every bridge would have steps at both ends of the bridge so horseback riders could dismount, walk their horses across the bridges, and then mount on the other side.  There were also several exhibits and/or signs regarding the history of the railway and surrounding area along the way.

The Virginia Blue Ridge Railway was formed in 1914 to haul American Chestnut lumber for local lumber companies.  It was later used to haul ore and other products from surrounding processing plants but in 1981 the Railway had stopped functioning and in 1984 was completely abandoned.  The Virginia Blue Ridge Railway was only 16 miles long and with its 70 year history was the longest continuously running profitable shortline railroad in the US.

One of the other historical signs discussed the tragedy of what Hurricane Camille did to the surrounding area in 1969 which seems really weird because Piney River is hundreds of miles from any coastline.  All I remember about Hurricane Camille was the millions (probably billions in today's dollars) in damage to the Gulf Coast.

What I didn't know was the damage Hurricane Camille did inland.  When the storm headed inland, it collided with a cold front from the north and took aim for Virginia dumping "at least 27 inches of rain over Nelson County in a 5 hour span.  The resulting flash flooding and mudslides destroyed 100 bridges, tore countless buildings from their foundations, and re-routed waterways.  The storm also took the lives of more than 100 people, many of whom were taken by surprise as flood waters rose while they slept.  52 people were killed along Davis Creek, 22 died in the village of Massies Mill, and more than 30 people were never found."

Sounds a lot like what South Carolina has been going through over the past few weeks.

With all our stops here and there and chatting along the way as we rode, we reached the end of the trail before we knew it.

At the end of the trail was a big exhibit of a railroad and scale house like what was used when the railway was in operation.

We sat down on a couple of benches, ate our snacks and enjoyed the sunshine.  Wow!  What a day!

After soaking up as much sunshine as we could, we headed back up the trail stopping for just a couple of pictures along the way.

We continue to be amazed at how nice so many of these rail trails are and thankful for the opportunity to explore them.

Chuck and I enjoyed a grilled turkey burger and a salmon burger for dinner and then we got back together over at Ken and Bonnie's for cards later.  The women won SkipBo but the men won Pinochle.  Ken and Bonnie shared their pistachios with us for a snack.  All of them opened easily but Ken had to use his vice grips to get the last one open!  :)