We put the bikes on the truck, paid the nice people at Adventure Damascus for a ride on their shuttle up to Whitetop Station (elev 3600 ft), and then coasted 17 miles along the Virginia Creeper Trail back to Damascus (elev 2000 ft), actually pedaling for only about 4 of them. The trail was once an old rail bed, and Creeper refers to the old, slow train — not to an old, lecherous man. But I kept an eye out anyway.
We parked in Damascus (middle left), took a shuttle to Whitetop Station (lower right), and rode our bikes along that red line all the way back to Damascus.
The weather was perfect, and the scenery stunning. I’ll let the photos tell the rest.
Looked up as we were loading the bikes, and knew we were in for a treat today.
Our shuttle to the top
We didn’t. But even if we had? It’s prob’ly just some cousin of mine I haven’t met yet. No worries.
I found a sincere pumpkin patch, Linus! Not a parking lot or cash register in site.
Note to self: Hand the nice man your camera before you pose for the picture. Oops.
The caboose was at the end! As it should be.
And look what was waiting for me when we got home. Way more attractive than my bike helmet, and handmade by a great friend!
Webmentions
[…] we’ve now biked the entire 34 miles — some of them twice. I wrote about the first half here and the second half […]
[…] In 2015, we took a bike shuttle to White Top Station (1), and rode the trail downhill 17 miles to Damascus (5).Yesterday, we rode 17 miles from Damascus (5) to Abingdon (8), ate lunch, and then rode all 17 miles back.I thought it would take us about 4 hours, but it took 7.Yeah, ouch.(Map source) […]