Fall Color on the Virginia Creeper Trail

Here we are in the Tri-Cities area -- Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol, all in Tennessee.  Our campground is in Blountville, Tennessee, in the far eastern point of Tennessee only a half hour's drive west of Abingdon, Virginia.  The western trailhead for the 34-mile long Virginia Creeper Rail Trail is in Abingdon, and we decided to pick Saturday, November 6, 2021, our first nice day in the area, to take our new bicycles out for a spin.  Both of our old bikes succumbed to rusted head sets (the ball bearings that let the handlebars turn) and were otherwise so rusty that we decided to buy new ones, so this was their maiden voyage together.

The Virginia Creeper Trail had its beginnings as a Native American footpath and was later used by pioneers and explorers such as Daniel Boone. The trail itself runs on a rail right-of-way that dates to the late 1880's. Construction of the railroad began in the 1880's in Abingdon as the Abingdon Coal and Iron Railroad Company, but the company failed before the project was completed.  In the 1894 the company's assets were taken over by the Virginia Western Coal & Iron Railroad Company. One or two railroad failures thereafter, the Virginia-Carolina Railroad started running in February of 1900 when it's first train steamed between Abingdon and Damascus.  By 1954, due to closures of local business that were the most profitable rail customers, traffic had been reduced to one mixed train a day that kept up a regular schedule up and down the mountain.  Here, Kathy reads about the history of the trail as we set out from the Abingdon trailhead:

In 1956 the last steam engine, now preserved and named "Molly" (see the photo below) was retired from the line and replaced with diesel powered engines. The Norfolk and Western Railroad Company abandoned the line in 1977. Removal of the track began that same year.  As the Creeper was shutting down in the summer of 1977 the local County Planning Commission decided to convert the right-of-way to a rail trail, inspired by stories of successful conversions in other parts of the county in the early 1970s.  In early 1978 the U.S. Forest Service purchased the right-of-way between Damascus and Green Cove, a stretch of about 14 miles. The Forest Service planned a hiking/biking trail and was supported by local efforts to preserve a longer trail and so the Virginia Creeper Trail project began. The Virginia Creeper Trail between Damascus and the North Carolina border, except for a short stretch through Taylor's Valley, is part of the Jefferson National Forest and is administered by the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area staff.  Today this spectacular trail attracts over 180,000 visitors each year from across the the United States and around the world who come to enjoy some of the most rugged, scenic beauty of the East Coast.

Here are David, Kathy and Molly at the trailhead:

We enjoy trails with signs explaining the history of the trail and its environs.  This sign came with its own attendant:

We couldn't have timed this ride better.  While the peak color has probably passed in the area, there still was plentiful color, and the trail was littered with soft, pleasant hues.  However, with those benefits came the cold -- during our ride, the temperatures never rose out of the 50's Fahrenheit.

Leaving the suburbs, as we passed Historic Mile Marker 2 from Abingdon, we entered a stretch where the trail wound through knobs -- hills formed by the difference of erosion's effect on slate and limestone.  While the streams and rivers eroded exposed limestone quickly, the nearby slate did not erode as easily, leaving slate layers as knobby hills.

The Virginia Creeper Trail boasts 47 trestles and bridges over its 34 miles -- more than one trestle per mile!  These aren't just short trestles over small drainages (although those are included), but dramatic, curving trestles over larger hollows, and even over a branch of the Holston River.  We crossed twelve trestles, including two sweeping, curved ones:

The wooden support structures under the trestles were almost as interesting as the surface of the trestle or the view of itself:

The first, northern part of the trail traverses suburbs, a golf course and numerous farms with great swaths of green fields:

A little over three miles into our ride, we encountered the old Watauga Station, which has been rehabilitated into a bed and breakfast that you can rent for a night or two:

In the early days of discussion on creating the Virginia Creeper Trail, several persons voiced their opposition in various ways.  One method was a lawsuit, filed by 13 persons whose property was crossed by the trail.  Some unknown persons set fire to Trestle 6, leaving it a shambles.  It had to be reconstructed as part of the trail project:

We saw no evidence of the damage to Trestle 6 as we pedalled.  Soon we reached the first of several gates used to keep cattle from crossing onto or off property via the trail.  Here, David demonstrates that, in opening the gate, he's smarter than the average bull:

After crossing through the gate onto a large farm, we crossed Trestle 7, a long span over a small creek:

The original trestle was destroyed by a tornado in 2011, but has since been reconstructed:

Leaving the farmland, we entered the valley of the Middle Fork of the Holston River where the extensive limestone deposits have left karsts -- caves, hollows, sinkholes and the like -- everywhere.  Here, we could see an outcropping of limestone graced with bright yellows of birch trees:

Soon we reached the confluence of the South and Middle Forks of the Holston River, where the Holston River proper is formed.  The water level was low, so a series of private docks along the waterway looked stranded, much like the houseboats and docks did when we visited Lake Shasta in 2013 and Lake Powell in 2015:

From the trestle, we could look back up the Middle Fork of the Holston River, with its numerous riffles, slate shelves and big boulders:

The goal of our ride, 8.5 miles out, was Abingdon Vineyards, a winery offering tastings and snacks that is perched colorfully on the South Branch of the Holston River where some unnamed canal must have fed a long-decayed mill:

We arrived just before The Queens of Country started their 2:00 pm set.  Unfortunately, we could only hear them tune up, because we still had to ride back up the trail and drive home to give the cats their afternoon walk before it got dark.  Here, band members confer on the porch of Abingdon Vineyards before performing:

We were pleasantly surprised with the winery's offerings.  We tasted a flight of the most likely whites, reds and rose.  Only one dark, plum-colored dry red wine fell short, so we came home with all of these tasty wines -- including a port which we tasted that night and found superb!

So, we would call this a special outing, the conjunction of new, speedy bikes, the pleasure of Fall colors, a beautiful trail, some wine tasting, and great exercise.  We have a couple more nice days here in Blountville, Tennessee, and we plan to take advantage of them with more outings, so be ready for more Eastern Tennessee adventure!