Find the top rated cross country skiing trails in Blacksburg, whether you're looking for an easy short cross country skiing trail or a long cross country skiing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a cross country skiing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Southern Virginia's New River Trail is one of America's premier rail-trails and has been designated as an official National Recreation Trail by the US Department of the Interior. It is also a state...
In the early 1900s, a train line nicknamed “the Huckleberry” was built to transport coal and provide mail and passenger service to Blacksburg. The line was also used by the Corps cadets at Virginia...
Waterfalls, river views, rugged rock formations, vibrant fall foliage and delicate flowers in the spring: These are the sights that put the “scenic” in Jackson River Scenic Trail. The serene...
In the early 1900s, a train line nicknamed “the Huckleberry” was built to transport coal and provide mail and passenger service to Blacksburg. The line was also used by the Corps cadets at Virginia...
Southern Virginia's New River Trail is one of America's premier rail-trails and has been designated as an official National Recreation Trail by the US Department of the Interior. It is also a state...
West Virginia's beautiful Greenbrier River Trail is one of America's premier rail-trails and popular with bicyclists, hikers, walkers and cross-country skiers. Most of the trail runs along the...
West Virginia's beautiful Greenbrier River Trail is one of America's premier rail-trails and popular with bicyclists, hikers, walkers and cross-country skiers. Most of the trail runs along the...
Southern Virginia's New River Trail is one of America's premier rail-trails and has been designated as an official National Recreation Trail by the US Department of the Interior. It is also a state...
Waterfalls, river views, rugged rock formations, vibrant fall foliage and delicate flowers in the spring: These are the sights that put the “scenic” in Jackson River Scenic Trail. The serene...
In the early 1900s, a train line nicknamed “the Huckleberry” was built to transport coal and provide mail and passenger service to Blacksburg. The line was also used by the Corps cadets at Virginia...
They are working in it. Has a lot of potential. Great to run on. I would wait to bike until they finish.
Let's say I lived nearby. I'd be on that trail often for biking and running. In the summer it was nice and firm, flat and wide. On a hot August Monday I saw nearly no one else except a humongous shaggy white free-range dog that chased me a 1/4 mile. The good news is: He didn't bite either me or my tire.
I had a very bad (like, emergency room kind of bad) crash on this greenway near washington park. they have allowed roots to push up the asphalt in a section that is shaded and has poor visibility; none of the damaged area is marked. the city of roanoke should be ashamed of the lack of maintenance. it's a hazard and I would avoid any trail maintained by the city.
A friend and I bike-packed the trail (Caldwell to Cass and back) 10-12 Sep 2018, Trail was in good shape. Keep in mind this is a long 77 mile trail (yes 77 miles, trail starts at mile marker 3, goes to mile marker 80) mostly through wilderness. Yet the upkeep of the trail was very good. Despite getting rain at least once a day (and locals indicated that the summer has been very wet), the trail was in great shape. There were some muddy/greasy spots - spots being the operative word here - (note; this is before Florence) but not many.
The trail surface was good, some isolated spots were more gravelly where recent repairs or maintenance had been done. I rode a full suspension mountain bike (definitely overkill - rode with suspension locked out). My friend rode a no suspension Trek Crossrip. Both of us were fully loaded with camping gear and clothes and neither of us had any issue with the trail. Any hybrid with decent off road tires will do fine here.
The trail is typically dual track with both "lanes" rideable. While there ar every short lengths where the tracks get narrow (mostly in open grassy sections), they are few and far between and not real problems at all.
We rode three days, 55 mi Caldwell to Marlinton (camped at Stillwell park) on day 1, then 65 miles up to Cass and then down to a cabin at Watuga St Park on day 2 before finishing 43 miles back to Caldwell on day three.
Note to bikers, if you rent a cabin at Watuga, know that the park office is 5 miles off the trail (uphill), not what you want to deal with if you've had a long day in the saddle already. We called and switched o one of the two cabins on the river and had them leave the key in the cabin for us - avoiding the trek to the office.
Note also that Marlinton is in the National Radio Quiet Zone and has very limited cell coverage. However, both the visitor's center and the Dirtbean Café have free wifi and you can make phonecalls over wifi from either location.
Only negative is the lack of towns and amenities along the route, especially between Caldwell and Marlinton. Once we hit Marlinton, the Dirtbean Café (Café, bar (wine/beer), Pizza joint, Coffe Shop, and bike shop) became our lodestone. Good food, good local craft beer, friendly staff. Hit it three times in our up and back journey (really good craft brews).
Bottom line, good trail for a multi day trip (have to plan it right though). An contrary to an earlier review, WV can be proud of this trail.
On Sept. of 2018 I rode the entire trial both ways over 5 days, a total of nearly 160 miles. I am confused about the post from pfh24 that said it was the worst trail he had ridden. I found the trail in good condition all the way. Of course, there were some muddy spots as it has rained a lot this year and the week I was there, there is new gravel in places which one would expect on a trail this long, and the grass needed mowing in a few places but the middle of the trail was always fairly short grass and most of the grass on the trail on both sides was fine. There has been a lot of rain so grass grows fast in that situation. I started in Lewisburg and rode up approximately 15 to 20 miles one way, turned around and rode back to my car. I like to ride trails both ways because it is like riding two trails as you see it differently in opposite directions. The trail follows the beautiful and crystal clear river most of the way and you pass pretty farms along the way. It was not near as remote as I expected as there are many homes, mostly weekend and vacation homes along the river in a number of places and there are people living at the trailheads so you do not feel isolated which is good and bad. It was a wonderful week and I plan to do it again next year. The Seebert trailhead is a nice one as you can take the bridge across the river and Watoga State Park is directly across the bridge and they have cabins, swimming pool , trails, tennis, etc. there so it is a nice park. I plan to stay there next time instead of 3 nights in Lewisburg and two in Marlinton. I definitely recommend this trail and will definitely go back again if possible. am a 72 year old male and would recommend the wider tires on a mountain bike versus hybrid or rode narrower tires. There are places where it is more safe for stability to have the wider tires. I stayed at a Holiday Inn in Lewisburg and the Old Clark Inn in Marlinton. The Old Clark is an old small hotel and is clean and breakfast was good. It is old though but I found it fine and the folks were very nice there.
We drove down from SE PA. Unfortunately it was raining so we only managed 24 miles out and back from the Austinville parking area. When we returned we were super dirty and our bikes were too. Luckily there was access to water to rinse all the gravel from us and our bikes. The next day we parked in Galax and rode to the split at Fries . The bridge and tunnels were awesome. The trail is in fabulous condition and I would highly recommend this trail very scenic and lots of wildlife.
We pulled into the La Parral Mexican Restaurant lot and looked for the trail access. Take the road at the far end of the lot (southwest?) down to the parking for the trail head. We made sure to start our "climb" at the bottom of the trail (Virginia Road). Most of the trail was indeed uphill, but we put the bikes in low gear and took our time (we are 75+). It seemed a steeper climb than one expects from a Rail to Trail but still doable. It was a great trail surface with interesting information about the trail and clean, convenient stops along the way. The return trip was glorious. We just loved it.
Rode 26 miles of the trail over the weekend and have to say it was probably the worst trail that I have ridden.
We rode from the northern trailhead in Cass on Saturday, and then headed south from Marlinton on Sunday. There was one location of less than a quarter mile where it seemed to have been maintained - more for hiking than for biking as it was a combination of so much gravel that it was like biking on sand then in the same stretch there were large stones better for keeping a pickup from sinking than for biking.
Much of the trail was a pair of tire grooves spaced about the width of a pickup truck, with weeds growing in between. There was little evidence that trail - the riding surface - had been maintained in a few years. In a couple of areas the trail was barely visible through the freshly mowed lawns. There were areas where the tire tracks were without gravel and which had become mud for a biker to navigate.
And, it's a state park? So, are we to assume that there is an annual maintenance budget??
Maybe the sections of the trail further south are better for biking.
I accidentally found this on a run from my hotel. I was running through a very hilly neighborhood and literally ran into it. It is a good surface. As I was running northwest, I ran toward the battle site and it was very pleasant. As they develop the trail system, it will improve. The parking lot at the town end is great but there is no map of the trail and no information on the trail or how to donate. It is a lost opportunity to generate support. Many of us like to donate to these kinds of efforts. I am giving a 3 as it is a short trail and I am usually cycling.
Overview: The trail length has doubled from about 7.2 miles to 13.7 miles making it 27 miles round trip. This provides a biking distance attractive enough to justify the travel destination for many riders.
Access: To the new Natural Well Trailhead, take US 220 North of Covington to just beyond the Nissan Dealership. Look for the brown Lake Moomaw sign prior to a left turn at route 687 Jackson River Road. Careful, you don’t have good sight distance for turning left in front of oncoming traffic on US 220. Following one route number 687 makes the rest of the trip easy though.
Trail beta: This trip we biked only the newly opened 6.5 mi section from Smith Bridge to the northern terminus which has no vehicle access there. The Natural Well Trailhead is half way in between. It has awkward off street parking with only one way in, a picnic table in the sun, and a porta potty, the sole ‘rest room’ currently on the new section. The most scenic section of the new trail is between Natural Well and the northern terminus along Cedar Creek. It is the most remote section and worth the road distance of 12 miles from I-64 to Natural Well and 20 minutes in time. The surface is smooth fine gravel.
Sweet Lunch Spot: On the entire trail it is in the new section about ½ mile north of Natural Well at MP # 11.5 the trail distance from Intervale. The picnic table is in the shade on the river bank within the sound of a river rapid. In the new section, most of the other 10 plus picnic tables have been placed in the open, in the midday summer sun. Stainless steel MP markers are installed including ‘FULL’ markers showing cumulative mileage for those doing a round trip. Will come again.
Davefox October 2017 has an accurate writeup.
I got on the bike at the Galax, VA Trailhead at 7 a.m.. You have to pay for parking which is uncommon for the trails I have ridden to date. At that time of day, I only saw one other cyclist in my first hour on the trail. While I would have loved to ride the entire length of the trail, I did not have 100+ miles in my legs and I still had a 5 hour drive to Dad's in Washington, PA. So I rode out 25 miles and turned around for a 50 mile ride.
Like the Great Allegheny Passage, I cannot say enough great things about this trail. The gravel surface was well maintained and I had no issues with my gravel bike riding the trail. Note that it is also used by horses and there were some piles to avoid, particularly on the bridges. They were infrequent, but noticeable. But it is a multiuse trail so no deductions for that in my mind. This trail is rural. Galax was a small town and there are few towns along the way. When riding gravel I use a camelbak instead of water bottles as bottles get dirty from the dust kicking up from the tires and dirt makes the drinks a touch less refreshing. My camelbak was near empty after my 50 miles. You will see a water bottle on the bike in the photos. Again since this trail is so remote, I use it as a first aid kit with basic first aid items, sun tan lotion, and a swiss army knife. On very long rides I use the second bottle to carry gels, bars, and other things to eat.
The scenery is breathtaking. The trestles were beautiful, the bridges amazing, and the tunnel closest to Galax was incredible. The view of the dam on the New River was also pretty cool. I encountered plenty of wild life. I saw many deer. The last one certainly startled me as I did not see it in the woods and it jumped out on the trail only about 10 yards in front of me and ran down the trail for about a quarter mile. I did let out a little scream as I was not expecting it and could not close the gap to draft. Also saw some wild turkeys, lots of little critters, and some cows relaxing in the New River having a drink.
I will return to ride more of this trail. Maybe next year when I go to Dad's for Father's Day, I will stay at the other end of the trail and do an out and back from the other side. But I would rather go back and ride the entire trail over two days completing it twice.
Excellent ride, great scenery, and enough "must see" items like the tunnels and bridges make this a 10 gear ride on my rating scale. (assuming a 10 gear cassette).
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