Find the top rated birding trails in Cross Lanes, whether you're looking for an easy short birding trail or a long birding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a birding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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We rode parts of this trail the week of June 22, 2025. The trail is remote (not much cell service) which we like. My wife suffered a blowout not far from the bigfoot. That shortened our ride that day. The trail surface is decent for the most part but there are sections where there are pretty large rocks/stones that you have to watch out for. My wife's blowout was due to one of these. No big hills which is nice. The 2nd day we rode from Gassaway to Strange Creek. Saw no other humans either day however it was pretty hot both days we rode. The big takeaway for us was the trailheads need a lot of work. For the most part, they were just parking lots. No water, no covered shelter or picnic table and no restroom at the trailhead. (restrooms were scattered over the trail, however). Shoutout to Trailhead Farm Meats & More and Bigfoot Braxxies in Gassaway for helping us with the flat tire and yummy pepperoni rolls.
My daughter n I parked at Ivydale and headed north on the trail, 3 miles up this BEAUTIFUL trail there's pick-nic table under the watchful eye of a gi-normous wooden carved Bigfoot! Five star attraction!
First bridge on trail from parking lot by Thomas do it center. Bridge is rotting on the edge on both sides of bridge. Its dangerous because weeds are growing hiding some of the rotten areas of bridge. Also the trail from thomas do it center to 4th avenue needs to repaved or repaired. I ride my bike on trail and it is a very bumpy ride. If I am riding from spring valley to town I usually ride 160 to town and bike trail back to spring valley. One trip riding on the trail is enough for me.
Short Trail app 4miles ,black top through town, then chip gravel through the woods along the elk river, nicely shaded and just a slight grade, 1/2 way on the trail is a clean and well maintained outhouse, ….a very nice part of the elk river trail system.
The best part of this trail is the Nottinghams's Market. Mr/Mrs Nottingham makes chili dogs, chocolate shakes and has a great deal of provisions. It's a must stop! Very gracious and has many items if you are in the middle of the trail.
I ran the Southside Trail starting at the parking lot (across the bridge from Thurmond). I ran out 3.25 miles and came back.
The trail had some water/mud covered sections. These sections weren't long (10-20 yards), but I had to stop and walk around the mud. I had to do this approximately 10 times during my 3.25 miles.
This was closer to trail than rail trail. There were sections with more larger rocks, stumps, roots to be dealt with. Expect to be paying attention to the ground as much as the scenery.
We camped on Elk River in Gassaway. Did out and back rides on the trail from Gassaway (end/beginning) down to near Ivydale then started from other end (Hartland) up to just shy of Ivydale. No services, one old convenience store near trail in Duck. Surface is crushed stone and in very good condition. Hardly saw a soul. Lots of deer. Be sure you bring what you need with you. Follows river quite closely all the way.
This trail is not bad but it could be so much better. It’s not in the best condition and the section from Bidwell to Kerr was completely unkept & unridable as far as I could tell. If they could fix that section and have it connect to the main trail and then somehow add some more trail along the river front, this would be a five star trail.
Beautifully taken care of cross over bridges, you do come a little close to some houses but only a little bit
We rode part of the trail from Duck to just south of Frametown. Nice surface and well maintained.
My wife and I started from Gassaway through Duck. Unfortunately the Gassaway section to Frametown was not open. We met the Park Superintendent (Heath Cliver) on the trail and the State has just taken over the closed Gassaway portion. The dog issue outside of Duck mentioned earlier on this site has been eliminated. The plans call for continued resurfacing and more benches. The plans outlined by the Super were very positive. The trail is still in very good condition and the future is very bright for Elk River.
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