New River Trail State Park

[Roybrew]

This is a refurbished old rail line that stretches 57 miles from Galax to Pulaski Va. with a 5.5 mile spur to Fries Va.

We only done about 8 miles of it. We unloaded our bicycles at the Ivanhoe access, and paddled toward Fries. Well we thought we were going to ride to Fries, but we didn't make it that far. My wife, Sacagawea, said it was only 7.5 miles to Fries, uh huh some one was wrong. It was 9:15am and we made like horse pucky and hit the trail. The trail is well maintained and packed with old coal cinders from the many years of being expelled from a steam locomotive. It has been a very hot, 90+F with high humidity , all week. After a brief storm Friday, the weather was great Saturday. I was feeling guilty because my wife did all the food and water hauling in her bicycle pack, so I went ahead and bought one for my bike of course I made sure mine was smaller. Less weight we passed Buck Dam and then Byllesby Dam. The river is very wide and shallow as it flows through the mountains. Lots of big vertical cliffs borders this river. We rode to Fries junction 7.5 miles up, and crossed the river bridge headed to Galaxy. We rode another 1/2? mile to the 1st tunnel and turned around. we rode back to the junction and had ate our lunch we packed. I realized the garbage disposal bins were bear proof when my wife couldn't get it open, gee this makes wonder . I was worn out and my rear end was sore. Lot different riding on packed ground then on asphalt. I sucked it up, quit whining, and we rode the 7.5 miles back to the vehicle. We passed about a dozen people on this ride. We only have 50 more miles plus the 5 more to Fries. Maybe I should get one of those electric bikes? Hey those things are really cool.
Roy

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[jason]

Always jealous of those views.

A guy at work has an electric bike he seems to like. Uses to pull his gear on a little trailer. But he only got it last year and used it once or twice.

 

[Roybrew]

I'll tell you my honest opinion. Electric bikes look great. The technology has come along way. A person can still get a good amount of exercise on one, or take it easy and enjoy the ride. It's a win win situation. It's great to just get out even for a few hours.
Roy

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[Roybrew]

Ooh here we again. Wife's wanting to go back tomorrow morning and ride about 8 miles the other direction. We'll get on at the same place as last time and ride about 8 miles north to Foster Falls. She said she trying to keep me fit and in shape. I like my Minion shape.

I'll post pictures, ha.
Roy

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[jason]

How was the ride in the other direction?

 

[Roybrew]

Oh hey, sorry for late post. Yep we did another 7.5 miles in the opposite direction. We got on at the Ivanhoe access point and went north, down stream with the river. This river runs from south to north and empties into the Ohio River. Right after taking off down the trail, it felt like we were going slightly down hill. I was thinking that this was going to be rough going on the return trip. We crossed the bridge over the river after three quarters of a mile We tried to imagine what it would've been like crossing this very bridge in a passenger car pulled by an old steam locomotive. Once we cleared the other end of the bridge, it felt like we were going down hill, even my wife stated that. Eeww I was dreading riding back, but I figured I would suck it up and give all I had when needed to. We noticed a shoal that ran diagonal all the way across the river. We were pretty far above the river so when we discovered a little access trail down there we took off. After trudging thru poison ivy and carrying our bikes across a fallen down tree, Eh it wasn't much help, interesting tho. So back on the main trail we went. We passed a peculiar fenced off area with a concrete loading dock and lots of warning do not enter signs, and we later found out it was an old iron mine area. Interesting . We passed a cool looking cave that apparently they didn't want anyone in it. Choo choo tunnel. I guess if they couldn't go around a mountain, they'd just tunnel thru it uh oh! Out of picture space.

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[Roybrew]

Ok let's continue. We arrived at Foster Falls. Pictures just don't do it justice. there were some people on tubes navigating what looked like simple shoals, untill the first one disappeared below the drop. Wow I bet it was a good 3 or 4 foot drop. Couldn't really see it untill one of them tubers disappeared. We ate our sandwiches and drank some tea we brought while discussing how sun burnt some of these people were going to be. We polished off our lunch and disposed of the garbage in one of the bear proof receptacles, to which my wife still struggles to figure out how to open them. We took off for our 7.5 mile return trip, up hill. Surprisingly it didn't appear to be up hill, go figure.
Roy

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