Mt. Rogers camping - day 1, biking

We put a different spin on the "traditional" Memorial Day camping weekend with Garth and Ellen and their family.  For the past two years, we'd camped at New River; this year, we decided to try our hand at backpacking.  Ellen honed in on Mt. Rogers so we could see the ponies and, while we were that far away, we thought we should do the Virginia Creeper trail, which has been on both of our 'lists.'  That all seemed reasonable, until the 3 day weekend kept getting shortened on us!  We stuck with the plan (rather stubbornly, really) and made it work.  

We left Friday afternoon and camped at Grayson Highland State Park.  We stopped for dinner on the way down and arrived at the sites around 8:00.  We had just enough time to set up camp and have a quick fire and s'mores before bed.  The next morning we were up and out relatively early, figuring we had to be on the bike trail by 9 in order to be off and onto the backpacking trail by early afternoon.  

This actually worked out in our favor more than we expected, since the bike ride was pretty quiet.  When we returned to the parking lot at the end, it was a zoo with cars and people and bikes everywhere!  

The Virginia Creeper Trail is a rails-to-trails ride.  We started at Whitetop and rode to Damascus.  The best part?  The trail is ALL DOWN HILL!  I thought it would be some downhill and some pedaling, but it was really almost entirely down and very little pedaling was required. 

At the beginning, ready to go!

One of my favorite parts of the drive into the region was all of the Christmas tree farms...acres and acres of beautiful, perfect Christmas trees!  Our first stop on the trail brought us right to one. 

Another brief rest on the way, next to an old train depot.

Most of the trail followed a stream, and there were plenty of opportunities to get off the bikes and explore.  The kids took most of those opportunities!

The plan had been to roll into Damascus with enough time for lunch, but we had done so well moseying down the trail that we didn't have time before our shuttle. We caught the van back up to Whitetop, with a recommendation from the shuttle company for the Whitetop Grocery for lunch.  We ate a quite pleasant lunch of sandwiches and chips on the front porch of the grocery in small town Virginia.  It was definitely one of those meals where the mood, and the hunger, and the setting make it better than it maybe should have been!