East Coast Greenway – Page 12 – Exploring by bicycle

Who are the riders?

The people who join the East Coast Greenway’s annual ride are an amazing group.

Some are staff members, and several are on the board. But many of the others are local advocates with great stories to tell. My roommate, Donna, for example, heads a local group that is building “Air Line South”, a spur trail to the East Coast Greenway. (The northern section is part of the route). Why is it called Air Line Trail? The name comes from the old railroad line that was to connect Boston and New York by the shortest distance possible via New Haven.

Then there’s Steve Mitchell, who came with a fold-up bike that promptly had a mechanical problem that couldn’t be fixed, at least locally. So he bought a new bike in order to keep riding. It’s the 10th between himself and his wife, going back to the bike he rode cross-country in 1977. Here he is with his latest:

By the way, Steve’s a big car dealer. You don’t have to like one or the other.

Another thing I love about this group is how low-key the riding is. No “teams” that are zipping by you in a pace line, intent on finishing early and then just sit around the hotel. No cliques.

That’s not to say I didn’t ride with a core group most days. And Bob, Ed with his Ed-rated banter and newcomers Sherri and Sue (plus their lipstick) were a great group. Looking forward to riding with all of you again next year!

Another question I got: when do we start riding? On our long days (those 70-milers), we started at 7:45 a.m. or so — once there’s plenty of daylight. Sometimes we have an event early in the day (a group photo for a newspaper, for example, or a meeting with a governor last year). We stop along the way, perhaps for lunch, perhaps for an event like the one in Lawrenceville for the Tobacco Heritage Trail. On shorter days, we were more inclined to sightsee early.

Trail angels in the Triangle

Pickles are a thing on North Carolina bike rides. Really.

More kindness in North Carolina:

The “stuff lady” — Stephanie Loyka of GoTriangle (sorry, I had mistakenly credited Triangle Bikeworks previously) — came with a bag of front, back and spoke lights. We got to pick one. I’m trying out the spoke light. Thank you!

Two local rest stops. Who knew that pickles are a thing on bike rides? Apparently they (or at least the pickle juice) is good for fighting cramps. So are a couple packets of yellow mustard. (I have yet to test this last idea, but I did try a pickle.) Mount Olive, NC, east of Fayetteville, is a big pickle area, but it looks like it might be too far east of the East Coast Greenway route we’ll be biking next year (to Fayetteville, Wilmington and along the coast).

And then these homemade cookies! I admit I can’t resist a chocolate chip cookie or three, but if there’s oatmeal in them, then they are healthy, right?

Thank you to everyone who helped with these two stops.

Seems like someone else couldn’t resist either:

Day 6 – Love those trails in the Triangle

I fell in love with the American Tobacco Trail and other trails in Durham, Cary and Raleigh.

This was our last day — and what a glorious day it was. It was sunny and warm, I had a chance to catch up with a friend over 7 or 8 miles before he had to peel off — and then those trails!

They connected from Durham through Cary to Raleigh with almost no time on roads. They were straight, they curved, they swooped, they climbed … great variety. And they were well used, not only by cyclists.

I immediately fell in love.

Oh, if only more cities thought the same way.

Continue reading “Day 6 – Love those trails in the Triangle”

Day 5 – Welcome to North Carolina

We got an unusually warm welcome to North Carolina.

Today we finally reached another state!

Once again, we had a lot of quiet country roads, at least for the first half of the 61-mile day. But unlike Virginia, the route was well-signposted with East Coast Greenway markers. So nice not to be wed to our cue sheets! (Why almost no signs in Virginia? The explanation is after all the photos.)

We also had a special North Carolina welcome from Mary, who actually lives in Virginia and was part of our Tobacco Heritage Trail welcome back in Lawrenceville two days ago. Just after crossing the state line, this man was waving us over to the left. I was thinking: “doesn’t the route go straight?” But a bunch of us followed his directions anyway, into a park, and there was Mary. She’d set up a table with Gatorade, granola bars and even a vase of flowers. Behind it was a lake and her favorite view.

What a wonderful thing to do for us! And love that Virginia-North Carolina bike flag!

The area in front of the orange rope/marker is the swimming area .. only thanks to Joaquin, there is no beach. The depth markers show the lake is 11 feet deep at the orange marker. Before the storm, it was just two feet deep, she told us.

As nice as those quiet country roads are, we got a look at what the future of the East Coast Greenway. The vision is to convert this abandoned railway line from Clarksville, Va., to Oxford, NC, (our halfway point) into a rail trail.

Back to those East Coast Greenway signs. Why are there none in Virginia outside of Richmond? The explanation I got is that that Virginia DOT requires outfits to use a particular sign company and to have an expensive maintenance contract with that firm. The only way around is to be a VDOT program. And being recognized by the Department of Natural Resources as one of the state’s half-dozen long-distance trails doesn’t cut it.

So Adventure Cycling, whose U.S. Bicycle Route System is being developed with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, gets its U.S. Bike Route 1 and 76 signs, and the East Coast Greenway (which prefers trails) still has to jump through some more hoops to be signposted on quiet roads.

Paah (that’s pie with a southern twist)

Well-earned dessert.

Yum! Wednesday night .. I’m one of those who couldn’t resist:

Building more of the East Coast Greenway

Another section of the Tobacco Heritage Trail is under construction.

We rode another stretch of the Tobacco Heritage Trail on Wednesday, this time on the edge of Boydton, the county seat of Mecklenburg County — and population 431 in the 2010 census. Yes, we are biking through small towns, towns that certainly could use an economic boost that cyclists using the East Coast Greenway could provide.

We saw some trail under construction east of where we picked up this stretch of the Tobacco Heritage Trail, and it will eventually be another part of the East Coast Greenway. It’s always cool to see the East Coast Greenway become more off-road on these rides. But Tobacco Heritage Trail organizers, why wait to get some basic information onto the kiosk?

The stretch of trail we rode Wednesday was just one mile long. Once we rode into Boydton, we essentially doubled back halfway on the road to our lunch spot. Hope the Copper Kettle puts up some yard signs by the trail to attract some riders. After Boydton (we saw one restaurant near the main square), it’s empty back roads (and no food) until Clarksville.

How empty?

This is from when gas sold for 65.9 cents a gallon:

Impromptu trail maintenance

The wooden bollard that keeps motorized vehicles off the Tobacco Heritage Trail in South Hill had been put in backwards at some point. We fixed that.

One of our riders has a sharp eye for the little stuff — in this case, East Coast Greenway arrows that pointed the wrong way. It was at the end of the off-road section of the Tobacco Heritage Trail as we reached South Hill on Tuesday night, and Rob Dexter vowed to fix it on Wednesday morning. I volunteered to come along to document this, and before I knew it we had become quite a little group.

Basically, the wooden bollard that keeps motorized vehicles off the trail had been put in backwards at some point, most likely when it was pulled out another time. The Tobacco Heritage Trail sign on the sloped part was facing the trail instead of the road, so those riding to the trail couldn’t see it. That meant the East Coast Greenway arrows were off too. So it was just a “simple” matter of someone (in this case, he-man Andy Hamilton) lifting the bollard out of its slot, giving it half a turn and putting the metal rod back in place.

Day 4 – Short on miles, long on hills from South Hill to Clarksville, Va.

40 miles sounds really easy … except there were plenty of hills, and some were long and steep.

Today was our short day, though we made it a bit longer than the 34 envisioned. Still, 40 miles sounded really easy … except there were plenty of hills, and some were long and steep. On the other hand, we rode some back roads that seem to get so little car traffic, they might as well be trails.

We ended in Clarksville, Virginia’s big lakeside resort town, just north of the North Carolina border.

Here’s some homeowner’s idea of a sculpture garden:

Wonder what prompted the collection of old toilets. This is just a few of them:

And here’s where we finished:

Long group dinner and tomorrow is 60 miles to Durham. Time for sleep. More details later.

Tobacco Heritage Trail

Here’s my assessment of the Tobacco Heritage Trail.

Finally got some trail riding today — we were on the Tobacco Heritage Trail from Lawrenceville west to the end, which seems to roughly be the Lacrosse/South Hill line. Yes, it’s part of the East Coast Greenway.

Here’s my assessment:

Much of the trail we rode is crushed stone and at times became very soft and sandy. I definitely felt it in the legs, and our pace was much, much slower. We were all thrilled when it turned to asphalt. (The trail pamphlet shows a long on-road stretch from Lacrosse west to Chase City.)

The trail amenities we saw are impressive. The bathrooms are these stand-alone structures large enough to accommodate someone in a wheelchair (not that a person in a wheel chair is going to be happy pushing through the soft surface, but maybe it was particularly soft because of the recent storm). Solar panel on the chimney, a motion sensor when you walk in the door that turns on the light. Not some smelly portapotty.

And I bet the horses love the soft surface. The trail caters to horse riders with these little steps to make it easy to mount your horse, and these places to tie up your horse. Not that we saw any today. Of course you could use this to mount your bike instead:

Of course there are picnic tables and historical markers along the trail.

There are few access points on the crushed-stone portion of the trail, unlike, say, the Delaware & Lehigh Trail south of Jim Thorpe. That makes it harder to use it for a short distance.

The Tobacco Heritage Trail hasn’t yet hit that tipping-point length when it becomes a tourist destination. The goal is to reach 150 miles of rail-trail, plus connecting corridors, as funding becomes available. It should be a draw well before then, giving the area some badly needed economic stimulus.

And food? We gave this place behind the trail in Lawrenceville a thumbs up:

Day 3 – Quiet roads in rural Virginia from Petersburg to South Hill, Va.

72 sunny miles in rural Virginia

A long but fabulous day: 72 miles on mostly quiet roads or trails. And sunny. What a contrast to Monday!

We cut Robert E. Lee’s last supply line as we headed south of Petersburg, leaving those chasing Lee and Grant’s ghosts to fade toward Appomattox while we headed southwest to South Hill.

This is rural southern Virginia, where towns have been left behind as the tobacco industry survives on life support and the interstate (I-85 in this case) saps their commercial life. Truly a case where a developed East Coast Greenway could bring some badly needed cash into these communities. We rode some of the time on U.S. 1. Where I live, it’s three scary lanes of traffic in each direction, and you’d be insane to bike on it. Here, traffic is insanely light.

Continue reading “Day 3 – Quiet roads in rural Virginia from Petersburg to South Hill, Va.”

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