I explored more of the Virginia Capital Trail. Five stars!
First, the Virginia Capital Trail is a fabulous trail. I wish other areas would take a look and see how they can copy it.
Continue reading “Virginia Capital Trail, part 2: around Richmond”
I explored part of the Virginia Capital Trail.
I gave up trying to talk myself into driving in one day to Wilmington for the start of the East Coast Greenway’s annual weeklong ride, deciding to break it up with a stop in Richmond.
The appeal: the Virginia Capital Trail, 50 miles of off-road trail from Richmond (the state capital) to Jamestown, the first settlement. It was finished a few years ago and is a spur route of the East Coast Greenway.
I had time for an afternoon ride and debated where to start: Richmond or somewhere mid-trail? I only knew of Charles City, so that’s where I went. Turns out I was 20 miles from Jamestown … that would be 40 miles round trip. Could I do it?
Continue reading “Virginia Capital Trail, part 1, or the back half of “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too””
One article about a small section of trail in Virginia leads to the discovery of Virginia’s awesome plans for long-distance bike routes.
One article in my Google Alerts, about a two-mile section of a Virginia trail called the Seaboard Coastline Trail, sends me down a rabbit hole.
It’s a trail I hadn’t heard of, in a town called Suffolk, in a part of Virginia I’ve never visited, so of course I want to know where it is and whether it’s part of the East Coast Greenway‘s coastal route (I think so, because another part of the trail is). To boot, this year’s week-long fundraising ride for the East Coast Greenway is mostly in Virginia.
But it gets better. Another article says the trail will eventually be 11.5 miles long and part of something bigger called the South Hampton Roads Trail, eventually a 41-mile trail between Suffolk and Virginia Beach. This same page from the regional planning commission describes two other trails that will go through the area, including one called the Beaches to Bluegrass Trail (B2B) that will traverse the entire state. And it’s supposed to be more than 400 miles long, though not necessarily all trail. It’s seen as one of six trunkline trails in Virginia (the East Coast Greenway is another).
The conceptual plan for that one was finalized late last year. Now I know these things take an awfully long time before they become reality. But linking trails makes each one more powerful — and would get someone like me to spend more time exploring the state on a bike (and boosting small-town economies.) I’ll be watching for updates and one day planning my ride.
How I could have used the East Coast Greenway when I biked from Alexandria to Annapolis as part of my cross-country ride in 2000!
How I could have used the East Coast Greenway when I biked from Alexandria to Annapolis as part of my cross-country ride in 2000!
Back then, we couldn’t get a bike map of greater Washington D.C. and advice on the best route out of town. I remember riding on some fairly large roads, though traffic wasn’t bad. (I remember the two flats and the wet weather most clearly).
But this time…
I think Day 5 was even better than Day 4. Traffic was pretty light on our route out of Annapolis and included neighborhood streets and trails. Traffic stayed light and we kept hitting more trails as we got closer to D.C. Incredibly, if we weren’t on trails, we were on residential roads. Given the gridlock you see in D.C. (I mean the traffic kind, not the political kind), it was stunning how easy it was to get to the National Mall.
So here’s to the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Trail, the Anacostia Tributary Trail/Northeast Branch Trail and the Northwest Branch Trail, the Metropolitan Branch Trail and of course the Mount Vernon Trail for the last leg into Alexandria.
Here’s what an Alexandria newspaper reported about the ride and meeting with local officials.
Exploring by bicycle 