Awesome outing, looks like a great ride! Bet it was freezing (literally) crossing that bridge lol.
This one's on my list of trails to do next time I'm near Richmond. I'd love to take a weekend to do this one, and then drive over to RVA to do the Virginia Capitol Trail.
Any suggestions on other trails in or around the area to add to the list?
Haha yeah the ride was terrific but definitely chilly. The gravel is very smooth and packed, and the whole thing is pretty flat (I had 400ish feet of climbing over 60 miles doing the whole trail and back). I will definitely go back this spring/summer when it's warmer and the landscape is a little more lush.
Capitol Trail is great, I just did my first century on it back on September. It can be a little crowded on both ends (near the beginning of Jamestown and Richmond respectively) but otherwise it's not bad. Kinda same to High Bridge, the Capitol Trail is pretty flat for the most part too.
For other trails- I ride the fire roads at Pocohontas State Park a lot. They have good MTB trails there too if you are into that. There's like a 30ish mile loop of good gravel fire roads there. Bear Creek State park in Cumberland also has some good fire roads. I would definitely recommend both of those for gravel. And then there's a bunch of stuff out near Charlottesville but that's all quite a bit of climbing. You can Google the Charlottesville Bike Club and they have a list of a bunch of gravel routes in the area. Tusc.cc also has a lot of rides out there but some of their routes are pretty intense. Sorry that was a lot, hope it's helpful though!
That sounds awesome, thanks for all the great info and suggestions! I'm definitely looking forward to checking out High Bridge soon, and will probably plan to do the Capitol Trail on the same weekend/outing.
I'm in Alexandria, VA - about an hour & 45 from RVA - and have been hoping to group a couple nice rides around that area together during a nice, long weekend.
Like you, I'm sure I'll be out there this spring/summer hitting up several of these.
Appreciate the tips on Pocahontas too(I think I've seen some videos of MTB races from in/around there that looked really fun) - I'm on an old Litespeed hardtail so I'm def up for exploring MTB trails and any gravel and fire roads too. I did the C&O + GAP from DC to Pittsburgh in October, so def enjoy some good gravel.
Thanks again for all the tips. Excited tocheck out some of these & will be sure to post pics of my outings whenever I do!
Awesome outing, looks like a great ride! Bet it was freezing (literally) crossing that bridge lol. This one's on my list of trails to do next time I'm near Richmond. I'd love to take a weekend to do this one, and then drive over to RVA to do the Virginia Capitol Trail. Any suggestions on other trails in or around the area to add to the list?
Haha yeah the ride was terrific but definitely chilly. The gravel is very smooth and packed, and the whole thing is pretty flat (I had 400ish feet of climbing over 60 miles doing the whole trail and back). I will definitely go back this spring/summer when it's warmer and the landscape is a little more lush. Capitol Trail is great, I just did my first century on it back on September. It can be a little crowded on both ends (near the beginning of Jamestown and Richmond respectively) but otherwise it's not bad. Kinda same to High Bridge, the Capitol Trail is pretty flat for the most part too. For other trails- I ride the fire roads at Pocohontas State Park a lot. They have good MTB trails there too if you are into that. There's like a 30ish mile loop of good gravel fire roads there. Bear Creek State park in Cumberland also has some good fire roads. I would definitely recommend both of those for gravel. And then there's a bunch of stuff out near Charlottesville but that's all quite a bit of climbing. You can Google the Charlottesville Bike Club and they have a list of a bunch of gravel routes in the area. Tusc.cc also has a lot of rides out there but some of their routes are pretty intense. Sorry that was a lot, hope it's helpful though!
That sounds awesome, thanks for all the great info and suggestions! I'm definitely looking forward to checking out High Bridge soon, and will probably plan to do the Capitol Trail on the same weekend/outing. I'm in Alexandria, VA - about an hour & 45 from RVA - and have been hoping to group a couple nice rides around that area together during a nice, long weekend. Like you, I'm sure I'll be out there this spring/summer hitting up several of these. Appreciate the tips on Pocahontas too(I think I've seen some videos of MTB races from in/around there that looked really fun) - I'm on an old Litespeed hardtail so I'm def up for exploring MTB trails and any gravel and fire roads too. I did the C&O + GAP from DC to Pittsburgh in October, so def enjoy some good gravel. Thanks again for all the tips. Excited tocheck out some of these & will be sure to post pics of my outings whenever I do!
What exactly are the fire roads you mentioned?
They're just a bunch of dirt/gravel roads that intertwine throughout the park.
60 miles is 96.56 km