According to Bicycling Caitlin Giddings recent article “The Best Long Rail Trails in the U.S.” we just hit one of the best! The Greenbrier River Trail…

Headed out Friday morning and stopped to ride a fairly new railtrail: Jackson River Scenic Trail out of Covington, Virginia. Only 14 miles of trail so far, this is a pristine ride with rock cliffs on one side and a beautiful river on the other side. We trekked out 7 miles from the Intervale parking area then crossed the Smith Bridge and rode out to Cliff View Golf Club & Inn for lunch and then returned to the vehicles to continue our journey on to Marlington, West Virginia where we would stay for two more days of riding.

These shots of Jackson River Scenic Trail can only make you imagine what a great little trail this is!

The Locust Hill Inn, Cabin & Pub become home away from home for a couple nights…and it was a nice choice…current owners Paula and Dave (selling this nice spot and retiring to travel) were very friendly and accommodating. Staying here allowed us to plan a ride on the Greenbrier River Trail (GRT) from Cass to Marlington for the first leg of this trail…26 miles.

Marlington is a quaint little town with a couple nice places to eat besides Locust Hill Pub; Cass is famous now for its authentic steam locomotive rides; and the GRT actually ends here…but we started in reverse!

We left my truck here in Cass (used it to haul all 4 bikes to our starting point) and had it shuttled back to the inn by Greenbrier RIver Shuttles…Which made it easy to plan our one day ride without moving a lot of vehicles back and forth!

Riding this trail is loaded with great river scenery, a very cool tunnel, lots of deer, flowers and trees for cover from a bright sun…BUT one must always be prepared for the unexpected; such as a fresh fallen tree blocking the trail…eBikes are not light objects to lift across a large tree!

And lastly be FLEXIBLE…our planned second day got rained out! So we left for home earlier than schedule but stopped to visit a remarkable West Virginia park called Beartown State Park…and what a surprise! Rock formations you may only ever find here. This is a must see place when you travel to West Virginia to ride the Greenbrier River Trail.

We will return to continue on with our ride on the GRT!