This was my 3rd ride on this wonderful, wild, West Virginia rail trail. At 77 miles from Cass to Lewisburg, along the Greenbrier River, this is a two day ride for us. Fortunately, we located a bed & breakfast in Marlinton (milepost 56) which has a biking package - three nights, one dinner and two shuttles. For our first day of riding we chose to ride upriver beginning at milepost 25 in the Renick community.
Here we began our 31 mile ride for the day. As was the case on previous rides, we saw plenty of deer. Deer in the river, in the trail and beside the trail. The first highlight of the day came about an hour after starting, the Droop Mountain Tunnel. It is only 402 feet but has a slight curve and thus some darkness in the middle. Unable to see we had to walk through the tunnel.
The only community of any size was Seebert. It had a one business, a grocery/outfitter/pizza pub store. We passed many riverside cottages in this vicinity. A few were year round homes and a couple were small farms. Next highlight was the Watoga Bridge, a truss bridge originally built around 1900 but replaced in the late twenties after a spectacular wreck destroyed it. We also looked for signs of the ghost town, Watoga. On a previous visit I located the old bank complete with walk-in safe. Things were overgrown this visit and we rode right by it.
As we approached Marlinton, paved trail runs the final 3 miles into town. What a difference pavement makes - 50% faster.
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