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Online Trail Maps: Roanoke / Lynchburg / Blacksburg areas (Please sticky)

7K views 59 replies 8 participants last post by  wiretapstudios 
#1 ·
Mill Mountain:



Mill Mountain 2:



Carvins Cove:

 
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#3 ·
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#10 ·
sciron4x4 said:
Fantastic. Just hit Mill Mountain for the first time yesterday. Good trails within a few minutes of home.
How was it? I live right in front of Mill Mountain but I don't take my bike up there...from the map it looks like either one big uphill or one big downhill ride...
 
#11 ·
wiretapstudios said:
How was it? I live right in front of Mill Mountain but I don't take my bike up there...from the map it looks like either one big uphill or one big downhill ride...
Really wasn't bad. Parked by the "monument", and rode the Monument Trail, which was a slight uphill before what seemed to be a never-ending downhill. Picked up the Greenway Trail (driveway to mansion) which is all uphill, before picking up the Big Sunny Trail, which is a good mix of up/down. Picked up the Riser Trail from there, and took that back to where we parked.

Grabbed some water. Then headed back up the road towards the zoo parking lot. Picked up the Greenway Trail from there, all downhill on asphalt. Takes you by the mansion. And again, forked off on the Big Sunny Trail, to the Riser Trail, back to the vehicle.

Grabbed more water. Headed back up the road to the zoo parking lot. Then went down the (fairly fast) Ridgeline Trail. Followed that back to the vehicle.

Finished up by riding up the zoo staff access road to the Ridgeline Trail, headed down the trail, and back to the vehicle.

As you can see, the rides got shorter as the afternoon went on. Ha.

Almost took a spill on the Ridgeline Trail. It was our best/fastest of the day, and after getting some decent air off a rock, I came down on some leaves, and the tail end wanted to kick out a bit. Luckily, I was able to pull it off and get back together. No spill. :)

Hoping to head back up there next week (busy the rest of this week, and going to the beach this weekend) to check out some of the others.
 
#12 ·
Mounument Trail Rocks

Glad to see you liked those trails Sciron. You took the best loop. Monument Trail Rocks. I ride up there a couple nights a week at least.

Also try the Wood Thrush Trail. Go almost to the other end of the Ridgeline Trail from the zoo. That end is kind of steep and washed out. At the bottom of the steep section, look for a rock pile on the left. Short, through the woods trail crosses Fishburn Parkway to temporary trailhead for Wood Thrush (orange ribbon hanging in tree). A really nice 2-3 mile ride that comes out by the Water Tank on the Star Trail. At the bottom it comes out on Riverland Road, take a right there and go around the electrical facility fence and you will come out on the Roanoke River Greenway.
 
#14 ·
sciron4x4 said:
Sounds like a good ride. Looking at the map, it's showing parts of the trail as "Build for Multi-Use", which I interpreted as "incomplete". So I take it that it IS in fact ridable? If so, I'll definitely check that out next time. Thanks!
Incomplete, but definitely rideable. There's one ditch that needs a bridge. They are going to re-route the trail to come out on Yellow Mountain road on the South End. They have it flagged through the woods but have not worked on the new trailhead. The current trailhead on Fishburne Parkway is about 1/8 mile towards the zoo from the bridge over Yellow Mountain road (look for orange tape on a tree limb if you are on the highway). There is no parking there, so I usually access it from the Ridgeline Trail. Its definitely a better ride from Fishburne Parkway down - but not too bad as a climb from Star Trail parking lot.

https://s227.photobucket.com/albums...Mountain Trails Roanoke VA/Wood Thrush Trail/

Link above are some trail photos I took last fall. We always called it the Water Tank trail. Its a very nice trail.
 
#17 ·
Will probably do a downhill run from the zoo parking lot, to the Star Trail parking lot. Following Ridgeline down to Wood Thrush (or Water Tank). Then lazy my way back up (via vehicle) to the top. Probably do that sometime early next week (Tuesday, maybe).

Thanks for all the info, guys.
 
#19 ·
We took the greenway trail down to Big Sunny, then to Monument trail. Big Sunny was pretty good, and Monument was even better. The signs were vague however, we popped out of Monument back onto the greenway, but couldn't tell where it connected back to the Big Sunny to make the loop, do you have to ride all the way back up the paved greenway to catch it?

That was a little confusing, and the sun was going down, so we dipped down to the right, went down the greenway, hit Walnut ave, then rode down to the greenway by the river, rode that out to the treatment plant on the way to Vinton, and then back down the greenway home in Old Southwest. Then we just drove back up and picked up my car.
 
#21 ·
sciron4x4 said:
Will probably do a downhill run from the zoo parking lot, to the Star Trail parking lot. Following Ridgeline down to Wood Thrush (or Water Tank). Then lazy my way back up (via vehicle) to the top.
That's our next ride! But I think once we hit Wood Thrush, we'll take that over to the Star Trail Parking lot area, hit the greenway, and ride back to our house, pick up the car and go back to pick up the car at the top.

How is Wood Thrush? Your descriptions were spot-on about the other trails, Monument was fun, got up a decent speed on it after the uphill.

Hauling down the paved greenway slope was interesting as well, we were going fairly fast, there were a few roadies grunting their way up.

Almost ran into one lady on the Big Sunny, she was carrying a book (?) and was in a random place where the trail went through some dense bushes, and then just stood there and didn't move over for us (we were going uphill) so it was somewhat of a clusterfudge for a moment.

Anyone taken that Crystal Springs trail? I can't really see on the map where the trail heads are, and I live right by there so it would be a good little side trip.
 
#22 ·
CraigCreekRider said:
Wiretap - you have to ride up the paved Greenway to the first switchback to hook up with Big Sunny from the bottom of Monument Trail. Its about a half mile of fairly steep stuff.
Ok, that is what we thought, but my gf rode a ways up to check while I looked at the GPS and we weren't for sure.
 
#23 ·
Wiretap: I was confused at that first point, too, where Monument hits the Greenway. There weren't any clear signs, and heading up what seemed to be just a driveway didn't seem right. Ha. I just kept putting little notes down on my map, for future reference.

Who would want to ride on Tuesday? Looking to check out the bottom end of the Ridgeline, and follow that to Wood Thrush (Water Tank). But may hit Monument->Big Sunny to start it off.
 
#24 ·
wiretapstudios said:
Hauling down the paved greenway slope was interesting as well, we were going fairly fast, there were a few roadies grunting their way up.
At the first switchback, going down (where the mansion is), we stopped to take in the view from there, and ogle over the house. After about 5 seconds of being stopped, you could smell my brakes. Ha. Time for an upgrade.
 
#26 ·
I haven't been down there to the bike trails, but I have been to the top of candlers mountain in 4x4...

I've been itching to go down and check those and peaks view park out. I'm not sure the trails even were there when I lived there in middle school...

Let me see if I can find the thread about it with the directions.
 
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