Tobacco Heritage Trail

I finally found the "trailhead" for this trail just a few blocks from my house. It's not exactly well known or advertised. To make matters worse, it is also not even marked off of the trail!

A little history here:

The Tobacco Heritage Trail is part of Virginia's "Rails to Trails" program, which is designed to turn defunct railroad lines into usable, hard pack trails for bikes, hiking, and horseback riding. The program has worked fairly well until the state finally realized, "oh, wait... we don't have any money because we are spending millions more than we bring in!" So this was one of first programs to get a spending cut. Although I'm a little disappointed, I fully expect and understand this. (My personal beliefs dictate that you shouldn't spend money that you don't have... I know, it's a radical concept!)

Anyway, all of this leads to a VERY short trail. From the official trailhead, it is a little over a mile and a half, with marks every 1/10 mile. However, there is a "lead up" trail that is about a mile long. When you add in the ride to and from my house, (sarcasm) I went a whopping 6.2 miles today. (/sarcasm) If the trail is ever completed as planned, it will stretch from Lawrenceville, VA all the way to South Boston, VA. This should be a total of 90-100 miles when all is complete.


In spite of the short distance, there are some really nice features to the trail:
* I like the hard pack gravel. It is a little more challenging than normal asphalt roads, which makes for a better work out.
* There is a stretch that is a solid 3/4 miles of uphill fun (can you say workout?).
* Lots of shade! (Trust me, this is very nice today where the weather is in the high 90s.)
* It's very close to my home! I can pop out a good hard ride and be home in under half an hour! Seriously, it takes longer to watch an episode of Charles in Charge (which coincidentally also takes a lot more physical strength than riding those 6 miles).
* Riding along the old railroad tracks also gives me the opportunity to see some back country that I do not get to on the highways.

I will add this ride to my regular routes! My plan is to do it until it is easy or they make it longer, although if government is involved, I think we know which one of those two will occur first...