Fries and the New River Trail

We allowed ourselves to sleep till we wanted to get up, what a rarity.  After a wonderful breakfast we went to the New River Trail and put 6 miles under our feet.  This a great trail.  The river is so wide and the sound of it is a great background sound for exercising.

After lunch we were taken to Galax to ride our bikes back to Fries.  This was a total of 18 miles on the trail.  Since we did the Virginia Creeper Trail last year, we have great comparison.  Since comparing the two is so natural, we both agree that this trail is so much better.  Even on a great Sunday afternoon the traffic on the trail was very limited.  There were a few horseback riders, hikers and bikers.  Everyone was exceptionally nice.

 Chesnut Creek Falls

 One of the elite members of our team.

I be you can guess this is the tunnel described.

The trail started out following Chestnut Creek to the New River.  We crossed many small bridges and passed some pretty falls along the way.  Just before we came to the conflunce we passed through a tunnel about 100 yards long with a slight bend in it.  What made it interesting was the we could not see from one end to the other.  There was a short time that neither end of the tunnel could be seen from the trail.  At the confluence we crossed a really long steel bridge.  And at the end of the bridge we joined another section of the trail.  From here it was only 5.5 miles to our RV up river.  Up river on this trail is not as strenuous as one would think.  Again the noise from the river was so soothing.