Brand New Trail, and a Pair of Richmond Hikes New to Us
10/26/19: Good dog Cookie takes a break for lunch on the Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail.
Richmond-area Pocahontas State Park’s Co-op and Military trails loop. 4 miles
10/4/19: Old man poses above Swift Creek Lake at Pocahontas State Park.
On our way for a Richmond long weekend built around seeing Fred Eaglesmith and wife Tif Ginn perform their unique brand of music, we stopped by Pocahontas State Park for a lunch walk. After a bit of trouble synching up the various trail maps, we ended up with a nice lunch spot looking down on Swift Creek Lake.
October 5: Richmond’s James River Trail loop. 6.6 miles
Once again, armed with two maps with opposite orientations, we struggled a little at the start on this great walk along both sides of the big river, and failed to find a midway point for lunch, instead covering nearly all of the loop before stopping into a nice restaurant. The loop is interesting pretty much at every step, with views onto the river, pieces of old buildings and other construction, and connections to communities up the banks on both sides of the river.
10/5/19: The James River is wide and rocky at Richmond.
October 12: At Carvins Cove, Horsepen, Trough, Brushy Mountain trails to Hinchee Trail and Hanging Rock Trail. 7.2 miles
10/12/19: The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All stands beside the new sign for the new Hinchee Trail, connecting the Carvins Cove trail system, with Salem, Virginia.
This is the first time we’ve ever done a car plant for a local hike. The recent opening of the Hinchee Trail makes it possible to walk from the Carvins Cove trail system to the southern end of the Brushy Mountain Trail, onto the new 2-mile Hinchee Trail down to its connection to the Hanging Rock Trail, and on into Salem. And, at least in our case, to Parkway Brewing, where we had left a car on an empty lot, with a note that we were walking back toward it for a brew at the end of our walk. Yes, maybe in the old days of the Hiking Oddity, we might have walked to Parkway for lunch and then back to the car at the Timberview parking lot, but alas, the days of a 14-plus-milers are now at the few-and-far-between stage, if not fully in the rearview mirror. And this walk was glorious enough as it was, with a pretty day, a new trail and the crossing of a neighbor/fellow hiker and his son along the Hinchee. Not to mention a nice Raven’s Roost Baltic Porter before heading back to the other car.
October 20: Home to downtown Roanoke’s Tuco’s and back. 4 miles
One of The Day Hiker’s favorite urban hikes . . . not too far and really good every time.
October 26: Chestnut Ridge Loop Trail. 5.2 miles
The parking lot was nearly full on this nice day, but as usual, once you get on the trail, you don’t see many people beyond the occasional runner and the random pair of ladies dropping down from South Roanoke for a walk. And, as always, we had our choice of any of the dozens of concrete picnic tables in the Roanoke Mountain Campground for lunch. The dog led us to the usual one.