The Roanoke Valley Greenways people continue to open new sections of Roanoke-area greenways at a downright alarming pace. This new walk opens on the heels of two new sections of the Roanoke River Greenway over recent months.
And talk about convenience: Just off of I-81 at Exit 146, park the car, get out and head out into a place you’ve never been before. This new section of the Tinker Creek Greenway (even if Tinker Creek itself is miles and over a mountain away, and the link to the other portion of the Tinker Creek Greenway–near Vinton–leaves some 8 or so miles of fundraising/procuring/building/connecting still to come), is a delight. You’re immediately in the woods, and continue to be so for nearly all the way–with the only real interruption being a short section under the giant buzzing electricity towers. And before you know it, you’re walking with views down onto Carvins Cove.
While the great amount of work that’s been done on this trail is visible all over–the pathway carved out of hillside, bridges built, rock embankments placed–there is as of this walk a short section still under construction, though both following it and the state of the footpath are better than along any number of trails in the area.
The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All was especially pleased with this new walk, for its convenience, relative flatness and the great destination. We ate lunch along the broad shoreline, as Carvins Cove is about six feet under full pond–as the early breezes from the outer reaches of hurricane Sandy began to reach the area..
Even on this cool, gray, threatening day, there were several couples out on this new and pretty walk. And a couple of guys fishing at the edge of the water.
Roanoke’s Tinker Creek Greenway from near Plantation Road to Carvins Cove boat dock and back. 5 miles.
How to get there: Exit 146 from I-81; Plantation Road north and take the first right for about a quarter mile to parking lot.
