Bikepacking / hanging along the VA Creeper trail
A friend recently turned me on to the Virginia Creeper trail, and although I haven't been there yet, I've been doing some research online. Also searched the forums here and found some mention of it. It sounds wonderful for bikepacking (Hey, 17 continuous miles of downhill ?!!!!?) so it's been added to my bucket list!
My question is this: Since folks mention restaurants and cabins all along the route, how conducive is the trail to stealth camping? My preference would be to use the trail to cover miles, but to sleep and eat on my own. Call me a recluse, but when I'm out enjoying nature, I don't wanna sit in a restaurant to eat or in a bathroom to go!
Just wondering if anyone can share from experience whether or not this trail would lend itself to "out-there" camping . . .
Thanks!
-Klauss
I've been on the Creeper too many times to count....
it is the most beautiful of all the rail-trails I've done.
Stealthing is a non issue. A lot of the trail goes through national forest if I'm not mistaken; and there are so many places along the route from White Top to Damascus that you can dissapear into it is moot at best.
The climb up is not that bad; if you have time consider riding up and then riding back down to your hang site....better yet start in Abingdon and go to Damascus first day and beyond to find you hang site then go up to Whitetop.
The 17 mile ride down is fun though and it's true you'll barely have to pedal :)
Speaking of the AT, you can hide your bike at the Creeper/AT junction and hike in as far as you want and stealth there.
Also, along the way you'll see many impromtu sites that are not stealth at all that people have used for many years if you want company.