Biking the Tobacco Heritage Trail, South Boston, Va

 

• Date Biked:  September 3, 2022
• Posted Mileage: 4 miles
• Total miles Tracked: 9.2
• Type of Trail: Rail trail, crushed gravel
• Conveniences:  A few benches and picnic tables along the trail. 
• Best Features:  Historical sites
• Worst Features:  short ride, no trail-town feel
• Wildlife spotted:  Rough green snake
• Vegetation: Hardwoods, wildflowers
• Associated Website: https://tobaccoheritagetrail.org/
• Primary Author:  James

The largest chunk of the Tobacco Heritage Trail runs between La Crosse and Lawrenceville, Virginia. We've biked it a few times, and wrote about it in this previous post. But, there's another finished segment a few dozen miles away in South Boston. It's a little over 4 miles long, and most of it is a rail trail, flat and straight, making for an easy, if somewhat short, bike ride. 

The dedicated trailhead is at Cotton Mill Park, off Railroad Street. There's plenty of parking, but that's about it. A few benches, no water fountains or restrooms. 

You ride from this along a path that takes you to the old rail bed portion of the trail. You'll be turning right once you reach it, but you can also follow the path a little distance if you head left. You'll arrive at a historical site called Boyd's Ferry where there's a good view of a railroad bridge crossing the Dan River, plus a marker commemorating the Revolutionary War. 

Heading back onto the rail trail, you'll have roughly 3 miles of easy riding along a crushed surface. It's a nice, easy ride. There's plenty of wildflowers, but the landscape is a bit bland compared to most other Virginia rail trails. 

Fortunately, you don't need to stray far from the trail to find points of interest. About a mile from the end there's a turn off that leads to the Diamond Hill Cemetery, the graveyard for the Berry Hill Plantation, where you'll find a memorial to the enslaved people buried there.

 

As you head up the hill to the cemetery, you see another road leading further into Berry Hill. Follow this a hundred yards or so and you'll reach the brick ruins of the slave quarters. There are more roads leading further into the plantation but we didn't follow them. The cemetery is plainly open to the public, but we weren't certain if the larger plantation grounds were open. 

This portion of the Tobacco Heritage Trail is a good place to try out if you're just hungry for a good place to get in a bike ride, but South Boston doesn't seem to cater to trail riders. The trail is near downtown, but doesn't really pass through it, so it lacks the "trail town" feel of a town like Damascus or Farmville. On the plus side, since these trails aren't catering to tourists, the trails aren't crowded. It's a nice, peaceful getaway. 

What we did in 2022 - A Look Back

 James and I have realized that we did not publish that many posts this past year.  We've been planning some new adventures for 2023 and we have a few posts from 2022 to catch up on, but that doesn't mean we haven't been out exploring!  We had numerous opportunities to bike, hike and kayak this past year - many of our miles were on some of our close to home trails, and some others we traveled we've already reviewed on Bikes, Boots and Boats.  We also have explored some shorter trails that aren't enough to warrant a whole post.  So I thought I'd share some photos of where we did trek this past year.  

In January we started the year off doing some biking and some hiking along some game lands trails around Jordan Lake.  

This area should be full of herons when we return in the spring! (it was not)

Following an old railroad bed.  

We returned to the game lands in the spring and were wowed by the lushness of green and the wildflowers.

Follow the Yellow Wildflower Road!

We did a lot of walking on the Riverwalk here in town.  Some evenings we are surrounded by a herd of deer.  We get excited when the train rolls through during our walks too.

Rainy Riverwalk reflections

In the spring we met up with our friends Hope and Danny in Greenville, SC and rode the Swamp Rabbit trail on Saturday and the Thermal Belt Rail Trail in Spindale, NC on Sunday.  We always enjoy sharing the trails with them!

Swamp Rabbit Trail:  Heading towards Traveler's Rest   

Posing at the Gold Mine on the Thermal Belt

For contrast in weather, Hope and Danny came to town in July and we showed off our "home trail" of the American Tobacco Trail.  It was so hot that day!  But we had a great time riding together.

I really think we are about to melt in this picture!

Speaking of the American Tobacco Trail.  We ride there a lot!  Here are some random shots from the year:  

You know we weren't going to make a post without a snake!  Juvenile rat snake chilling on the trail

We'd been watching the construction of the beaver dam for a while.  We were so excited to see them!  Of course, we didn't have the camera with the zoom on it, so the phone camera did what it could.

Two beavers on the log!  Sadly, a couple of months later the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed the dam.

Many sunset (and some sunrise) rides to this part of the trail.  We've seen beavers and muskrats here too.

Our yearly photo of our reflection in an ornament from one of the festively decorated trees

We also spend a many a weekend riding on the Neuse River Greenway in Raleigh.

Summer flowers at Anderson Point Park

Stunning fall color on this damp ride

And beautiful cosmos planted along the trail.  Taken the same damp fall ride too...such a contrast in color.

Trying to get that perfect selfie

More biking with Hope and Danny!  We re-cycled the Spanish Moss Trail in Beaufort, SC when we were in the area for our yearly Pledge the Pink Breast Cancer walk.

The evening sun was shining perfectly through the windows of this abandoned cannery

On our way back from Nashville, we spent a whole day driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I think we stopped at every single overlook.  We also spent time hiking too.

More biking!  We returned to High Bridge State Park in Farmville, VA for another ranger led sunset ride. We rolled into 2022 with the same ride on New Year's Eve and had a lot of fun.  On this later summer trip, we stopped and rode a small section of the Tobacco Heritage Trail in South Boston, VA.  Watch for a post about that ride soon.  

Sunset from the bridge

We took the ferry to Shackleford Banks off of Beaufort, NC and saw some wild horses.  There will be an upcoming post about kayaking with the horses.

It wasn't all wheels and feet!  We had some wonderful kayak outings.  Some paddles were just me and James, and for some other paddles we were joined by his sisters, brother-in-law and niece.    

The water was a bit shallow this summer at Falls Lake

And another chance to paddle on Lake Moultrie in South Carolina.  Such a beautiful spot!  

Reflections

Snack Break

We returned to the lake after dinner for a sunset paddle.  Such beauty.

Whew!  That doesn't include the places we went that we'll tell you about in some future posts.  So stay tuned for that post about the Tobacco Heritage Trail and the kayak with horses.  Oh, and there's a hike to the Green Swamp where we finally found some Venus fly traps, a non-flooded ride on the Danville, VA greenway, and a spectacular group paddle on the Black River in eastern NC to look forward to.  Until then, we'll leave you here with this heron contemplating lunch.