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. 

Biking the Tanglefoot Trail in Mississippi

 

• Date Biked:  January 11, 2022
• Posted Mileage: 43.6
• Total miles Tracked: 44.61
• Type of Trail: Paved Rail Trail
• Conveniences:  Storm shelters, picnic tables, restrooms, water fountains
• Best Features:   A flat, straight trail with 44 miles of easy biking
• Worst Features:  It's a flat, straight trail for 44 miles...
• Wildlife spotted:  Maybe one deer? It was very cold. I imagine there's more to see in warmer weather. 
• Vegetation: Hardwoods, wildflowers
• Associated Website:   Maps & Mileage Chart | Tanglefoot Trail
• Primary Author:  James

A lot of this, for a very long way!

January can be a rough month for biking in North Carolina. So, when we had an event in New Orleans the first weekend of the New Year, we were excited to build in two extra days for riding trails in Mississippi. We knew things might get a little chilly, but it had to be warmer than North Carolina, right?

Hah hah, no. January 10 and 11 brought some sort of polar vortex deep south that brought daytime temps in the 30s plus a savage wind chill. We got out of the car to get gas on January 10 and when I got back into the car we decided to skip riding that day and save our stamina for the following day when the high might creep over 40 and the wind gusts would die down to only 20 miles an hour. 

We are wearing pretty much every item of clothing we packed for this trip.

Despite the cold, the Tanglefoot Trail turned out to be a top-notch ride. Running from New Albany to Houston, this is an excellent overall riding experience. You are in farmland or woods for most of the trip with very infrequent road crossings. But, every ten miles or so you roll through a small town with a few businesses adjacent to the trail. You can pack light on this ride, since there's numerous places to hop of the trail to grab a bite.

The trail has several shelters along the route. Some have bathrooms and water, but most don't. The shelter in Pontotoc not only has bathrooms and water fountains, it has USB charging ports above the fountains! This was plainly designed by someone who has actually thought about the needs of people who are tackling a full day of riding. 

Water and electricity in the same tight space. What could go wrong! 

We stayed at the Trailhead Bike and Bed in Houston, which is directly adjacent to the southernmost trail head. We had breakfast at Gather, a charming coffee shop a few blocks away, then the Bike and Bed shuttled us to the far end of the trail in New Albany. New Albany is definitely the larger of the two towns, but there doesn't seem to be a lot going on at 9am on a Tuesday when the windchill is in the 20s. We snapped our mandatory photo of the trailhead arch and rolled on. 

On days you're going to ride 40+ miles, it's fine to eat cinnamon buns heavier than your coffee cup.

New Albany is proud of their trailhead! 

Looking through our photos, we have a lot of pictures of vanishing points. Except for the occasional squiggle, the trail is pretty much a straight line. In warmer weather, when we might have been more motivated to draw out the ride, it might have been fun to explore the towns of Ecru or Pontotoc. We did stop at the Algoma Country Store, which was wonderful, and highly recommended. 

Seriously, like, 50 photos identical to this. 

Ecru, MS

Algoma Country Store

A good place to eat!

One of the highlights of our ride was watching sheepdogs tending sheep!

From time to time, there are trees!

Rolling back into Houston, having our lodging directly next to the trailhead was wonderful given how cold we were by that point. Being able to transition from riding to a hot showing in under 10 minutes is a great way to wrap up a ride! We really can't think of another rail trail we've visited with such great accommodations directly adjacent to the end of the trail. This really boosts the Tanglefoot Trail up the list of the best trails we've ridden.

Trailhead Bike and Bed. Come for the biking, stay for the bed! 

The Houston trailhead.

If you like rail trails, this one is a worthy destination. Just, you know, try to time it on a day without a polar vortex. 

Downtown Houston

Biking on Bulls Island, Awendaw, SC

 

• Date Biked:  November 16, 2021  
• Posted Mileage: lots of 1-3 mile roads and trails
• Total miles Tracked: 15 miles
• Type of Trail: sandy trails
• Conveniences:  Storm shelter, picnic tables
• Best Features:   Gators!  Shells! Boneyard! Birds!
• Worst Features: Only accessed by ferry. No water fountain on island. 
• Wildlife spotted:  Gators.  Dolphins. Too many birds to list. 
• Vegetation: maritime forest
• Associated Website:   https://www.coastalexpeditions.com/bulls-island/
• Primary Author:  James

Bulls Island is a wildlife preserve less than an hour's drive north of Charleston or roughly two hours from Myrtle Beach. It can only be reached by ferry on a morning or afternoon slot. No one lives on the island, making it a haven for abundant wildlife. The beaches are covered in shells, and the remnants of an eroded maritime forest leave gnarled, sun-bleached trees rising from the waves at high tide.  

It is possible to kayak over. We've done this before, but it's 5 miles in each direction, and changing tides leave you with a limited window of time to explore the island. If you take the ferry over in the morning and return in the afternoon, you'll have about six hours to wander around. If you just want to walk the beach and maybe look at a few interior ponds, hiking the island will let you see a fair amount. But, if you really want to maximize the distance you can cover, you should bring a sturdy mountain or hybrid bike. 

Yes, this is how close to an alligator you are!

The roads are mostly flat but still challenging due to loose sand. Your hard work will be rewarded, however, as you can see every major habitat on the island in a single day.

Our chosen route took us up the first road to the northern dikes. At the remains of an old fort, you can turn off onto a dike and ride that over to an observation tower, then press on to the boneyard beach. Expect to see alligators, from baby's floating in ditches to giants basking in the middle of the roads. Most of the gators are pretty skittish. Fortunately, if even one in ten sticks around to eye you warily, you'll have plenty of chances for some good photos.

And don't forget the birds! Spoonbills, wood storks, and multiple species of herons and egrets. Make sure you bring a camera with a zoom lens! 

Some of the most haunting photos you'll take will be when you reach the boneyard. Bikes aren't allowed on the beach, alas, but even a short walk up and down the beach is going to bring you to the skeletal trees, and, probably, to an abundance of shells. Cheryl has been there before when the beaches were practically empty of shells. It's a wild habitat. It's never the same beach twice. 

When we came off the beach, we rode the Lighthouse Road that runs the full length of the island. Most of the road is bikeable, and a dense canopy will provide plenty of shade. This road doesn't give you many glimpses of the biggest ponds, but we did find young gators hanging out in a ditch. On the way back, you can take the side road around Summerhouse Pond. This was the densest gathering of birds we spotted on the trip. 

The ferry doesn't charge extra to take your bikes over, but you must request it when you make your reservation.  

November is an excellent month to visit. You won't get baked by heat or sucked dry by mosquitos, and many of the birds only visit during cooler months. Go during a weekday, and once you leave the dock you'll feel like you're all alone on the island. Bring more water than you think you'll need and you'll have a great experience, as long as you don't accidently ride over a gator.