After the publication of my biking guide “Backroad Bicycling the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains” in 2003 Jean and I continued with a lot of bike riding. We enjoyed the freedom of biking, and the ability to ride fast got us to more new places and kept us cooler in the oppressive humidity of summer in Tennessee. We were still also doing a lot of backpacking, so it made sense for us to try to combine the two and go bikepacking. But neither of us was comfortable with long trips on road bikes. It was hotter on the road, and we went through more developed areas. But our main concern was traffic, we just didn’t feel as secure riding on new roads vs. riding on trails or greenways.
We’d already ridden the Virginia Creeper and New River trails, the two long local rail trails described in “Backroad Biking”, but wanted to ride something new. The trail that seemed most similar was the Greenbrier River Trail in West Virginia, which I had come across in some of my freelance magazine writing. WV was a long way off, but the trail was 80 miles of resurfaced former railroad line, and looked to be really scenic. This would also give me a chance to explore a new state. My only previous trip to WV had been on the short section of the Appalachian Trail near Harpers Ferry. Both the Creeper and New River trails had well developed infrastructure; established shuttle providers, along with places to stay and eat along the trail. Greenbrier wasn’t that far along, but with some looking we were able to find a shuttle and lodging along the trail. We hoped that scheduling the trip for late June would allow us to miss the hotter part of the summer.
So how would we pull this off? Jean and I were both riding our original mountain bikes; Jean’s bought used from a friend, and mine a veteran of hundreds of miles of exploring through the Black Hills. Both had rigid frames, no luxuries like a front shock, but that should be OK for a rail trail. We brought only a minimal change of clothes and overnight gear. We carried food and water for lunch, but otherwise planned on eating along the trail. This let us get by with just a single pair of panniers which fit on the rack on my bike. This system worked well, and we used essentially the same set up on subsequent bikepacking trips.
The Greenbrier River Trail originally was part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and was built starting in 1899. The line was abandoned in 1978 and then transferred to the state of WV. Though I have a xerox copy of a detailed 1996 guide to the trail, it looks like I used a Greenbrierrivertrail.com brochure to navigate and took notes. We took slides of the trip and scanned some of those. I did not use GPS on the trip, but tracked distance with a bike odometer.
6-24-04
With such a long drive, we decided to head up the night before the start. We left Knoxville after lunch and drove 320 miles to stay in a Super 8 in Lewisburg, WV after 5:15 of driving. It took 2 hours to reach the exit for Damascus, three hours to the I-81/I-77 split, and three and a half hours to the WV line. We ate that night at the Shoneys in Lewisburg at the south end of the trail, near White Sulfur Springs.
6-25-04
The trip did not start well. We’d arranged our shuttle through the Elk River Touring Center. Our driver, Gil, was not at the pickup point when we arrived. It took a while to find a phone, and when we called him I got the feeling that I’d woke him up. He arrived 1:45 minutes late, with no apologies. He drove us up the east side of the trail on Highway 92. The drive took another hour and a half. By this time, we were worried about time. We had a 40 mile ride ahead of us, and not much time to enjoy it. He dropped us at the Deer Creek Trailhead at MP 79, near Cass. 
Clover Lick Station.
Once we started riding, things got better. The trail had a compact gravel surface, a bit rough at the start, but we thought we could ride fast enough to reach Seebert by dinner. We enjoyed good views of the wide, shallow river, as the trail would follow its gorge the entire length. The temperatures were pleasant, and it was nice moving alongside the river. There were some “green tunnel” segments, hey, it was summer in the south. There were fewer cabin developments along the trail vs. what we had seen at New River Trail. Most of the railroad depot buildings were gone, but the mile markers were all in place, and things were well signed. We saw lots of fishermen, some other bikers, and two backpacking parties. We also saw a large group of horse drawn wagons. There was little trail damage from the horses, and little litter on the trail. 
Sharps Tunnel
A few other observations. There was an unappealing campsite at MP 78 (we were counting down our miles as we rode south). Clover Lick Station at MP 71.2 was intact, but not open to the public. At MP 69.6 was a nice campsite with separate facilities for hikers and horse riders. Jean liked the MP 63.8 campsite as well, and made notes on the rest of the campsites as we went by.
Marlington Station
At MP 65.3 was 500’ long Sharps Tunnel. We stopped there a while for photos, there would be only one other tunnel on the trip. There were also a few river bridges, but nothing like the frequent trestles of the Virginia Creeper Trail.
Marlington at MP 56.1 is the only full service town along the trail. We didn’t explore though since a light rain had begun a mile north of town. The trail was paved for the next three miles, and this kept us drier and added some fast miles. We’d found the gravel surface had gotten better after the first ten miles of the ride, and really improved south of Marlington. By this time, I was sure we’d be able to finish the ride our speed at 8-12 mph. We even saw a WV park ranger on the trail in a pickup.
Jean at the Lodge.
Unfortunately, when we got to Seebert our room at the Greenbrier River Lodge was not ready. I think the initial arrangement was for us to use a key to be stashed at the lodge, but the key was not in place when we arrived. We rode off the trail 0.3 mile to the Jack Horner Corner Store and were able to call the Lodge owner, though all that took another 1:45. Apparently the cleaning service for the lodge had not shown up, and therefore the key had not been placed. The store had pizza, so we could take care of dinner while we waited. In contrast to the shuttle, the folks at the store and with the lodge were helpful and friendly. The lodge owner even gave us the entire lodge for half price after our wait. We were lucky to get in when we did, by evening rain had begun again. We ended up riding for 5 hours and 38 miles by the bike odometer, and covering 33.6 by the mileposts.
Cass to Seebert, 38 miles
Greenbrier River Lodge
6-26-04
We slept in a bit both of us still tired and hungry. The relative ease of bikepacking that we’d expected (just ride around with minimal gear and use the credit card to get our food and lodging) had been eaten up by time and hassle waiting on the shuttle and lodge people. We were used to shuttles on the Creeper that are run like clockwork by several shuttle services, but it seemed their WV counterparts were not quite ready for customers. To be fair our trip was almost 20 years ago, and in the pre-cell phone era. I’d imagine that businesses along the trail are much more organized these days. However, we found on other rail trails that even though one of the selling points for rail trails is the potential for recreation dollars, the first steps are rough, as providers struggle to find out what users want, and how to service those needs. 
Jean at Droop Mountain Tunnel.
Once we were under way again the riding was fun. It was an easy ride to Beard where we took a quarter mile side trip to Current, a B&B that Jean thought would be nice stop on future trip. Our second tunnel at Droop Mountain had a new wooden frame at its north end. The small town of Renick had a busy town park, and the trail was much more used south of town. At Anthony we didn’t see the camping or water that was shown on the map, but their boat site was heavily used. We got water at a campsite at MP 13. Near the end, the trail passes Camp Allegheny, another busy site.
The trailhead near Lewisburg is at MP 3.1 where we reunited with our Subaru (the last three miles of the rail line are privately owned). For the second time on the trip, we saw a shuttle van for Freewheel Sports, and after talking with the driver, we would use them for a repeat trip. We had ridden 44 miles in 6 hours by our bike odometer, and covered 42.7 miles of trail by the mileposts.
On the drive home we stopped at the Sandstone Visitors Center for the New River Gorge National River (now the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve as of 2020) and picked up some brochures for a potential trip to that area. We spent the night in Hillsville, VA, where we would ride a short section of the New River Trail into Fries the next day.
Despite being active bikers for several years after this trip we did not return to Greenbrier River Trail, but not because we did not enjoy the trip. The 5+ hour drive was far too long for a weekend trip, and there were just too many competitors for places to go on longer vacation trips. But one can imagine now that the logistics of the trail are now well smoothed out, and that another beautiful 80 mile trip awaits.
