At Greg's beautiful home in Sunset, SC

I left at 8 am on Monday morning, the overnight rain had ended, from Forest City, it was on;y a 2 hour drive to Greg & Sandy's home in Sunset, SC. It turned out Greg had just got back from a tennis tournament in Memphis, TN and Sandy was in CA for a funeral. I plan to be here 3 days visitng and biking,

Greg Lewis is a long time paddling buddy originally from the Cleveland area that I have known for almost 50 years. He and his wife Sandy built this beautioful home in the mountains above Lake Keowee almost 15 years ago. 

Peggy and and I have often visited them when they were home and did some hiking and biking with them in the area.. 

They would visit us at our cabin in WV and Greg & I spent many days paddling the Upper Yough. We biked with Sandy on the GAP Trail along the Casselman River.

When we first bought our Tandem Bike, Peggy, Greg and I headed over to Pickens, SC to peddle the Doodle Trail, an 8 mile long paved trail that goes to Easley, SC.

It was cool on Monday but Tuesday was a sunny 75^o F day.

So on Tuesday Greg and I decided to do the Doodle Trail. I had forgotten all the small hills. Our 16 mile ride had over 800 feet of elevation changes to traverse. It was a good workout. We decided to have a late lnnch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and skip dinner. On Monday Greg had cooked me a great fish dinner.

Greg is painting the inside of his garage this week so when they come to do a colorful chip floor he doesn't get paint on it. I'm trying to catch up on all my e-mails and plan to leave on Thursday.

I was going to do the Doodle Trail on on my way to Greenville, SC, but the weather forcast is for a rainy Thursday, so on Friday I will do the Swamp Rabbit Trail that I also did last year. The weather is supposed to warm again to the mid-70's.

I heard parts of the trail may still be closed from Hurricane Helene. I think I'll stay at a Walmart in Traveler's Rest and start at the North end of the trail and see how far south toward Greenville I can go until I need to turn around.

Galax and the New River Trail

 I decided to leave a day early because of the heavy rain forecast for Cleveland on Sunday. That turned out a good choice since Saturday was sunny & cool. Since I was planning to visit my friends Greg and Sandy Lewis in SC on Monday I had an extra day and that worked out well also. I did the same thing I did last year. Overnighted at a Lowes in Galax, VA, it was very quiet and had good Wi-Fi. A mile down the road there is a great Mexican restaurant and had the same Mexican stir fry as last year. 

Chestnut Creek Falls

The New River Trail starts in Galax and follows the beautiful little Chestnut Creek for 10 miles down to the New River and then  40 miles along the New.

Trail Tunnel

Last year they were replacing 3 bridges so you couldn’t take the trail downstream along the New River. You could only go upstream 5 miles to the town of Fries.

Both Directions Closed

There were no signs of hurricane of flood damage along Chestnut Creek so I was hoping to go downstream 2-1/2 mi to Byllesby Dam. 

It turned out both directions were blocked since the hurricane’s big flood took out parts of the upstream trail. The downstream trail totally washed out hundreds of tons of gravel destroying the trail that they had repaired last year. It may be finished next year a worker told me. 

Conflunce of New & Creek

I decided to drive a few hours to Forest City, NC so I would only have 2 more hours to drive in the morning. My GPS decided to give me a shortcut that I knew would be interesting when I saw a sign that said no semi-trucks. It was a five mile long narrow switchback road down the mountain to I-77. Luckily only a few cars were coming up hill. 

The when I was on I-40 my GPS said road to Forest City was closed and was trying to take me a much longer route to Asheville. This time I ignored it since I wanted to stay overnight in another Lowes parking lot. There were no closed roads but hundreds of fallen trees along the road from the hurricane.

Leaving on Winter Trip - Saturday 11/09/24

 This is my revised schedule.

I am leaving a day early because of forecast rain on Sunday. I started my trip last year here also, it was cool but dry, read Last Year's Story & Pictures