Rod Barfield, retired businessman, tells of the benefits of
Rail Trails. This story is about THE GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE.
Rod is a director of the Patrick County Chamber of
Commerce
THE GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
I have heard a lot of groaning about the cost of vacations this year: the cost of food, of motel rooms, of gas, of admission tickets. Yeah, it gets expensive.
Let me recommend an inexpensive vacation or maybe a three-day weekend, for a third of the cost of a weekend at Pigeon Forge. A trip that promises miles of good honest physical
exertion rewarded by exhilarating vistas, genuine Americana, the backyards of America and genuine country stores.
I am talking about the Great Allegheny Passage, a ride or walk through some of the
most picturesque backcountry in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The tour will lead you through
railroad tunnels, over soaring trestles, through rocky gorges and expose you to see-forever vistas.
The trail connects numerous rural communities in Pennsylvania and Maryland and connects to the C & O Canal Towpath that drops down to the nation’s capitol 330 miles away.
You don’t sit on your backside and watch a show on this vacation; you have to meet it halfway. But the payoff is huge and it doesn’t cost a thing. It’s all free. Unless you want to pile into one of the trailside campsites and tickle your nose with campfire wood smoke. Or stay in one of the modest guest hostels along the way. Of course, you can splurge on a charming B&B or country inn, if that’s your wish.
These are connecting Rail Trails, walking and biking routes over the old railroad
beds of the 19th century. The scenery is absolutely stunning, unlike anything you
will see motoring along the interstate. How many meandering rivers and crashing waterfalls do you see along I-81? And all it costs is a bicycle or a pair of walking shoes.
These simple trails—in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Virginia—are reviving small towns across the country that have been bypassed by the national interstate system and the new global economy. Towns such as Damascus, Virginia, which owes its present economic vitality and vibrancy to the famed Creeper Rail Trail that climbs from Abingdon, through Damascus, and up to White Top Mountain. Our own New River Trail that snakes its way from Galax to Pulaski is a wonderful day trip of unsurpassed scenery that has helped the economies of Galax, Fries, Pulaski and several communities in between.
The Great Allegheny Passage draws 750,000 visitors between April and November
every year. The visitation has infused the small towns of Frostburg, Confluence and Cumberland with new blood and new resources. People looking for an authentic American experience and a “backdoor� look at some of America’s rural industrial towns are flocking to these “off the beaten track� locales and are finding much to their liking: local produce markets, independent restaurants, general stores, coffee shops and unspoiled 19th century architecture.
Every town with a rail trail and every state that supports their existence will testify to their economic benefit, their lure of tourists, not to mention their health benefits to walkers and riders. It is the “softest� industry we have— no smokestacks, no water runoff, no digging into our mountains. It does not harm the environment; people bring you their money and leave.
There are partisan opponents of this most American of all sports who sniff that biking and hiking are “elitist.� Au contraire, they are the most democratic of all our sports. It is open to any and all who have the motivation to find a trail and start moving.
I hope that I may live long enough to hear the voices of reason and see the forces of progress prevail in Patrick County and that will enable me to ride a trail stretching from Stuart to Danville that will show off some of the hidden beauty of the foothills of Virginia.
Rod Barfield-Stuart, VA
