Bike Trails VA. New River Trail
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Raw file: New River Trail 2.gpx (426.33 KB)
My wife, brother and I are bicycle enthusiasts who enjoy riding the ever increasing number of rail / canal trails mostly in the Northeastern US. We also do volunteer work for NOAA by recovering US Coast & Geodetic Survey Benchmarks. We often combine these hobbies while trail riding.
Unlike geocaching, benchmark hunting serves a valuable purpose by providing NOAA with updates on the condition of their 700,000+ benchmarks across the Unites States. Information on Benchmarks is available here: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/.
We have been riding these trails for over 10 years now and I decided to share some of the .GPX files I’ve created. Of the hundreds of trails available in this part of the country, I selected these for their quality, scenic beauty, lack of excessive grades or hazardous terrain and overall riding or hiking enjoyment. These files contain tracks for trails and waypoints for significant features such as road crossings, bike shops, campgrounds, points of interest and USCGS benchmarks along or near the trail. All waypoints include elevation data for use in plotting trail slope and planning outings. These files were compiled using a variety of resources including:
NOAA - http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/
Garmin’s Mapsource & Basecamp software
USCGS Topographic GPS Map Files. Available Legally at no cost for many States here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/
Google Earth & Google Maps
Garmin’s Birds Eye Imagery
Personal Knowledge
Various Internet & Print resources including:
Trail Link’s New River webpage: http://www.traillink.com/trail/new-river-trail-state-park.as...
Virginia DCNR New River Trail State Park website: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/new-river-trail.shtm...
Virginia Trail Guide website: http://virginiatrailguide.com/2011/06/08/new-river-trail-fri...
Virginia Outdoors website: http://www.virginiaoutdoors.com/parks/activities/new-river-t...
This file is the New River Trail in Southwestern Virginia. The smooth well maintained packed gravel trail traverses 57 miles, mostly along the New River, between Pulaski and Galax. The popular trail is best known for its scenic beauty and numerous high trestles. The Austinville and Fries tunnels, although short, 135’ and 193’ respectively, are unlighted and flashlights are recommended. A “must see” along the trail is the historic Shot Tower used to make ammunition for early settlers. Biker / hiker shuttle service is available at Foster Falls Canoe Livery. Contact the park office at (276) 699-6778 or email at: newrivertrail@dcr.virginia.gov for more information.
Anyone interested in Benchmark hunting can obtain detailed data sheets for each mark by going here: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_pid.prl The PID is the waypoint name symbolized by the color coded cube icons. Green= Recovered within the last 10 years. Blue= No recent recovery but set in a massive structure which still exists. Red= Likely missing or reported destroyed.
Free, legal, 24K and 100K topo map downloads for the states with these trails are available here: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ Segments of these maps covering the above trails can be loaded into many older handheld GPS receivers with limited memory by using Garmin’s Mapinstall program available here: http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3291
I’ll post more trail files as I update and clean them up. I always enjoy conversing with fellow bike trail enthusiasts so please feel free to contact me with comments, questions, inclusions or revisions. – Enjoy!
****** Update 11/21/2015 ******
Added 4 waypoints
Adjusted 10 waypoint locations
Minor track realignment in 2 locations
Updated parking area information
Updated header page
POI Packages
Change History
charlesd45 - Jan 17, 2016
WAVbdhsfz6 - Nov 21, 2015
See update note at bottom of header page