Dan Casey

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We were about halfway through a 36-mile jaunt through rural Floyd County, and it was hard to believe that we had just left the level and languid Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles back.

As we struggled up a sharp rise on Franklin Pike, a small brown dog tore down a grassy hill on our left, barking ferociously. Ahead on the right, a dusty orange pickup pealed out of a dirt driveway, slinging gravel in its wake.

Ted Remandaban and I were now facing short and steep climbs of less than a mile followed by sheer drops that swept around blind curves. For us, this kind of undulation was unusual and maddening because it never seemed to end.

The paved road cut through small farmettes of 20 to 40 acres, with dairy and beef cattle, the odd horse, and, every now and then, rows of diminutive Christmas trees that had a good 10 years to go before harvest.

Despite the coffee that a kindly shopkeeper had served us miles ago, we were spent by the time we rolled back into the town of Floyd. We had been four hours in the saddle.

This is a hell of a ride that will leave the leg muscles of experienced cyclists twinging for hours afterward. Don't try it if you're not in good shape and you don't have all day. In many respects, however, all that work is worth it. The gorgeous scenery is the payoff.

The magic of Floyd

The two-lane blacktop of U.S. 221 twists, turns, and for some stretches seems to disappear on a meandering, 1,000-mile journey from the Bible Belt city of Lynchburg, Va., to the piney woods surrounding Perry, Fla.

By contrast, Va. 8 climbs, drops, bends and curves for a mere 50 miles from Christiansburg, Va., south to the border with North Carolina, where it continues into Winston-Salem.

The two roads meet at the only stoplight in Floyd., pop. 432, the seat of rural Floyd County. It's here that brick facades of old-timey hardware shops, farm supply stores, groceries and country diners stand side by side with new-age dealers of handcrafted art, herbal medicine, organic meat and vegetarian meals.

On a sunny Saturday, a group of hippies, farm folks, yuppies and blue-collar workers -- and the children of all -- crowd the town's sidewalks.

Such is the legendary magic of Floyd, a town that boasts a doctor who trades livestock for treatment, a music warehouse reputed to hold the largest collection of bluegrass recordings in the world, a jewelry maker who specializes in occult objects, and a general store that holds a bluegrass jamboree every Friday night, attracting musicians and onlookers from miles around.

The town also is home to a small cadre of bicyclists who meet on Sundays for a morning ride through the county's hills and dales. They have published an invitation and a suggested route on the Internet, and that's what brought Ted and me to this magical little hamlet one Saturday afternoon.

Floyd County

Floyd County is shaped like an elongated triangle, and 41 miles of the famed Blue Ridge Parkway flank its eastern edge. With Roanoke a 40-minute drive and Blacksburg even closer, it's a place where many people come to get away from it all, but not too far away.

The first settlers trickled in around 1748, but the county wasn't established until 1831, when an act of the Virginia General Assembly separated it from Montgomery County, its cousin to the west.

In an act of supreme fealty, the legislature's solons named the new county after then Virginia Gov. John Floyd. Today, about 15,000 people are sprinkled over the county's 383 square miles.

At one time, copper, lead, nickel, iron, cobalt, arsenic and soapstone were mined in various parts of the county, but farming always has been and still is the dominate industry.

Cows and Christmas trees dot the landscape, much of which was clear-cut generations ago.

The route

You'll start and end in the town of Floyd. From the stoplight at Va. 8 and U.S. 221, head south on 8.

At June Bug Center, take a left on Storker's Knob Road (Route 710); stay right on 710 until you get to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

At one point, Route 710 changes into Woods Gap Road and it becomes unpaved at the intersection with Route 714. But it's hard-packed and suitable for a road bike with high pressure tires. The unpaved section is about a mile.

Take a left on the parkway (north) and follow it for about 10 miles until you see Floyd County Dry Goods on your right.

Dan Casey | The Roanoke Times

Floyd County Dry Goods is at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Franklin Pike. It was a general store for 50 years until it closed in 1989. In 2000, Amy Gravely of Martinsville reopened it as a clothing store; she also sells antiques, homemade turnovers and fresh-baked breads.

Related

Map

• Map of the Floyd route

Take a left here on Franklin Pike (Route 681) and go 3.7 miles. Turn right on Poor House Road (Route 679) to U.S. 221.

Take a right on 221, cross the bridge, then a left on Bethlehem Church Road (Route 679) You'll follow this a long way, to Moore Lane (Route 686) where you make a left.

Follow Moore to Christiansburg Pike (Route 615) and take a left, and follow it back into town.

Notes

There's a group that meets each Sunday, barring rain, at 8:45 a.m. to do this ride or one very similar to it.

They meet in Floyd at Oddfellas Cantina, on Va. 8 just a couple of doors north of the intersection with U.S. 221.

The proprietor is Amy Gravely, a friendly woman who also sells homemade apple turnovers and loaves of bread. She often has a pot of coffee on, and the java is free.

There are plenty of opportunities for food, drink or poking around at the end in Floyd:

The Blue Ridge Restaurant, 113 E. Main St. (U.S. 221) has good, unpretentious food at very reasonable prices; their generous breakfast portions are legendary.

Oddfellas Cantina, 110 N. Locust St. (Va. 8) offers a good selection of vegetarian food, farm-raised organic beef, and bread baked in a wood-fired oven. Oddfellas also has live music most nights.

The Pine Tavern, on U.S. 221 just north of town, serves gourmet meals that folks I know in Roanoke rave about.

Just south of the stoplight on Main Street is Talley's Alley, and its here that you'll find County Sales, which bills itself as the world's largest selection of bluegrass and old-time music.

Getting there

From Roanoke, get on U.S. 221 (Brambleton Avenue) and head south for about 50 miles until you get to Floyd. We parked in the lot at the supermarket on the left of U.S. 211 just before the stop light at Va. 8.