Dan Casey | The Roanoke Times
Jeff Busche (foreground) and Josh Meltzer take off down Kit & Caboodle, a single-track trail wryly named after former Roanoke Utilities Director Kit Kiser.
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Take your bike to the trail system at Douthat State Park, and they hand you a map at the entrance. Climb Douthat's green hills, or rollick through its shady gullies, and you'll find signs wherever trails intersect. Between those and the map, you'll never get lost or wonder which way to turn. The same holds true for the trails at Mountain Lake Resort in Giles County.
If only it was that simple at Carvins Cove Reservoir. Although a multitude of trails crisscross the 11,000-acre watershed, there's not a single trail sign, nor is there an official map.
That's not to say the trails aren't named at the cove, which is a mere 15 minutes from the city of Roanoke. Mountain bikers came up with plenty of names themselves -- and that is the problem. As a result, there many different names, and many different maps of Carvins' miles of snaking single-track trails and dirt roads. That's created confusion, at least for the uninitiated. Imagine if downtown Roanoke had no street signs and no building numbers, and everyone had his own pet name for each street. Wouldn't finding your way around be fun?
At Carvins a steep and rutted road that some call "The Drop" is known by others as "The Comet." A path one guy refers to as "Little Sweety" is called -- you guessed it -- "The Comet" by some riders. The main gravel road? Some call that "Easy Street" -- although it ain't that easy.
These notions were buzzing through my head on a recent Carvins Cove outing. The sky was clear, the air was frigid and a large proportion of the reservoir was iced over. Some kindly mountain bikers -- Jeff Busche, Ian Webb and Josh Meltzer -- had agreed to take me for a spin on three trails that run off the main gravel road, or Easy Street, or whatever you want to call it. No epic climbs here, but lots of shrub-brushing single-track with just enough mud to make it fun.
We spun our cranks, held the handlebars tight and swooped up and down short rises, over fallen trees and across frozen streams along "Kit & Caboodle." We rolled through deep shade in a pine-packed grove on "The Enchanted Forest." Finally, we climbed a barely discernible single-track, passed an old farm pasture, and skidded through steep descents on "Mad Cow" like we'd been shot out of a cannon.
This four-hour romp (with breaks) was fun, at times treacherous, and thoroughly confusing. I wish you luck finding and riding these trails and figuring out where you are when you've finished.
That will remain a challenge, at least until Roanoke City Hall gets its act together and puts proper signage at the biggest and best mountain biking venue in Western Virginia.
Kit & Caboodle
This sweet, 1.5-mile single-track was named in nose-thumbing honor of Kit Kiser, the now-retired Roanoke waterworks chieftain.
More than anyone else, it was the affable Kiser who opposed mountain biking on the watershed property, and during the majority of his tenure he was able to sway City Council that way. The reason for Kit's opposition has been the subject of considerable debate. Although few ever questioned his motivation to protect the pristine 11,000 acres surrounding the reservoir, many mountain bikers found it hard to overlook the gasoline-powered fishing boats that he allowed on the water or the horses he permitted on trails without the bells of hypocrisy ringing in their heads.
Kit & Caboodle offers many of the best features of a cross-country trail, without anything that a moderately talented mountain biker couldn't handle. There are no strenuous climbs or turns so tricky that you've got to choose between getting off the bike or falling off it. There's one narrow stream crossing that's easily rideable, even when it's iced over. There's another one that's far broader and that looks dicey when it's frozen. But a convenient fallen tree across it provides a decent bridge that'll allow you cross on foot, carrying the bike.
The trail crosses the gravel road and become what some call "The Skillet," but which others consider merely a continuation of Kit & Caboodle. It leads you back to the gravel road. Hang a right for few feet, then a quick left, and you're in The Enchanted Forest.
The Enchanted Forest
Of all the trails at Carvins Cove, this 1-miler is the most aptly named. Soft and about a mile long, this pine-needle covered path is quickly gaining repute as one of the watershed's most beautiful. It's easy to see why. Gigantic pines, barely arm-spreading length from each other, tower over riders who pass through. I'm told these trees are not old-growth, but they're not very young, either.
The mostly flat trail skirts close to the edge of the narrow, northwestern end of the reservoir along a medium-height bluff. This end of the reservoir is a grassy desert right now -- a normal condition early in the winter. With a bit of luck and enough rain, it'll be filled with water by summer.
It's hard to string together too many superlatives to describe The Enchanted Forest. A thick blanket of fallen needles soaks up the normal rumble of mountain bike tires, rendering the trail soul-searchingly quiet. On bright days, a multitude of sunbeams manage to penetrate the dense canopy, casting tall shadows and turning swaths of the forest into golden, glowing islands, like a myriad of spotlights on a dark stage.
The Enchanted Forest trail ends in a T-intersection at Girl Scout trail. Hang a right for a few hundred feet, and you're back at the gravel road. Take a left, go about a quarter-mile, and begin looking for Mad Cow on your right. It's directly across from a tiny and old graveyard on your left.
Mad Cow
Mad Cow was the work of the day. This 1.2 mile trail used to be named Old Farm trail. Then some bright bikers feared it would be confused with another Old Farm trail in Montgomery County outside Blacksburg. So someone christened it with the name of a brain-wasting disease that scaring the stew out of Europe right now.
It's less used than many of the others, and as a result it's barely discernible among the fallen leaves and much narrower. It's obvious that it gets less use. Of the three trails (not counting the gravel road), it sports the only measurable climb, a couple hundred vertical feet, if that.
At the top, we passed an old farm pasture, one of the many remnants spread over the Carvins Cove watershed of the community that existed here before the city of Roanoke claimed the land to build a reservoir. From there is was a shot downwards to gravel road (but not the one known as Easy Street). We hung a left, checked out the tunnel at the base of Tinker Mountain that brings water from Catawba Creek to Carvins Cove, then backtracked to the main gravel road.
We hung a left and rode back to the boat ramp parking lot.
Notes
This was a fairly long ride (we took a lot of breaks) in cold weather. Bring food. Except for a candy bar or two that Busche kindly shared, we didn't have any. And make sure you carry plenty of water, because there's no drinking water around.
Getting there
This trail system is accessible both from the boat ramps parking lot near Hollins University, where there is lots of available and free parking, (the southeastern access) or from Virginia 311 (the northwestern side). There's virtually no parking at the latter, so you've got to leave your car at a Roanoke County park and ride a few miles on pavement to get to the watershed.
For the southeastern entrance: Get off Interstate 81 at the Hollins exit (Plantation Road). Follow Plantation south to U.S. 11 and make a left. Pass Hollins University and make another left on Route 648, Reservoir Road. It dead ends at the Carvins Cove parking lot.
For the northwestern entrance: To get there, take Interstate 581 out of the city, head south on Interstate 81, and take the first exit. It's marked Salem - New Castle. At the end of the ramp, take a left on Route 419, go to the bottom of the hill, and take a right on 311. A few miles down 311, take a right on Absalom Smith. Park at Pines park, and follow Absalom Smith Road to where it turns into Carvins Cove Road. Follow it until just before the pavement ends.
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