Dan Casey

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Andy Porter was naming the places in Southwest Virginia where you can ride a mountain bike without having to downshift into granny gear, then sweat, swear and suck wind."There's the New River Trail State Park, the Virginia Creeper Trail and the Oriskany/Fenwick Mines Trail, all of them flat as a... well flat as an old railway grade, which they happen to be."

Never heard of the Oriskany/Fenwick Mines Trail? Neither had Porter, until he researched fat-tire routes from the coast to the coal mines for his new book, "Mountain Bike! Virginia."

"It was just there," said Porter, a retired special-education teacher who lives in Staunton. "It hasn't been developed. It hasn't been publicized. It happened to be where I needed a connecting route. It is just like riding through the woods - very, very flat."

The trail follows an abandoned C and O Rail Co. spur that runs along a remote stretch of the Craig-Botetourt county line where smoke-bellowing trains hauled iron ore out of the mountains and brought supplies into Oriskany, a mountain village that time has overlooked.

"Although not everyone's cup of tea, a relatively flat, wide, smooth surface through the woods is, for many of us, a great way to get from point A to point B without mixing it up with vehicular traffic or threading a way across single-track that may not be maintained for mountain biking, or even walking, for that matter," Porter said.

There is no question that Porter is right about the trail being undiscovered, said Heather Harvey, a staff officer of the New Castle Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

"I've never seen a biker on it," she said. "That's really a waste."

The trail is not an official rails-to-trails facility.

"It is just an old railroad grade," Harvey said. "It would be nice if it had enough support, interest and money to get it going as a rails-to-trails facility."

The railbed is owned by the Virginia Department of Transportation and runs through national forest property most of the way. The right of way is used by residents of the area to avoid Craig Creek when it floods, by hunters, and by locals on pleasure rides.

Porter embraces the rail grade as a leg of what he calls his "Fenwick Mines" loop, one of more than 90 mountain bike trails listed in his book.

"What I tried to do in putting together routes in the national forest was to have loops whenever possible," he said.

The ride begins at the Fenwick Mines Recreation Area north of New Castle and parallels Forest Service roads 181, 179 and 180. It picks up the old rail grade at Oriskany as it follows Virginia 615 and Craig Creek toward New Castle.

At the outset of the loop, there is a four-mile climb, but Porter says there are no technical difficulties, and bikers who want to avoid hills can stick to the rail grade and enjoy mountain biking apart from lung-searing climbs, splattering mud and bloody knees.

For a taste of what the grade is like, a section can be reached from Roanoke by driving north on Virginia 311, then right on Virginia 615 at New Castle. Follow 615 for 8-1/2 miles to Virginia 612, where there is a pull-over (on the left). Park there and start biking on the trail toward Oriskany.

Stronger bikers will want to try the entire loop, and enjoy the lofty views from the top of Bald Mountain and the unusual biological habitat - including wetlands - at Fenwick Mines. At least one section of the trail crosses a stretch controlled by a private landowners, but that can be avoided by diverting briefly to a parallel hard road.

Discovering new bike routes, Porter said, was the "fun thing" about his four-year research/riding project, especially when he probed the nearly 2 million acres of national forest in the western section of the state.

"It wasn't so much going to see where the routes are as it was a matter of carving them out: looking at a topo map, looking at a forest service map and saying, `Hey! This looks like it might work. Let's give it a try.' "

No newcomer to biking, Porter has been part-owner of a bike shop, co-founder of Virginia's first commercial bicycle touring company and co-author of a guidebook titled "A Cyclist's Guide to the Shenandoah Valley." Even so, he was awed by the riding opportunities he cataloged while researching his mountain biking book.

In Virginia, bike routes often are an overlooked resource, unlike in West Virginia where mountain biking is highly touted, he said.

"West Virginia may be almost heaven, but Virginia's mountain biking is pure heaven," Porter said.

Examples of some of his favorite fat-tire feasts:

New River State Park Trail: "This is a mountain bike ride for everybody. The scenery is beautiful There are no obstructions."

Dragon's Back: "You are up on top of North Mountain [near Catawba], and it is just beautiful. You literally are on top of the world."

Elizabeth Furnace: "It is a super, single track downhill [near Woodstock], with great views of neighboring Massanutten range, especially from Signal Knob."

Mountain biking isn't confined to the mountains, although Porter's original book proposal was to direct his attention entirely to Western Virginia.

"It would be a little dishonest to tell the people in Coastal Virginia or the Piedmont that there is no decent riding around there," he said.

On Porter's list of favorites is False Cape State Park, where the spin of your tries and click of your gears is lost in the sounds of breakers crashing against golden sand along the Atlantic.

"I'm dying to go back and do it again," he said. "It is the least visited park in the entire state. You ride on the beach along the Atlantic Ocean, which I had never done."

Porter would like to see Virginia do a better job of promoting and maintaining its mountain biking opportunities.

"Virginia just doesn't get behind its outdoor recreation potential," he said. "With the lack of interest that we have in Southwest Virginia, the national forest trails are not groomed and not maintained. You get there, and a lot of time it is rough going."

On the positive side, bikers are beginning to care for trails.

"What I have seen the last couple of years is different mountain biking organizations working together with land managers to develop and maintain trails," Porter said.

Published in March by Menasha Ridge Press, "Mountain Bike! Virginia" is available in area book stores or direct from Porter at P.O. Box 1968, Staunton 24402 for $20 which includes shipping.