Dan Casey

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The downhill trail coming off Montgomery County's Brush Mountain was broad and smooth -- and twisty. As I picked up speed and headed into a challenging left bend, my eyes wandered right. A 10-foot-tall berm rose off the trail's right edge.

"Wow!" I thought. "A downhill bike trail with banked turns!"

I missed that first berm, but not the next five. I let loose on my brake levers and zipped down the mountain, my knobby tires whizzing across the parched dirt. It was the mountain biking equivalent of no-holds-barred downhill skiing, capped by a large puddle that showered my bike with streams of cool, muddy water.

I had just run "Berm Alley," one of the many thrills that my mountain-biking friend Jon Cawley led me through at the Pandapas Pond recreation area in Montgomery County.

After a Sunday afternoon there, it's obvious why this is a favorite of local mountain bikers -- and equestrians, fishermen, hikers and families out for a day in the woods. At this rapidly developing recreation site, there's truly something for everyone, including bikers of all skill levels.

Blacksburg's own 'Central Park'

Pandapas Pond encompasses 500 acres on the north side of Brush Mountain, a 2,843-foot peak that overlooks downtown Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. It's owned by the National Forest Service. Combined with other NFS-owned land in the area, it offers miles and miles of trails both broad and flat, steep and tricky, and in-between.

The 8-acre man-made pond has for years been a playground to residents of Blacksburg and surrounding Montgomery and Giles counties.

It is named for James Pandapas, a Blacksburg industrialist who for decades used the property as a private hunting preserve for employees of his company, Electro-Tec. When he sold his interest in the company, Pandapas opened the land to the public. He later sold it to the Forest Service for what he'd paid, plus improvements, when the upkeep became too much work.

Today, the NFS is developing the site as a park, with gravel roads and parking lots, restrooms and pedestrian-only paths (but also plenty of trails for bikes and horses).

If there's a drawback to this site, it's that it's too popular. The NFS estimates that as many as 1,000 people per day enter these woods off U.S. 460 near the Montgomery County-Giles County line, less than three miles from downtown Blacksburg.

Some users have compared it to a New York City's Central Park. It's a lot wilder than that, but tame enough that it wouldn't scare away city folk.

The biking

The biking trails are many and varied. The popular Poverty Creek trail is winding, with many small ups and downs. It runs from the 8-acre pond along Poverty Creek and ends a few miles west at Boley Fields. However, there is major construction taking place down toward Boley Fields right now (fall 1998). It's not a fun ride.

On this trail, you'll have to share its evergreen and rhododendron forest with bikers (including children, on the Sunday we were there), equestrians and walkers.

The NFS' hard work at maintaining the trail is evident. It's elevated over corrugated steel culverts in lower and wetter areas. In other areas, logs have been laid across muddy spots to prevent erosion, giving the trail a washboard feel.

Southeast of the Poverty Creek trail is the Ridge Road, a wide gravel and dirt cut that runs along Brush Mountain's spine. It parallels Poverty Creek. In between the Poverty Creek Trail and the road are some of the trickiest single-tracks I've ever ridden.

It's genuinely hard to get lost here, because nearly all the other trails lead off the Poverty Creek trail toward the peak of Brush Mountain. If you're heading uphill, you're going away from the pond and up toward a gravel road the mountain's ridge. If you're going down, you're heading back toward Poverty Creek.

Our ride

The main entrance to Pandapas Pond is a well-signed left turn off U.S. 460 a couple miles west of Blacksburg opposite Virginia 621. There is plenty of parking at two lots near the entrance.

Cawley and I chose another way to get in, a less-used road off the eastbound lanes of 460 more than a mile west of the main entrance. It's smack on the Giles-Montgomery border.

Dan Casey | The Roanoke Times

Dawn Godwin of Roanoke sloshes through the watery end of Berm Alley.

Related

Map

• Map of Pandapas Pond

More photos

• Scenes from the ride

We drove about 1.5 miles down that well-maintained gravel road until we came to a far less developed clearing where some other cars were parked. Then we headed northeast along the Poverty Creek Trail up to the pond. Along the way, we found horses (and piles of by-product), dogs, children and plenty of other bikers. It ends at a gravel road near the park's entrance, where there is a parking lot designated for cyclists and equestrians.

On the far end of the lot is a large metal gate that leads to a wide and grassy trail that cuts around the pond's north side. A separate walking trail around the pond's edge is open only for pedestrians.

The horse trail winds up Brush Mountain and connects to the Ridge Road. The climb continues along this gravel road. At the mountain's peak on the left is an abandoned A-frame cabin that's been much abused by vandals.

The Sidewinder

The road ends in a cul-de-sac just beyond the cabin, but a wide dirt trail continues. Just a few hundred yards down this trail we entered the Sidewinder.

Local mountain bikers call this a single-track. But that doesn't do it justice. This narrow path, barely a foot wide in some spots, hugs the steeply pitched mountainside on the way down. It's more a ledge than a trail. What's left from the trunks of small 1-inch diameter trees stick up out off the trail's surface like 3-inch tall pungee sticks. This is a trail that sturdy brakes were made for.

The Sidewinder also has many 180-degree killer turns. Some of these I couldn't negotiate without a foot on the ground. The going was very slow; there's no way to take this trail fast.

The Sidewinder ends in a clearing that leads to a much broader dirt road. This is the lead-in to Berm Alley. After all the slow going along the Sidewinder, the alley is a pleasure. It's lay off the brakes time. This trail cuts left sharply as it drops you back toward the pond. The six berms on the right will allow you to handle those turns (mostly) as fast as you like.

Berm Alley ends in a muddy splash. Just beyond the water, we hung a left on a trail that lead us back to the Poverty Creek Trail and back to our car.

Getting there

From Roanoke: Take Interstate 81 south, then Exit 137 to Christiansburg/Blacksburg/Virginia Tech. Take the U.S. 460 bypass. Stay on it about 2.5 miles past Blacksburg until you see the entrance to Pandapas Pond on the left. If you want to take the lesser-used entrance, continue on 460 for about 1.5 miles. It's a left turn smack on the Giles-Montgomery County line, which is marked by a sign in the median.