Dan Casey

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It seemed like hours that we'd been sucking wind in low-gear territory. Switchback followed switchback on Stony Run trail, one dirt hairpin after another. Each led the eight of us pushing up the next long incline, humping over logs placed across the trail to prevent erosion. Our calves brushed mountain laurel and huckleberry bushes as the narrow path snaked up Middle Mountain in Douthat State Park.

Nobody said it, but some of us wondered, "When's this gonna end?" More than a few times the sun grew bright and it seemed as if we were near the top. But Stony Run would take another diabolical twist, duck us into chilly shade and point us upwards once again.

Then we arrived at Tuscarora Overlook and its old log cabin. One by one, we rolled our mountain bikes to the edge of the cliff.

We'd climbed to an elevation of 3,000 feet. Stretched out 1,500 feet below was Douthat's 50-acre lake. Higher, but still below us, were surrounding mountains that had taken on a mid-spring green. The sun was out, wildflowers were beginning to bloom, the wind was up and the sky was four shades of blue.

We huffed and puffed up this 4.5-mile climb. But it was this overlook that truly took our breath away.

Jewel of the Great Depression

Our motley crew of six men and two women, ages 24 to 40, had assembled at Douthat's park office shortly after noon. Four of us were from Roanoke, two from White Sulphur Springs, one from Blacksburg and another from Botetourt County.

Ian Webb was showing us the way. The Arkansas native had piqued my interest in Douthat a few weeks back when he described the park and as the best off-road riding he had ever seen.

The name of the park dates back to 1795, when the Virginia legislature and Gov. Robert Brooke granted a land patent to Robert Douthat for 102,000 acres in Western Virginia.

Work on the park began almost 140 years later, in the depths of the Great Depression.

Starting in 1933, 600 hundred hard-working men of the Civilian Conservation erected log cabins, cleared trails, built a dam and created a lake in on 4,500 densely forested acres in a mountain hollow a few miles north of Clifton Forge, Va. The land was part of Robert Douthat's original grant. By the time they quit their back-breaking labors nine years later, Douthat State Park was a reality. It was one of the original six parks in Virginia's state park system.

Since then, the park has hardly changed at all, except that it's been named a National Historic Landmark.

It's best known for its trout-stocked lake, which lures fishermen, and a sandy beach and affordable cabins that bring families there on summer vacations. But more and more mountain bikers are discovering this jewel. Eavesdropping on them after a ride, it's not uncommon to hear Douthat newbies heap superlative upon superlative. They aren't exaggerating.

40 miles of single-track

A trail system that's longer than 40 miles twists and winds through Douthat. Almost all of these 24 distinct paths are narrow single-track. But it's really hard to get lost.

The trails connect and cross one another. Each one is blazed, and junctions are marked by large signs. A printed guide available at the park office maps all of this out. It rates the trails in terms of length and difficulty. It even marks the best spots for taking pictures. Many are flat or feature moderate rises.

The hard work back in the 30s by the CCC is evident in the quality of the trails. Stony Run Trail, which leads up the overlook, is rated one of the hardest. It's a long, long climb, but the grades aren't impossible and the uphill turns are rideable, once you get used to accelerating into them.

After the overlook, Webb led us down Blue Suck Falls Trail. In 3 miles, in plunges down what we spent almost 5 miles riding up. This is one you would definitely NOT want to head up Middle Mountain on.

Blue Suck Falls Trail is stepped. About every 50 feet, it seems, there's another log across the trail to jump. The turns are tight and steep, but generally rideable if lean into them and stick one leg out of your pedal for support.

Front suspension bikes with sturdy brakes are highly recommended for this descent. Only two of us -- Jamie Redwine and me -- didn't have shock-absorbing forks. I don't know about him, but my arms felt like jello by the end of this ride.

You'll also want to be particularly careful on this trail. It has many more hazards of the rock variety than Stony Run. One member of our group, a grad student at Virginia Tech named Amanda Bailey, felt the trail's sting.

Rounding one of its sharp turns, she stopped suddenly on one rock. Her handlebars twisted and she was pitched face first into the trail. She chipped one tooth, cracked another, split open her lower lip and finished the ride on foot.

Dan Casey | The Roanoke Times

There are plenty of streams to cross, some of which you can't ride, along the descent on Blue Suck Falls Trail.

Related

Map

• Map of the Douthat area

A threat to the trails

Unfortunately, Douthat's days as mountain-biking heaven may be numbered. Economic developers in Allegheny and Bath counties, which the park straddles, are eyeing 250 of its prime acres for a championship golf course that would be part of a planned Sam Snead Golf Trail stretching across Virginia.

In Douthat, those tees, greens and fairways would eat up an area west of the lake where many of the trails cross.

"Once they're gone, we can't get them back," Webb says.

No bill materialized to provide funding for the Douthat course in the 1999 General Assembly. But organizers are pushing hard. To this day, the area around Douthat is economically depressed. The mountain biking community is expecting a bill in the 2000 legislature.

If you want to voice your opinion on this, you can contact the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation at Governor Street, Suite 302, Richmond, Va., 23219. Or call (804) 786-1712.

Make it a weekend

Although Douthat is an easy day trip from Roanoke, it's possible to make this a weekend or longer. The park sports three deluxe campgrounds, log cabins for rent at affordable rates and may picnic pavilions. Kids love the sandy beach, a large playground and a flat interpretive hiking trail. In the summer there's a restaurant and a snack bar at the beach. For information on rates and reservations, call (800) 933-PARK. The park office can be reached at (540) 862-8100.

Getting there

From Roanoke, head north on Interstate 81. Take exit 150, to U.S. 220 north. Proceed on 220 to Clifton Forge. Near the end of 220, take a right toward Interstate 64, then go straight under the highway. This road turns into Va. 629. Go straight for 4 miles into the park.