Carvin's Cove, Roanoke VA

This weekend we went to Roanoke Va, to visit Rhonda's parents. Roanoke is cool because it is in the Shenandoah Valley. Within 10 minutes drive is the Appalachian Trail, lots of Mtn Biking and the Blur Ridge Parkway. Before my mtn biking days, it was a ritual to take a 7 mile round trip trail run up to Macafee's Knob on the AT. Now that I am mtn biking, I drive 10 minutes to Carvin's Cove to ride. This is a fun area with very well maintained trails.
I was able to ride about 25 miles before I started to run out of food and drink. I had planned on being out for only 2 hrs. I ended up riding 3 hrs and barely had enough to make it back to the car. Too bad, I wanted to keep riding. I posted some pictures of the trail below.

Wildlife
These deer were about 20 feet away.
Mmmmm, that one is eatin' size.

Looking up from the bottom of Jacob's drop.
The top, I rode up this trail, walked some of it.
Halfway down Hi-De-Hoe
View of Tinker cliffs on the AT, from Hi-De-Hoe
View of the lake: Got Rain?

Schoolhouse Trail

Comet trail
Trail intersection
Enchanted Forest

This ride was fun because I didn't have a map of the area. I had seen one at one point, but did not bring it. There is a dirt road that circles the lake, so I knew that if I got lost, all I had to do was go towards the lake. When I came to an intersection, I read the names of the trails and picked at random which one I wanted to do. Just cruising around.

I took Happy Valley rd- Schoolhouse- Little Bell- Enchanted Forest- Tuck-a-Way - Jacob's Drop- left on the dirt rd at the top- Hi-De-Hoe- 4 Gorges to the dirt rd- back on 4 Gorges to Hi-De-Hoe- to the Bennett Springs parking lot- back up Hi-De-Hoe to 4 Gorges- to dirt rd. - down to Happy Valley- to Comet- Tuck a Way- Enchanted Forest- Little Belle- Schoolhouse- Happy Valley- to the parking lot.

3 hrs, 32 miles, 32 degrees.

Great day.