Riding at Carvin's Cove Nature Reserve

A day in the woods now and then 

with good friends, steady horses, beautiful scenery 

and no lighting catalogs, construction decisions or plaster dust 

helps remind us of why we came to Virginia!

We've ridden the horses twice at Carvin's Cove Natural Reserve 

which is an easy 45 minute trailer ride from the barn.

Its 12K plus acres are managed for the 800 acre reservoir 

which provides drinking water for Roanoke.  

Fishing and small boats are allowed, 

but we're happy about the over 40 miles of multi-use trails!  

In this photo,  it's mid June and we're wearing long sleeves?!  

Who'd have thought that this was possible?!! 

A bonus of Joe's retirement is that we can pick our days of the week to ride, and since Carvin's is a  popular spot for mountain bikers, we'll be able to stay away from the crowded weekends.  

Many of the trails are narrow and have blind curves; 

while a few bikes now and then are fine, running into scores of them would be difficult.

We make an effort to foster good will toward the horses by dismounting 

and pushing any manure that "happens" off the singletrack trails.   

The hikers can step around, but the bikes would have a hard time avoiding it

 on some of the narrow trails, so we aim to be good trail sharers.  

Rich/Gus & Barb/Dante at stone stack on Hotel trail

The elevation changes were gradual on our first ride, 

but we began our second visit on the "Hi-De-Hoe" trail 

which climbs Brushy Mtn from the backside 

and has a 500' elevation gain in little more than a mile.   

The horses are getting back into shape so we only needed

 to give them a brief breather part way up.   

View of Carvins Cove from the Appalachian Trail

The outdoor opportunities are abundant here and we're loving exploring our new home state!