Winston15

I'm sure that this has been covered about 10 times before: **The 17 mile trail is almost all down hill until the last 3 miles but it made for a fun ride in the summertime. The temp. stayed between 83-79 all day with lots of shade and a little wind. Perfect if your taking you wife or kids! I know that many of you wouldn't even consider this a trail but it was a nice change from 3 to 4 miles of uphill pedaling in the lower 90's. We didn't have any bike traffic and you could "get it" going down in some places. The whole area is really pretty, lots of places within walking distance to eat, many choices of bikes to pick from. Expect between 2.5 - 4.0 hours depending on how often you stop and look around. Not at all a workout, but a fun, safe place to go with your family!

RickShelton31

Deal4Fuji

Going on to Abingdon makes it 34 miles and more of a workout, the last 10 or so slightly uphill. My daughters & I did did it on 80's C&V road bikes with skinny tires and managed to not have a flat in spite of what we were told by the shuttle drivers on the way up. It's a really nice ride.

rm -rf

The Creeper Trail is way more interesting when riding uphill. The Damascus to Whitetop portion is extremely scenic, and the outbound uphill gives me time to see and hear everything. It's a workout, but not difficult. Zooming downhill, I have to pay too much attention to the trail surface, and I pass by interesting sites too fast. It is nice to have the downhill as the return part, though.

The full trail is worth doing, but I need to be in shape to do that distance on unpaved surfaces. The full round trip is a long day on the bike. That's 34 miles each way.

EDIT:
The full trail from Abingdon to just past Whitetop is 68 miles. Route map

Or start in Damascus, it's 17 miles and 1650 feet of elevation gain to Whitetop. It's an easy ride back -- at the top, it feels like you can coast all the way to Damascus, but some pedaling is required. The trail follows a scenic creek valley that's cut through the mountains. There's a lot of trail bridges crossing the water, including some high trestle bridges. And you'll often hear and see the white water. Take your time, stop at the many scenic spots on the climb up.

Baldy1953

My wife and I rode it last year. We rented a tandem in Damascus and had a blast. She is not very confident in her ability, so I got to be "captain". She enjoyed it , as did I. She got a bit nervous when we got up some speed.
It is a very nice downhill ride. Made for an easy few hours on the bicycle.
glad you enjoyed the ride also.

Patriot1 

DeceptivelySlow

I have been thinking about renting a tandem since my wife is also not confident on the bicycle. We road it a number of years ago; the wife had an accident followed by a thunderstorm. She called the shuttle to pick us up. We told the shuttle driver next time we would rent a tandem and he responded to my wife; so you want to crash him too.

I have never ridden a tandem before; glad to hear you enjoyed it.

Baldy1953

DeceptivelySlow, A tandem is a totally different ride from a single person bike. It is a lot more work for the lead rider (captain). You need more upper body strength to manage the bike. As long as the rear rider (stoker) does their part, the actual pedaling is not too bad. Being stronger than my wife, it was more work for me. Going downhill was not bad at all. she had no brakes to slow us down. Just along for the ride, so all she had to do was hang on and keep her feet on the pedals.

Give it a try and you might find you will like it. Of course, it could be a disaster also as you can't get away from the stoker. LOL

DeceptivelySlow

Thanks for the info. The closest we have come is having my wife on the back of a motorcycle. That went well as far as balance goes; I have had riders on the back that did not do as well as my wife. You most definitely have renewed my interest in going back to the Creeper and giving a tandem a try even though I will not be able to ride way from my wife.

biker128pedal

I road the trail last spring from Abingdon to Alvarado one evening while passing through. Two flats but the rear tire pressure was low. I need to go back with tougher tires or the mountain bike.

travbikeman

I'm really looking forward to riding this trail hopefully this spring.

DeceptivelySlow

The VA Creeper is beautiful and worth doing; I have only done it on a mountain bike but did it once from Abingdon up to the VA/NC line and back. I was wiped out by the end of that day. There was some guy that used to ride it round trip from Abingdon on pretty much a daily basis. A few more photos from the Creeper:

Rogerogeroge

I live in East TN and I've done the Creeper at least 20 times. Always out and back from Abingdon for the 66 miles round trip. Except the last two times. First exception friend went down, hit his pectoral plate (?) pretty hard so we rode back to Abingdon and picked him up in the truck. The second time was with my brother on his MTB, we rode 53 from Damascus-White Top-Damastus-Almost Abingdon-Demascus.

I'm 55 years old now. Used to ride Abingdon-White Top-Damascus, stop in Dam. for late lunch and a couple of brewskies, then ride to Abingdon, and two hour drive back home. Now I start in Damacus, ride to White Top, back to Dam. and eat, and don't worry if I make it all the way to Abingdon and back to Dam.

Hit me up if you have questions. DS, great pics!

dksix

I've never done the whole trail, last time I was up there I rode 25 miles in from Abington and back. I didn't go any last year but didn't ride much of anywhere last year. I live between Erwin and Greeneville and almost always ride roads in a 20 mile radius from my home, go to the Tweesie or ride in the Paint Creek/Hot Springs area. I almost always ride alone, so it's just whereever whenever when the mood hits me.

Here's a pic from the Creeper..........


From the top of Viking Mountain, this is about 12 miles and 2900' above my parking space at work (I can't make it up and back on my lunch hour)

Winston15

Wow that looks nice!

Trinity Pratt

Six years ago took my family up there, wife and two 7-year-old boys, White Top down to Damascus, loved every foot of it except that one of the boys crashed up near the top, nasty cut on his shin. But he's the tough one, glad it wasn't his brother. Kept going, stopped for bandaids at Green Cove. I turned around at Damascus and rode back up for the car. Very fun day.