Chessie Trail

Today the Monday Morning Hikers walked the portion of the Chessie Nature Trail from the big parking lot near Lexington (Virginia) to the washed-out bridge over the South River. This is a pleasant section of the trail - mostly shady (great for a hot summer day), mostly along the river, and mostly away from roads. The trail follows an old C&O rail bed and runs from Lexington to Buena Vista along the Maury River. It is currently maintained by VMI (Virginia Military Institute).

A large kiosk near mile-marker 1, about 1/4 mile from the parking lot.

The trail is wide, flat, and shaded.

Not too far from the parking lot, Mill Creek enters the Maury River.

In the mid-1800s, the Maury was made navigable from Lexington to Glasgow with a series of locks and dams. At Glasgow, the Maury joins the James River, and it was possible to continue to navigate down river to Richmond. Remnants of a number of locks can be seen along the trail.

The trail passes beneath I-81.

The trail passes through cow pastures.

Fortunately, cows are pretty unflappable. Just watch out for the numerous "cow pies" on the trail.

The bridge over the South River was washed out by major flooding from Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and the trail takes a half-mile detour on the road, so this was our turn-around point.

Yes, I know it said "Do Not Enter", but we went 10 feet further to have a look at the washed-out structure. Two weeks ago when we walked the Buena Vista end of the trail, we talked to a contractor who was scoping out a replacement bridge.

Very near mile-marker 2.5 is a "bamboo forest". To quote VMI's website, "although providing an exciting surprise, the plants are alien invasives and were likely planted early in the trail’s history."

A tangle of spider webs in a tree.

Usually I give up when trying to photograph spider webs - the camera always wants to focus on the background rather than the web. Today I got lucky!

A Carolina wren scolded us as we passed by.