COMMENTARY: It isn t as easy as it looks: The view from the backseat theonefeather.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theonefeather.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
From 1891 until 1969, you could board a passenger train in Covington and ride it to The Homestead in Bath County, along a C&O Railway spur known as the Hot Springs branch. Heading north, it followed the Jackson River, one of a handful of wild trout streams left in Virginia.
Brown and rainbow trout, some of them a foot to 18 inches long, still swim that stretch of water below Gathright Dam. But the locomotives and tracks are long gone. In their place are crushed cinders, modern bathrooms, parking areas and picnic tables.
Those comprise one of Western Virginiaâs most recent rails-to-trails projects, the 14.4-mile (and counting) Jackson River Scenic Trail. Itâs a bit more than an hourâs drive from Roanoke. Donna and I made our first visit Sunday â and it wonât be our last.