BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
ABINGDON, Va. – The 650-foot train trestle, which had linked Abingdon to Damascus since the 1800s, lay in splinters after the EF3 tornado tore through Southwest Virginia.
The destruction of trestle No. 7 along the Virginia Creeper Trail effectively shut down a mile of the trail, but did not seem to affect business at the area’s bike rental shops Saturday afternoon.
“We’re jammin’,” said Bill Leonard, who owns Adventure Damascus, a bike rental shop in Damascus, Va. “The only thing is we’ve been running behind 20 or 30 minutes because people can’t get off Interstate 81 but that’s no big hassle.”
He said his shop was back in business Thursday.
“I had no power all day Thursday but it didn’t stop them a bit,” he said. “I found out I can still add and subtract with a pencil and paper.”
He said everyone has been accommodating of the damage, and he doesn’t think it will affect the tourism businesses in the long term. Right now, bikers and hikers can use the trail from White Top to Damascus and from Abingdon to Alvarado.
Richard Smith, who is on the Virginia Creeper Trail Advisory Board, said he estimates about 80 percent to 90 percent of trail traffic is from White Top to Abingdon, and 10 percent to 15 percent of traffic goes from Abingdon to Damascus.
“There’s an unknown impact at this point,” he said of the downed trestle. “The long-term project is to rebuild.”
The extent of the damage is still unknown, until insurance agents can assess it later this week, said Kevin Worley, director of parks and recreation in Abingdon.
“The trail is open except for one section,” Worley said. “We’ll work out the process of cleanup with adjacent property owners and work on a way to open the trail back up to traffic.”
He said he hopes that process will take place in the next few weeks, and immediate plans do not include rebuilding the trestle.
Right now, that section of the trail is closed off and Worley said he wants to remind people not to trespass on private property to get a look at the damage.
He said offers of help have been overwhelming.
“People want to help,” he said. “We’ll definitely call on the resources that have been made available [when we can]. Everyone is real concerned.”
He said the trail is a part of history, but it is still “just a structure that can be rebuilt.”
Jerry Camper, co-owner of Virginia Creeper Trail Bike Shop in Abingdon, Va., said his shop was busy Saturday.
“It’s getting to be peak season,” he said. “Being a seasonal business you want it to be open as much as possible.”
He said workers at the shop had to retool their plans over the weekend, picking people up and dropping them off at different places along the trail than usual, but people were generous and kind despite the inconvenience.
“It’s been more an inconvenience than shutting us down or anything,” he said. “I fully expect the trail to reopen. I’ve lived in Abingdon my whole life and I take pride in the way things are done here.”
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