A letter from a local
A star on the mountain, trails under it.
Mill Mountain — the one with the giant star — rises straight out of downtown with trail from the greenway to the summit. Carvins Cove, the second-largest municipal park in America, holds 60 miles of mountain bike singletrack fifteen minutes from the city. That's not a typo. Municipal.
McAfee Knob, the most photographed spot on the entire Appalachian Trail, is twenty-five minutes out — locals hit it at dawn and have the ledge to themselves. The Blue Ridge Parkway rolls right past town for road climbing, and the James River gorge brings the paddling.
Virginia's biggest mountain town in everything but name: real hospital-system jobs, brick downtown, and an outdoor calendar that never quite empties.
— Vern