A 20-mile rails-to-trails project spanning Botetourt and Craig counties drew jeers to cheers at the first of two public meetings Tuesday night at Eagle Rock Elementary School.
The open house coordinated by the Virginia Department of Transportation attracted 110 people, from green-shirted “DeRail the Trail” opponents to biking, hiking and horseback-riding enthusiasts wearing stickers supporting the Craig Botetourt Scenic Trail. During the two-hour meeting, they mingled with each other and VDOT staff to ask questions, study concept boards and submit comment sheets or provide oral feedback to a court reporter.
A second meeting is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at Craig County High School. The public comment period will then be open another 10 days.
Many opponents who attended the meeting live along the abandoned Craig Valley branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which was donated to the state in 1961. The state has allocated $19.5 million to construct a multiuse recreational scenic trail running from the end of state maintenance on Craig Valley Drive near Eagle Rock in Botetourt County to Craig County High School near New Castle. Construction is expected to start in early 2027, according to VDOT Salem District spokesperson Jason Bond.
On the doorstep of Eagle Rock Elementary, Diane Harto greeted hearing attendees with free “DeRail the Trail” shirts and caps. She has been upset since the planning days of the trail when she says VDOT officials suggested that the project might not ever happen.
But, she said, “they already had established properties that were going to be acquisitioned through other parties and then donated to VDOT that they were already planning for trailheads without any consideration of what that trailhead would be. And now they’re proposing to put one in a place where it’s the most dangerous spot on the whole trail. For a trailhead, it’s just stupid.”
Inside, Scott Koerner and his wife, Jessica Schlotthober, were jotting down criticisms to drop into the public comment box.
“Her place is right off the track,” said Koerner of his wife’s Craig Creek property. “So years ago when they opened up [the trail] briefly … a bunch of them came down, trashed everything because they’re down by the water. So people are very disrespectful of private property. You know, that’s the main concern — people being disrespectful.”
Nearby, Bob Graham expressed concerns about the safety of the trail that at times shares, in VDOT parlance, “low-volume secondary roads.”
“It can be a bad situation [with cars],” Graham said, “especially when there’s a lot of horses together, right? And another thing … I feel it’s going to reduce my quality of life. Anytime you go to the doctors, go to church on Sunday morning, you’re going to have to leave a lot earlier. That’s taking time off of my life.”
Woody Lipps has been hearing such concerns for three years. When asked by the Craig County Board of Supervisors in 2022 to chair a citizens committee to study the proposed trail, Lipps initially demurred: “I’ve lived in Craig about 40 years, and I worked for the Forest Service, and I have been through a couple iterations of this before. So you know, I knew it’d be contentious, and I’m retired, and I didn’t know that I would want to fool with that.”
He’s now a trail supporter, but he understands that for those who live close to the trail, “this is a profound change for a community that’s seen very little change in the 40 years I’ve been there. And there’s a lot of worry, there’s a lot of fears, there’s a lot of exaggeration, and one of the things our committee was asked to do was to try to get the facts and present them.”
Walking up to greet Lipps, Marge Lewter said she supports the trail, but she had a different set of concerns. As head of the Eastern Divide chapter of Backcountry Horsemen of America, she said: “I just want to make sure that horses are included. … Sometimes the parking lots are not big enough for horse trailers, so they can effectively keep horse people out by making the parking areas too small. And sometimes the bikers don’t love horses. I mean, I ride a bike, too. I’ve ridden this trail on a bike. … Sometimes you’ve got to go around the poop. But I mean, we’re all out there for the same reason, to enjoy nature, and it’s really not a problem.”
Eagle Rock husband-and-wife team Richard Amstutz and Renee Goddard showed up to show their support.
“The trail provides an opportunity not only for people who are local to get out and cycle — it’s good for your health, good for connection to nature — but also they bring traffic here to this area and support local businesses,” said Goddard.
Amstutz added: “The people who will use this trail are not your average thieves and destructive people. They care about the land. They care about keeping it clean and maintained. And it will be a win-win for everybody.”
Blue Ridge residents Steve Nagy and Stephen Robertson, who said they collectively bicycle 12,000 miles a year, said the trail “will be a fantastic asset, not just for the immediate counties, but for the Roanoke region as well, in drawing people here who want to experience the beauty we have in the valley and have a safe place to run. However, there are a few, and I understand the reasons why, who are opposed to it, but … it’s public land, and it needs to be used as such.”
The Craig Botetourt Scenic Trail is one of five priority trail projects identified, and now funded, by the state. Asked if the public meeting or anything else could indeed derail the trail, Bond said, “At this point it is funded to move forward. So we would expect at this point for it to move forward unless somebody, you know, changes their mind. But at this point it is a funded project.”
Public comments may be mailed to VDOT – Salem District Office, Kelly Dunn, 731 Harrison Ave., Salem VA 24153. They must be postmarked by July 26.