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Frank n. Carlson
Destination:
Virginia
Strolling the
ChessieNature Trail
By Frank n. Carlson
I
n late fall, ash, oak and beech trees
burn brilliant shades of red, orange
and yellow in Virginia’s Shenandoah
Valley, where the Blue Ridge Mountains
meet the Allegheny range. Interstate 81
cuts a gray asphalt ribbon southwest
through this blaze of color.
On a chilly Friday night in late
October, my girlfriend and I leave the
interstate to check in at the Llewellyn
Lodge bed and breakfast in Lexington,
a small city in Shenandoah’s Rockbridge
County that’s known for its Civil
War history (both Robert E. Lee and
Stonewall Jackson are buried here)
and its two colleges, Virginia Military
Institute (VMI) and Washington and
Lee University.
Around the breakfast table the next
morning, recent grads and parents, in
town for Washington and Lee’s alumni
weekend, trade tips on faculty, fellow-
ships and facilities. The pleasant inn-
keeper, John Roberts, offers that he was
born up the road in Stonewall Jackson’s
home, when the building still served as
the city’s main hospital.
My girlfriend remarks that Roberts
sounds like a late-night DJ, speaking
in a soft voice but one that doesn’t hide
his passion for Lexington, fishing local
streams for rainbow trout and enjoying
the Chessie Nature Trail. “On Sundays,
you’re not supposed to walk the trail, but
I’ve never heard of anyone being written
up over it,” he says with a wink.
We don’t plan to wait until Sunday,
though. Right after breakfast, we set off for
the Chessie. It’s a quiet Saturday morning
in Lexington, with an autumn frost on
the grass. Just northeast of town we easily
find the Chessie trailhead at VMI Island.
(
You can also start at the other end in the
nearby town of Buena Vista.)
A trail information sheet says the
Chessie is owned and maintained by
VMI. The school acquired the cor-
ridor from The Nature Conservancy
in 1979, after it was abandoned by the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway following
Hurricane Camille.