The Riverwalk at Lynchburg, Virginia

This pleasant, flat walk combines out-in-the-woods with right-next-to-town.

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My morning outing starts with a cappuccino inside Dublin 3 Coffeehouse located just a few steps from downtown Lynchburg’s Riverwalk. Enjoying the ambiance created by the wooden beams and exposed stone walls of a converted tobacco warehouse, the espresso is soon coursing through my body, indicating it’s time to get moving.

Grade schoolers are streaming into the Amazement Square Children’s Museum as I walk eastward, surprised by how many people are on the trail at 9:30 on a Friday morning: young mothers pushing baby carriages, joggers of various shapes and sizes, senior citizens taking leisurely strolls, dog walkers, dozens of bicycle riders and—what seems to be inevitable in today’s world—someone so absorbed in looking at her smart phone that others have to swerve away to avoid being walked into.

Just beyond the rental bicycles displayed on the lawn of Bikes Unlimited, the trail turns to cross the James River on a curving, former railroad bridge, providing grandstand views up and down the stream. Couples, emulating a European ritual, have hooked padlocks onto the bridge’s chain link fence as a symbol of their unbreakable love.

The paved trail on Percival Island, once a busy rail yard for Norfolk & Western, is arrow-straight and lined by fringed phacelia and other wildflowers in spring. The not-quite-ripe wild strawberries have me making a mental note to return here in about a week, yet I almost missed some of the walk’s highlights. It is thanks to the advice of a fellow walker that I wandered onto a couple of the dirt side trails weaving into the woods. On one I found the foundation of what was once the rail yard’s scalehouse. On another, I chanced upon a great blue heron trolling for a meal in the shallow water beside the island (just as the city’s parks and recreation website had asserted I would!).

About two miles into the walk, the trail crosses onto the river’s northern side. Its character changes as it is now bordered by private property and no trespassing signs, but for the next 1.5 miles continues to be lined by wildflowers and shaded by overhanging trees. It’s obvious that the old rail bed continues when I turn around at the point where Riverwalk’s pavement comes to an end. I wonder if there are plans to extend it someday.

I planned to end the walk by checking out Riverviews Artspace when I noticed Waterstone Pizza directly across the street from Riverwalk. Surely the paintings and other gallery exhibits can wait for an hour for me to enjoy a fire roasted pizza and a cold craft beer? This pleasant, flat walk combines out-in-the-woods with right-next-to-town.

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