Lingle Valley Trail

Lingle Valley Trail is like taking a journey to the Land of the Lost. Surely pterodactyls have hunkered down to weather the millennia in this jumbly thicket of singletrack goodness. This challenging downhill run crosses the stream no less than five times and winds its way through thick rhododendron bushes. One of the most unusual, beautiful, and thoroughly enjoyable trails in Cooper's Gapwith some serious steeps (in a couple early sections). So, do be a tad careful. Accessing this superb trail is done off of Chestnut Spring Trail, marked by a wooden post. You'll immediately start dropping like a stone, then you'll cross an old school bridge over the beginnings of Little Kettle Creek. Once you pass this, you'll soon find yourself among more moderate grades. There are a couple BIG logs, with stone and wooden ramps over them (for the bikers; you can probably just step over them..). The stream crossings are all wadeable (if the water is not at peak heights) and the trail twists like a dervish through crazy rhododendron land. At the end of the trail, you'll come out at a hunting camp.