Sherando Lakes Recreation Area

Awesome trails, I live in Staunton and these trails are a great central location to meet up with friends from the Richmond area.

This system has a little bit of everything. Want flowy downhill with the occasional technical section? Try the White Rock Gap Trail. How about a ripping descent followed by beautiful (and slightly technical) creek side riding? The Mill Creek Trail is the one for you. Need a trail to test you technical chops on? Torry Ridge Trail. As for the trail quality, let's just say you won't be able to make it through a ride without developing a perma-grin.

The climb up to the Parkway is intense but beautiful narrow single track. Some nice mountain hugging sections that are much more fun on the way down

This is the Slacks Overlook Trail that descends to Sherando Lake. Its a great biking and hiking trail for a rider of any skill level. From the Slacks Overlook parking to the Sherando upper lake is about 4 miles mostly downhill. This is also a great trail to ride up then go back down.
Here is the video of the full trail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svvCA011F7w

i have started from sherando lake and from white rock gap trail off blue ridge parkway either way this trail system is not complicated but not beginner friendly in fact its probably too much for most intermediate riders but if your looking for some big trills and some great climbing/descending this is a great place to get in some intense runs one of my favorites is up white gap from upper Sherando prkng to slacks to Torrey (blue) the rock gardens are fun and challenging and the decent to sherando lake is awesome with big rock drops ,long rocky stairs , logs , switchbacks, jumps one of many fun rides in this area you will have to explore on your own as some of the loops you have to earn by just riding here. enjoy

I began at the parking lot off of Coal Road with access to the Mills Creek Trail. Its a steady climb for the first 5.5 miles buying you about 1000 ft. in elevation. This section is mostly rocky, with several creek crossings and only a couple smooth sections. Then you hit the wall; Rising 1000 ft in 1 mile of steep, rocky and narrow trail with 8 or 9 switch backs. At the top is a great place to take a break after the previous endevour and enjoy a particularly nice "scenic overlook". After a left on the jeep trail and a just a touch more climbing you reach the Torrey Ridge Trail. Here you're in for some excellent pine needle laden trail, mixed in with a few rideable rock gardens (and atleast a couple not-so-rideable). Hanging a right on The Slacks trail sets you up for some long, high traversing and mostly smooth trail. The combination of this and the White Rock Gap trail on the way down into the Sherando Lake area is what really makes this trip worth it. Save a few washed out areas, the trail here is well maintained, flowy and technical at times. From Sherando Lake its a few miles on the road, mostly (slightly) downhill save for the hill climb up out of the reaction area. There's a general store/gas station just before returning to Coal Road. Just over 18 miles with a detailed elevation changed of about 5400 ft up and down. For me personally, this was a excellent introduction to some long haul back country riding. Be ready to do some repairs - first time out I sheared off my rear derailer (luckily I could coast almost all the way back to the car back down Mills Creek) and had a couple flats...* Review edited 8/28/2011

This loop is at the Sherando Lakes Rec Area. I started at the upper lake, pedaled up White Rock Gap trail. The trail there was very nice. A little washed out up at the top. But smooth with roots and some rock. Constant climb for appx 2.5 miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then I joined the BR Pkwy and climbed that on the road for a few miles to get to Forest Service Road 162 which is also a steady climb for a mile or so. Off of the Forest Service road is the Torry Ridge trail. The Torry Ridge trail is ROCKY and that is where the downhill begins. Serious rock gardens in spots. But aside from the rock gardens the TR trail is pretty fun. Definitely will train your rock garden skills. Fun but very few bail out options at the pure rock gardens. I had to walk a couple spots on the downhill because of the rocks. I took Torry Hill to the Slacks trail and then back down on to the White Rock again to complete the loop. The trails were nice but I would definitely recommend caution on the Torry Ridge. Otherwise there wasn't anything that was too difficult. There seem to be many more trails up there. You can put together plenty of loops without having to use the BR Pkwy. But it was my first time up there and i wasn't sure what I was getting into. The way I rode it was a constant climb to the top and then almost pure downhill to the parking lot. More info is available on the CAMBC.org page. This has a love it hate it bit of everything. Ripping good downhill, technical rock gardens, Sweet singletrack, long climbs, poison ivy, etc.... It's a nice trail system and appears to be pretty well taken care of. There were some wash out areas but there were trail crews working there the day I was there. * Review edited 6/26/2011* Review edited 6/26/2011* Review edited 6/26/2011