Fifty years ago I was the minister at the Andrews United Methodist Church in Andrews, North Carolina. In those days the train came right through town every day, just over a block from the church.
Today there is no train, bit the tracks are still there!
As a branch of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, there is a rail bike tour option headquartered in Andrews. Yesterday Trish and I took this most enjoyable little trip.
We got our rail bikes in Andrews and got our instructions. About twenty other people were with us on a half-dozen rail bikes. We headed east out of town with our five mile goal being the Rhodo Tunnel.
With the fall color of the trees, this was a perfect time to take this trip. You have to pedal these bikes, but they do have a little battery boost just like an e-bike to help on the hills. Since this is railroad grade, we did not ever realize that we were going uphill on the way out of town.
After five miles, we came to the destination tunnel.
The tunnel is more than 300 feet long. It was built over a four-year period of time by hand using prison labor in the 1880’s. You can see how the slate-like rock was broken up with chisels and hammers. It is much cooler in the tunnel than on the outside.
On the other side, we had a picnic while they turned all the rail bikes around using a small turntable. Then we were lined up to go back.
When we started back, we realized that we had actually come uphill more than we knew. We got to coast almost all the way back. It was delightful!
This is an easy trip and anyone would enjoy it. We had one lady with us who was celebrating her 98th birthday…we think her daughters did the pedaling!
If you are near the little town of Andrews, give it a try.
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