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Here's another look at the new Tweetsie Trail, connecting Johnson City to Elizabethton, TN, set to open with an inaugural Walk/Run/Bike on Saturday, August 30, 2014 (Labor Day weekend). My first post describing the Tweetsie had images of the trail from the Milligan Depot to Elizabethton. The photos today are from the Johnson City end of the trail. It's still not completed, but it's almost there.

It's better than I ever imagined it would be -- I know it's going to get a lot of use. People are really going to love having a long flat, largely uninterrupted trail for biking, jogging and walking. I see lots of smiles and hear lots of "This is amazing" comments from the people I've passed on the trail. I'm impressed with the thoughtful planning and the quality of the work that has gone into this project. If you'd like to take part in the inaugural event, click the link above to sign up and register. Click here to like the Facebook Page.

The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad was affectionately known as the Tweetsie for the shrill "Tweet, tweet" of its whistle.  The 66 mile, narrow-gauge line originally ran from Johnson City, through Elizabethton, Doe River Gorge, and Roan Mountain, ending over the state line at Cranberry, NC; it was eventually extended to Boone, NC.  Click here to see the the Tweesie in action in 1949! You can ride a train pulled by the last surviving coal fired locomotive used on the Tweetsie at a theme park located between Blowing Rock and Boone, NC, appropriately named "The Tweetsie Railroad."  Another place to experience the old railroad is at Doe River Gorge, a Christian Campground that provides its campers with a train ride out to Pardee Point, a narrow overlook of the Doe River with sheer rock walls rising hundreds of feet above the narrow passage. Fast forward this video to 5:30 to see that section of the old railroad line. Doe River Gorge typically has an open house each October where the public is invited to take a ride on the train.  Below is the curving, re-purposed (almost complete) bridge over University Parkway in Johnson City.