Here’s a secret about two-wheeling across some of the more scenic parts of Virginia: Biking in the mountains isn’t necessarily the same thing as mountain biking. The latter conjures images of bikers with elbow and knee pads racing over rugged terrain. If you’re into that sort of thing, there are plenty of back country trails that will have you work up a sweat in the first few miles.

If you’re not, there are also pathways that are perfect for beginners. In fact, they’re perfect for anyone: first-tim-ers, families, day-trippers, long-distance travelers or others looking for a day or weekend bike ride that’s more excursion than exhaustion. Best of all it’s fall, which means it’s peak season for traveling the more forested routes, with plenty of orange, red and yellow lining the path.

Some of Virginia’s most scenic corridors are rail-to-trail projects, in which abandoned rail bed rights-of-way have been converted to recreational use. There are more than 1,000 such trails in use nationwide, with as many under development. The trails highlighted here aren’t the shorter routes enjoyed by residents out for a morning ride, but longer trails that have become destinations — with campgrounds, outfitters, hotels and bed and breakfasts catering to overnight guests.

If you time it right you can bike the Virginia Creeper Trail and end your trip in Abingdon during the Virginia Highlands Festival, which has been named among the best in the South. The best way to make the journey is to sign up with one of the area’s outfitters, many of which rent bikes and other gear. Start at the southern end of the trail and head north to Abingdon for an easy downhill ride. The trail would be isolated, but for its reputation. Bikers, hikers and horseback riders regularly meet up along the way. A number of recreational trails intersect in Damascus, a small town in Southwest Virginia that has earned a reputation as the "friendliest town on the trail." It makes a great lunch stop before continuing on to Abingdon.

Farther north, the New River Trail State Park in Southwest Virginia is getting more popular, due in part to the end of a land dispute that had closed two miles in the middle of the route. Until last year, visitors had to navigate a tricky eight-mile detour, but as of 1999 the full 57 miles is open to let visitors tackle the route in sections or from end to end.

There were 412,000 visitors during all of 1999, according to Eric Hougland, the park’s chief ranger. Through mid-August of 2000, the park had already seen 403,000, with about half coming from North Carolina. Hougland expects somewhere around 600,000 by the end of the year.

The Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park is one of the state’s busiest rail-to-trail routes because of its proximity to Washington, D.C. For urban dwellers and suburbanites looking to escape crowded roadways, the trail is an oasis. The eastern end — through Arlington and Fairfax counties — is more suburban and has numerous busy road crossings, but the trail opens up as it heads west past farmland and open space. What’s most impressive about this route, perhaps, is that the long stretch of right-of-way in heavily developed Northern Virginia has been preserved at all.