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A mural in downtown Hendersonville marks the start of the Ecusta Trail, which eventually will stretch 19 miles to Brevard. Image by Craig Distl

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. – The thought of a bicycle ride in mountainous Western North Carolina is daunting . . . with one exception. That’s the fundamentally flat Ecusta Trail, a rails-to-trails project whose initial trailhead is in Hendersonville, about 25 miles and one county south of its better-known neighbor of Asheville.

Approximately six miles of the 19-mile route between Hendersonville and Brevard are open, and those miles buzz with bicyclists, roller skaters, walkers, joggers and young parents pushing baby strollers. There’s even an Ecusta Stroller Club, an informal group of moms and dads who want to introduce their young offspring to the beauty of the Carolina outdoors.

Ecusta Trail planners give cyclists a reason to smile as they pedal past an electronic speed limit sign near the Horse Shoe community. Image by Laurie Gossy

Completion, still a few years off, will give new life to an abandoned railroad corridor between two popular mountain towns. The open portion quickly became a popular attraction for vacationers and weekend visitors.

The trail’s namesake, Ecusta, is a Cherokee word. Friends of Ecusta Trail, the project’s campions and supporters, say the translation of the word is uncertain. Some say it means “rippling waters.” Others say it means “life source.” In more modern times, the word became the name of the Ecusta Corp., which built a paper mill in Brevard. The paper mill needed a connection to the outside world, and that was the genesis of a spur line to reach Hendersonville.

Every day is a patriotic day along the Ecusta Trail in Western North Carolina. The Ecusta Trails offers some flat miles in an otherwise mountainous region. Image by Laurie Gossy

The paper mill opened in 1939. Its closure in 2002 meant the end of railroad traffic on the Ecusta spur line of the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, which continues to serve other Western North Carolina communities.

By 2007, rails-to-trails advocates were talking about how to find a new life for the route, but it was 2025 before the Ecusta Trail’s first six miles opened. Transformation of a railroad route to a recreational trail moves slower than an overloaded freight train.

Red umbrellas shade picnic tables outside the Ecusta Market & Cafe in a trailside development called Lennox Station. Image by Tom Adkinson

“We waited for this trail to come to life for 15 years,” said Summer Stipe, wife of Derek Stipe, one of four partners in Venture Ecusta, a bike rental business with a fleet of 50 bikes, including 20 e-bikes.

A mural in downtown Hendersonville marks the official start of the trail, but Venture Ecusta is barely a half-mile away, and it has become the unofficial start of the trail.

That’s because the bike rentals are a part of a cluster of businesses called Lennox Station. Other businesses are Trailside Brewery (what would any Western North Carolina spot be without its own craft brewery?), the Trailside Table restaurant in the brewery and the Ecusta Market & Café, a combination grocery and cafe for coffee, sandwiches, fresh pastries and, yes, cold beer.

This smiling cyclist has happy doggie companions front and back during a ride of the Ecusta Trail. Image by Tom Adkinson

The roll from Venture Ecusta glides along Wash Creek, which flows into the French Broad River, just past the point the trail currently ends. That’s at a dot on the map called Horse Shoe, whose businesses include a restaurant called Root & Bone and a hardware store.

In between are numerous reasons to stop and explore, including a u-pick berry farm, an art glass studio and a combination gem mine, goat farm and taproom.

The Ecusta Trail gives two cyclists opportunities for casual conversation while pedaling along fields and beside Wash Creek before it flows into the French Broad River. Image by Tom Adkinson

The rails-to-trails movement has roots all the way back to the 1890s. According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, a push for converted trails emerged in the Midwest in the 1960s. Its formal birth was with creation of the Illinois Prairie Path and Wisconsin’s Elroy-Sparta State Trail. There are more than 42,500 miles of multi-use trails in the U.S., and a few more on the way along the Ecusta Trail.

Trip-planning resources:  EcustaTrail.org, VentureEcusta.com, RailsToTrails.org and VisitHendersonvilleNC.org

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at Amazon.com.