As mentioned above, there are a LOT of bike rental locations around town (we've used Adventure Damascus). We recommend biking down Whitetop Mountain. You can rent a bike and pay for a shuttle to take you up to the top of the mountain. Then, you cruise down the mountain on a historic old train track that has been turned into a bike trail. By cruise I mean, you don't need to pedal much at all the entire ride down. We've done this a bunch of times. It is pretty awesome. You go over streams that turn to a river and go through woods and farmland. It is a great way to get a lot of nature in a short amount of time. How much time? If you are a speed demon and choose not to stop to get a hot ham and cheese at the lil restaurant on the trail you can do it in probably an hour. If you take your time and read the plaques it could take 3 hours. And! The trail leads directly to Damascus. So you can hop off and grab well earned bite to eat or drink to drink.
One end of the Creeper Trail starts at Whitetop Mountain, goes through Demascus, and ends in Abingdon. Abingdon is an artsy town that houses Barter Theater - Virginia's State Theater - where Jordan's dad (D.R.) was the head scenic artist, and Jordan's mom (Robin) has performed. Robin also owned a boutique here and it is the town where Jordan grew up.
You will drive through this rock archway on the way from Damascus to Shady Valley. Take a nice short hike over the rock!
This historic trail goes from New York to Georgia - and through Damascus! You can either take a hike from Damascus or look up some spots to drive to and see. It's a bit of a drive but Carvers Gap blew the groom's mind as you can see green mountains for miles and miles.