227 Miles
When I woke up I had to make a decision. Either go for the ride (and it’d be a push to get there on time), or just take my time and just go on a ride, perhaps taking the planned route and jumping across at the split. Ultimately I went ahead and took my time. I got over to the parking lot at about 8:15am. I figured that if anyone was leaving a little later, I might be able to tag along. Alas, it looked like everyone had already grouped up and were on their way. So I put the map in the tank bra, suited up and started out on the planned route.
The beginning of the ride had me going to the left upon leaving the resort. The morning was on the cool side but still very very nice. The roads in West Virginia are pristine. Heading up 32 I was just enjoying the quiet and country type setting. I pulled into the gas station and gawked in the combination gas station and country store. Lots of hunting pictures on the walls and handwritten for sale and wanted to buy signs.
I’m going to see if I can locate a copy of the map for reference.
I got up to 93 and made that right turn and found that West Virginia was in fact, Almost Heaven. The curves while going down were nothing short of amazing. Traffic was non existent, the curves were clear and I truly enjoyed that specific stretch of road. I got down the hill and made the right turn on to Jordon Run. This also was an awesome ride. A nice little twistyish lane and a half road with no center. A perfect bike road.
I was sweeping through some of the curves when I came around this corner and there was this big white house sitting in the little vale. I got around to the other side and quickly turned around so I could get a picture.
I got to the other side, happy to be out riding. A left turn and now I’m heading to Petersburg. On the other side I caught up with another group of riders, perhaps other members of STN out for a ride. When we got to Patterson Creek Road, I saw they made a right turn and I followed. I hung behind them for a couple of miles but then they stopped on the side of the road. With a wave, I continued on. The road was also nicely twisty. This was working out to be an excellent ride. I glanced to my right and there were two small deer on top of a bank. They turned and headed back into the woods. Not far from Lahmansville, a deer got startled and hopped up out of the long grass. I immediately slowed down and the deer jumped back up the bank and into the woods, fortunately.
I made the right at Lahmansville and spotted a nice concrete bridge go across the river. The other side was blocked off so I went across, turned around and stopped about half way back. I walked up to the road and down a bit to get a picture.
On the other side of the bridge I snapped a couple of nice up and down river shots that show the beauty of West Virginia.
Once done there, followed Old Fields Road down to 220 and then down to Moorefield. In Moorefield the turn was onto 55 and heading on down to Back Road. The group was to head down to Strasburg for lunch but I decided to make the right turn onto Back Road instead. Up until this point the instructions were pretty accurate. But the turn on to Wolf Gap Road was to be at 17 miles. When I got to 17.5 miles I figured I’d missed the turn and turned around. The roads were numbered and of course not in sequence (they’re numbered as they’re assigned so they’re not in order). I passed a rider on a green bike and waved as he went by. I’ve passed him before, it seems he’s following me 🙂
So I went about half way back and decided there’s no way it was that far off so I turned around again. I back to where I first turned around and kept going until I reached the end of the road. It didn’t say Wolf Gap Road but I made the right turn anyway. Within a short time I found Wolf Gap Road and followed it on up. The road was pretty interesting in that it was a very good road until I got back into West Virginia and it got a little rough. That was odd because all the roads up until that point were exactly the opposite 🙂
Coming down the hill in West Virginia, I saw a squirrel start to dart across the road, jumped back unable to make up its mind. I think I hit it while it was deciding but I’m not 100% sure. Ah well, one less squirrel.
I followed the directions up to Moorefield, got to town and made the left but somewhere in there I lost the map. I figured I was close and unfortunately missed the next turn. Fortunately I knew where I was, went through Peterburg and headed back. It was a great ride back. I noted the turns I’d made on the way out and then got to where 42 and 93 were one and headed back up the hill. The ride back up was even better than the ride down. I don’t know why that is but I find I really enjoy going up a hill vs going down. This was one of the spots where I would have enjoyed having a video camera to get video of the short ride up the hill. I went by the lake again and back down to 32. On the run down 32 I pretty much had a ball passing slower RV’s and cars. I made the turn back into the resort at about 4pm. I got back about 4pm, 15 minutes or so before the others started getting back.
When I got back a few other bikes had already arrived including a green one that I’d been seeing all day.
One of the riders had installed the 132db horn on his bike. After a bit, we talked him into letting us hear the horn. After a warning horn! he hit it. It’s freaking loud. I have the horn and wanted to install it but didn’t really have enough space to install it. Now I think I could install it anywhere and still get a really decent sound out of it. Here’s the guy and his bike.
Birdrunner and his SO came down from Canada on his Blackbird with the cool single wheel trailer. He said it was
a fairly stable ride up to about 80 or so. That looks like a pretty interesting contraption 🙂 We got to see the scar
he picked up on his ride to The 2005 National. Unfortunately his wife picked up a bit of lye on today’s ride and had
to see the doctor to get it flushed out.
So I’m heading back to the Hotel to grab a snack when I happened to spot the Bus Parking sign only it doesn’t actually read that way any more.
Of course those of us who were riding ‘busa’s were forced to park in our designated parking spots.
I hung arund and we all chatted about the days rides. I went over and had dinner at the diner in the hotel. There was a mixup on the kegs. Apparently the hotel thought we’d ordered two kegs of beer so Colleen had to head over to straighten it out. Finally I headed back to my camp in order to take a shower and get ready for the ride in the morning.