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I have been hosting a rough road ride for the MTF for several years. All of the previous rides have been in North Carolina. I decided to try a ride in West Virginia after seeing the Canaan Valley area during a 2007 family vacation. A couple of MTF regulars, Art Garvin and Randy Fryer, offered to help me with the routes. We made a plan to do our scouting in the days immediately before the event. We arrived in West Virginia on the Sunday before the WVRRR (Thursday June 19 and Friday June 20) and had a couple great days of riding in the Monongahela National Forest. I could live like this all the time!!
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My wife, Susan, loves the mountains and likes to ride in the MTF events. This year, for the first time, she had her own motorcycle. Her skill level hasn't reached the point where she felt like she could ride with our group, but we both decided that we would find some riding opportunities for her during the week. On the way to Elkins, WV, the event headquarters, we decided to stop at the New River Gorge Bridge (Hwy 19 near Fayetteville, WV) and ride our bikes to the old bridge at the bottom or the gorge.
The road down to the bridge is a one-way road, is paved, but rough and narrow. Suzy and I took it easy going to the bottom and the view was spectacular.
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Click on any of the photos for a larger version
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We even went on one of the dirt roads near the bottom and got to play at the rivers edge.
The stop at the bridge was an excellent way to break up our 500 mile trip.
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Monday morning Randy, Art, and I started scouting for roads we could use for our group ride. I had planned a route using forest maps and suggestions from others who had ridden in the area. However, we needed to make sure the roads were suitable for the variety of bikes that would be on our group ride. Also important to me is to be able to recognize visually where I am and to have some idea of the right way to go if there are any emergencies. Monday's ride was perfect. All of the roads we planned to use were in good condition and the scenery was awesome. We went through two small towns, Glady and Bemis, that used to be railroad stops but are now hunting/summer camps.
I could live in either spot!
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Bridge into Bemis, WV
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Tuesday's ride was super in the morning, but we ran into roadblocks in the afternoon. I had hoped to take a back road into the National Radio Observatory but we found the road was blocked and no longer open to motorized traffic. We did find a beautiful meadow on the banks of a river and a very old swinging bridge over the river. Randy Freyer was the first to try the bridge.
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We backtracked to the paved roads only to be turned around again by a paving crew working near Cass, WV. This meant that we had to take a 20 mile detour on highways 250, 28, and 66 to get over to the Snowshoe Ski Resort and see the next road on the route. At Snowshoe, we found that the road shown on the map was all but abandoned. All that was left of the road was two ruts ~ 8" deep, with water running down the ruts in many spots. We went up the road for a mile, just to see if it got better. We crossed the Cass Railroad tracks twice before we decided to give up. One of our group vocalized the thought that it might be easier to return to Snowshoe via the railroad tracks. We tried it and wasn't any easier. I wasn't worried about the train, I was worried about how I might answer questions if we were caught by the authorities :o). Anyway, we got away with it.
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Guess who the rider is in this picture?
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Wednesday, Art and Randy rode street bikes to visit the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania. Because of the roadblocks we found on Tuesday, I felt like I still needed to work on routes for the ride. I did my scouting in the van and found two excellent gravel roads going north off US 33. The first road ran along the edge of the Shaver's Fork of the Cheat River.
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The second road ran through some beautiful country between WV 72 and US 33. I had a little trouble finding a way to cross the Cheat River for this route. The first spot I went to turned out to be a "ford," not a bridge. I finally found the bridge and I felt like I had finished the preparation part of the ride. There was a beautiful farm at the top of the mountains along this road. I took this picture while Suzy and I were there.
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Thursday was the start of the MTF West Virginia Rough Road Ride. Eleven riders were on hand and we took this picture in the parking lot of the motel before the start.
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The riding conditions on Thursday were perfect. The temperature never got above 70°, and the roads were damp so dust was not a issue. Terrain varied from riverside to cliff roads.
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As good as the riding was, the highlight of the day was a surprise birthday party for Art Garvin. Arrangements had been made for Art's wife to meet our group for lunch at the Alpine Lodge on US 33, ~10 miles from Elkins. Balloons, banners, and cupcakes were laid out when we got there, and Art was nearly speechless. Art had a great 50th birthday.
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Peter Leap
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Friday's ride started out to be just as good as Thursday's. The group first stopped at Bickle Knob in the Otter Creek Wilderness area.
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From there, we went west towards Spruce knob, the highest point in West Virginia. The road over to Spruce Knob was 30 miles of gravel and we were having a great time, even after it started raining. We went through one stretch of road where there was an old farm on both sides of the road. The road ran through the farm for more than a mile and I could only wonder at how much labor was involved to carve out the pasture lands in a place where the nearest paved road was ~10 miles away.
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When we got to Spruce Knob, it was cold and damp. It started to rain hard while we were in the park area and we quickly decided to go down the mountain and find some lunch. On the way down the mountain, Jimmy Stevens lost control of his bike and crashed, hitting his head on the road. Jimmy seemed OK except that he had lost his short-term memory. We got him to the bottom of the mountain and called 911. It took nearly an hour for the ambulance to get to the restaurant. Jimmy was taken to the hospital in Elkins and Alan and Tim followed the ambulance so that they could notify Jimmy's folks. Randy and Art volunteered to go back to the motel for a truck and trailer to transport Jimmy's bike back to the motel (50 miles away). The rest of us were worried about Jimmy and a decision was made to end the ride.
Jimmy was examined at Elkins and then moved to a hospital in Charleston, WV because of concerns about one of his kidneys. There is also a major concern about why Jimmy crashed. Jimmy may have blacked out before the crash and the doctors want to run tests to see if there are other problems. Sunday's report finds Jimmy awake and comfortable and we all hope he will be released on Monday. Jimmy's wife is heading to WV to take care of him.
Except for the incident with Jimmy, everything about the ride was great. We will ride here again.
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- Andy
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