You want pictures? Here you go!!
Mapquest says that it's 295 miles from my house to Marlinton. By taking the more scenic route that became closer to 335 miles.
which happened to take me by the Geographic Center of Virginia...or at least close enough for the state to put up this marker. I spent a night in Lexington (home for Virginia Military Institute as well as Washington and Lee University) with a trendy bar across the street...what's not to like?
Rt 39 runs over Goshen Pass, one of my favorite roads in all the world. The scenery is very distracting.
then on to Marlinton and our B&B. Oddly enough I bumped into Dan and Tim at a gas stop so we decided to explore together. I showed them some roads that I have ridden in the past, all paved,
and then Dan took us exploring. Bear in mind, I'm a pavement guy...Dan and Tim yearn for more adventure. Bottom line, we spent about 1.5 hours in second gear and standing on the pegs while we crawled up and down some mountain 'roads'.
to include Dan getting stuck in a muddy bog when he tried to wade his bike into a stream
It was all great fun but by the end of the day we were all exhausted.
I met up with Chris at the Inn and the four of us had a very nice meal at a nearby bicycle shop that happens to serve good food and adult beverages. You can't make this stuff up!
The next day Chris and I explored some roads running near an abandoned rail line, ending up in Cass where they have a steam excursion train.
This one is special, it's a Shea design. That means each axle is driven and each truck operates independently through slip joints and universal joints.
Tim and Dan went on their own adventure which included roads getting worse and worse until they had to turn back for fear of never being seen by civilization again. No kidding, it can get that remote in WV. They regaled us will tales of daring and even had muddy bikes to prove the point.
Tim headed home on Saturday. Dan, Chris and I decided to burn up the roads on the way to Spruce Knob (highest point in WV) and Seneca Rocks. On the way back we explored more 1 lane roads, these being paved. Oh, we also stopped at the Green Bank National Radio Observatory. That's a must do if you are ever in the area. Each of us had already toured the facility so we skipped the tour this time.
Dan could not pass up a good deal on a fresh watermelon. Strapped to his bike the melon tried to escape a couple times but, even free of his straps the melon stayed put.
What a motley crew!
Sunday had us splitting up to go home. Once again I took the scenic route through such little known places as Vesuvius, Steele's Tavern, and Dixie.
My GPS tells me that I went 1103 miles total, not too shabby! Now we want to plan to do this again. The location offers options for those who like pavement, those who are open to some modest gravel, and the die hards who cannot find a path too difficult. Maybe we should open this to all small bore ADV bikes. Food for thought.
Peter Y.