In search of Meems Bottom

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In search of Meems Bottom

Postby RocketMan » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:01 pm

No, pervert that’s Meems Bottom, not Meem’s bottom! (the Place not a part of someone anatomy!)

Started out with the intention of riding out to Meems Bottom Covered bridge, the longest in VA and found some really great roads as a result. Headed out 55 to Wardensville where I turned south on Trout Run Road. That’s were the fun began. It started out as a 2 lane marked road but soon narrowed down to 1 and half lane unmarked road heading south. I half expected it to turn to dirt, which wouldn’t have too bad, cept maybe with all the rain it might have been a bit messy. As it turns out it never did and run me up and over several mountains occasionally opening up into some valley only to head back up another hill. Very twisty but good pavement and no traffic. Right where it crossed back into Virginia it passes thru the National Forest and there looked to be a very nice campground right there. At some point it became Wolf Gap road, which turns out to be another section of 675! At one point after meeting up with Wolf Gap road there was another very tempting road off to my right which turns out to be 59. I’ll have to run that one next time but I wanted to get east back to Mt. Jackson first so headed east to 42 then ran that south to 263. Now for some Pics of the first leg.
I also decided that today I would take just one fixed MM lens and try to work with that as well as try to do everything exposure wise "in camera" so I just took the 17mm lens with the Pen EP-1. I've just been thinking that I have come to rely on the camera more and more for zooming and exposure have been spending less time on composure and really working each subject, getting back to basics, I guess you'd call it, an no (or minimal) photo-shopping.
So here goes....

Got a little fog on 55 coming into Front Royal
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The view looking back as I crested the first mountain on Trout Run, 11:30 and there is still some low lying fog in the valleys
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The road
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Saw this interesting pile of stone work along Trout Run, some sort of old furnace?

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Hmmm, nice airhead, motor looks almost brandnew…..
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Three more along the road as I near the end along what has now become Wolf Gap Road 675

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Once at the interection of 675 and 42 I headed south on 42 to 263. then east to My Jackson and Meems Bottom Bridge
Which runs 191 feet in a single span carried by the famous wooden Burr Arch. Meems Bottom Bridge was constructed in 1892-93 by Franklin H. Wissler across the North Fork of the Shenandoah.

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Once I rode across and back I headed into town to find the old Union Church

A nice old movie house across the street from the church

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And the church
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Then it was on to Orkney Springs that was one of the places folks used to go to “take the waters” in 17 and 1800’s and has a nice (and as I found out very Big) resort and also the location of Shrine Mount.

The plaque commemorating the original spring.

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The main building, this thing is Big!
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And some of the out buildings

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Then it was back along 263 to 717 north another small twisty one lane road back over the mountains to Jerome Rd which led me back to Rt. 42. There I headed to Rt 11, up to 55 and home as I didn’t want to ride with the sun getting low in sky. Along 717 I encountered another one of those big brick furnaces.
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And one final one along 55 you still see a touch of color in tree tops on the lower slopes but most is pretty much gone, the earth is getting ready for sleep and cooler days will rule for a time, glad I got out today, what a perfect day for an airhead ride!

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Next time I take Trout Run I want to take Sam Clarke off of 675 just past where it crosses back into Va, that looks to take you onto Rt. 59 west back into Wva. I also want to do some more of 717, Liberty furnace road, all the way north back to 675. Somewhere along 675 I passed a small funky looking “wildlife zoo” that was closed but looks like it be fun to explore. Can’t remember the name of it only that the sign at 42 said 8 miles back up the road. Got in 270 miles of riding, tourizmo now has 597 miles on the new motor and she is really braking in nicely. I can’t believe how quickly she’ll climb the RPM’s now that the motor has settled in and loosened up a bit, on the way home I cracked the gas a few times and found myself hitting 80 in third in no time flat. Wheee!!!

More info on what I visited below.

RM

http://shrinemont.poweredbyindigo.com/index.php

a write-up in VirginiaWind.

http://www.virginiawind.com/virginia_tr ... prings.asp

Meems Bottom bridge and the Union Church

History
Mount Jackson, in its beginnings, was known as Mount Pleasant. On January 28, 1826, an act of the General Assembly of Virginia changed the name of the village in honor of General ("Old Hickory") Jackson. Not only did Jackson have friends in the village of Mount Pleasant with whom he visited to and from Washington, D.C., but he also was the townspeople's kind of man even before he was elected President in 1828.
The first inhabitants of the Mount Jackson area, endowed with rich lands and abundant water supply, were the Shendo Indians, who were massacred by the Catawbas around the latter part of the seventeenth century. The rich bottom lands of the North Fork of the Shenandoah were the main habitation of the Shendos (another form of Shenandoah). It is particularly appropriate that the Valley and the River where the Shendos had their residence bear their name.
A noteworthy landmark in the center of town is the old Union Church of red brick. It is believed that Mrs. Steenbergen was instrumental in establishing the church around 1825. Within the old cemetery surrounding Union Church is the grave of Daniel Gray, a Revolutionary soldier.
In 1835, "Martin's Gazetteer" reported that Mount Jackson contained eight dwelling houses, a Presbyterian church, a school, a mercantile store, a tavern, a tanyard, a smith shop and a boot factory.
Meems Bottom Bridge
Runs 191 feet in a single span carried by the famous wooden Burr Arch. Meems Bottom Bridge was constructed in 1892-93 by Franklin H. Wissler across the North Fork of the Shenandoah.
Last edited by RocketMan on Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby JimVonBaden » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:17 pm

Very nice Jeff! The original, and still one of the best photogs in BMWBMW!

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Outstanding! =D>

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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby Ted » Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:33 pm

Awesome ride report, thanks! Great ideas for upcoming rides :)
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby R4R&R » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:13 pm

Trout run road is a great ride. I've seen that first furnace you got pictures of too. One day I took Trout Run road then cut over thru Lost City, then thru Lost River state park. Up over some mountains on 1.5 lane roads with spectacular views and I came out on the back side of Moorefield. I wish I had my camera that day since I came across some ant hills that were about two feet tall! My son was with me that day and wanted to go kick one of the ant hills but I wouldn't let him. We ate lunch in Moorefield then worked our way back home on the old, good 55.

I wish I could take pictures as good as you, or even half as good.

Thanks for the pics/ride report!
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby Unity » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:32 pm

What Ted said. :)

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(So many great roads out that way, it's hard to go wrong -- except when they turn to washed-out gravel and worse. :shock: )
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby Graybeard » Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:52 am

Beautiful photos, Jeff! Thanks for posting!
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby RocketMan » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:34 am

R4R&R wrote:Trout run road is a great ride. I've seen that first furnace you got pictures of too. One day I took Trout Run road then cut over thru Lost City, then thru Lost River state park. Up over some mountains on 1.5 lane roads with spectacular views and I came out on the back side of Moorefield. I wish I had my camera that day since I came across some ant hills that were about two feet tall! My son was with me that day and wanted to go kick one of the ant hills but I wouldn't let him. We ate lunch in Moorefield then worked our way back home on the old, good 55.

I wish I could take pictures as good as you, or even half as good.

Thanks for the pics/ride report!

yeah, that's the road I want to take next time, it starts as Sam Clarke then becomes Judge Rye (Rt. 59). I love those roads, they can be challenging (717 certainly was!) but it really gets you away from all the traffic, didn't see one bike till I got back to 11 and 55, and then everyone was out (along with some folks who should just park their machines instead of putting everyone else in harms way!) I'd like to do an overnight at the campground up there right at the boarder between the WVa and Va, looks nice and secluded.
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby RocketMan » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:39 am

JimVonBaden wrote:Very nice Jeff! The original, and still one of the best photogs in BMWBMW!

Image

Outstanding! =D>

Jim :brow

Yeah it looks like a kool place for an overnight, and rooms are reasonable, $75 for two. They do mostly conferences and stuff but private rooms are available, space allowing and with something like 12000 Sq Ft. you'd think there would plenty of rooms and that's just in the main lodge! They also do concerts during the summer, The Preservation Hall Jazz band played there this year, wish I had known that!

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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby Yellowjacket » Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:20 pm

Great pics and report. I got inspired and searched on Weems Bottom near Mount Jackson and the results showed Meems Bottom. Did you switch the "gender" to keep the whereabouts a secret? :D
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Re: In search of Weems Bottom

Postby RocketMan » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:57 pm

Yellowjacket wrote:Great pics and report. I got inspired and searched on Weems Bottom near Mount Jackson and the results showed Meems Bottom. Did you switch the "gender" to keep the whereabouts a secret? :D


So you're saying your one of the perverts since you caught the sex change and were thereby disappointed when you looked at the photos? ( thinking of that, what sex would a Weems be that a Meems wouldn't? ) :lol:

Ha Ha! good catch! corrected, cept I ain't changing all the links and renaming all the photos I mis-labeled!

RM
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Re: In search of Meems Bottom

Postby Yellowjacket » Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:00 pm

RM: You got me. Dude diligence and all. :D
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Re: In search of Meems Bottom

Postby Rick F. » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:49 pm

RM,

Great ride, great location, great pic's! Now I've got the urge to go exploring in the same places--thanks for letting me (us) know about them.

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