(note that some photos are from a ride last year in May thru some of the same areas so some valleys may look a little greener than others!)
Time for a good spring time ride on the airhead…not to long ago on my last nice long ride things looked more like this,
The main hotel at Orkney Springs, Va
Now a little over a month later things are warming up nicely, no need to plug in even in the earlier part of the day so at 8 AM I headed out for a day getting lost in WV back roads…
First I rode out Rt. 55 just past the Va/Wv state line...
as we enter part of the Geo Washington Forest
Up on top of the hill ahead, well mountain actually, someone had a very nice setup, Wow, now there is some money tied up in that!
And like so many of the passes or valleys in the area, always the nice trout stream close by the road. Makes sense really, let the water shed lead you thru the lowest passes when building a road, just like the early settlers did, no doubt.
Once I got to Rt 259 I turned to head south down thru one of the many valleys that run between the mountains. One of the nice things about the area in the mid-eastern mountains is you have your choice of twisty mountain roads by running either east or west or more sedate gentle roads down thru any of the numerous valleys by heading in a north or southern direction. With so many ranges packed together as they are, many of the valleys are fairly narrow and often end in a narrow pass only to open up again in quick order.
The upper section of 259 that runs along the Lost River and is fairly flat so the road follows along hugging the base of the western slope.
A nice brick home, somewhat unusual as most homes in the valleys are wooden clap-board homes many of which that have grown into a daisy-chain of addition to where the main structure is often lost.
At other times you’ll come across some old abandoned homestead that leaves you wondering about what transpired that it came to be so…
When I got to Rt. 613 I came across an interesting rock out crop, not more that 6 feet wide at its base..
Later I saw this one way up high along a ridge line…
Down Rt 613 to Singers Glen, one of my newly discovered favorite little towns
Just across from the Post Office a nice home
And few more homes and a church along the main road thru town
Then on to Rt. 33 to head west again and climb a few mountains the first at 3400 feet then next one at close to 4500
But before climbing the mountains again it takes a nice jaunt thru more of the Geo. Wash forest along, you guessed it, a another trout stream
The mountains just seem to go on forever....
Because the road is so narrow with a steep drop off on one side and a mountain rising up the other not many places to pull over and take any shots, so here’s a GPS view of the road, Nice!
Then headed down Rt. 220 to pick up Rt. 642 to Rt. 640 and headed south again along to Blue Grass, Va.
While some valleys like the one along 259 are fairly flat, others like this one are more concave so the road is cut into the mountain at some height above the valley floor giving you a nice vantage point to peer down on the valley, these kinds of roads are often unmarked and barely 2 lanes wide, if that. More challenging riding, its funny how reliant you can become on the lane markings, something you really appreciate when they go missing!
Finally it was time to head home so I turned north and ran 220 back to Franklin to 33 toward Seneca Rocks back to 55 and jumped on the slab when I got to 66, and then home.. Got back around 7 PM with temps starting to drop back from the high of 68 in the mountains, nice progression from the mid 40’s I started out in. Total of around 350 miles, not bad for a day spent riding two lane roads thru the mountains. Had I not had to work Sat. I most likely would have holed up somewhere and spent Sat riding as well, sigh…
Oh, well maybe next time..
But before I leave here’s one more ….somewhere along 55 I came across this old car and building, probably some mechanics’ business now long closed..
RM
