The place: All of West Virginia.
The mission: To ride as much as possible without slabbing it.
The result: The absolute best three riding days I have ever had, bar none!
The story: Mike and I had been planning this for the past several weeks. We wanted to do a little exploring around an area away from the holiday mess, and on some decent roads. We wanted to keep it cheap, but we wanted to have fun without discomfort or solid plans. Planning for weeks without making plans you say? True, but if you knew Mike and I, you would understand completely.
The day was to begin at the 007 Café in Gordonsville, VA. We met at a leisurely 10 AM, I was a bit early so I waited inside and read the paper. Mike showed up a few minutes after ten and fighting traffic out of Richmond. My ride from Fairfax, VA was longer, about 80 miles, but no traffic going the back way. We got started by taking a picture of the bikes in front of a very cool small town café, one that Bond might know of in an out of the way location, cool, but very unassuming.
We ate a nice little breakfast and got ready to go. No problem, we took a couple pictures of our bikes and the café, and jumped aboard ready to roll. Mike has a new, 2006, 900 mile, Ducati 620 Multistrada, and I have a 1999 BMW R1100GS with just under 50K miles at the start of the trip. Both of us had stylish bags and a bike ready to kick some twisty road butt!
That is until Mike pulled out and shifter to 2nd, or tried too. His shifter fell off the bike, along with a chunk of the plate it was bolted to. Fifty feet into the ride and Mike’s bike was out for the count. He coasted into a flower shop that is also an antique shop, and waited for me to stop and come see what was up.
His first words were: “Well, my F***in ride is over!” And it was, at least on the Ducati. The plate had broken off, and no way we could jury rig it to work.
While I ran off to get some JB Weld in the hopes of getting mike home, he waited and met a nice lady going into the flower shop who asked if she could help. Turns out she is the fiancé of the owner of a local cycle shop, and called him down to help. The guy shows up on a beautiful Harley full dresser with all the leather and the look. He actually runs a non-denominational shop though, and is very cool. He escorts us over to his shop and gets his machinist right on it. Unfortunately it is just not repairable, but they did use a pair of my vice-grips to effect a make-“shift” shifter for Mike to get it home.
We managed to get it to the Ducati Dealer in Richmond, and they were less than useless, and with attitude to boot. I guess she didn’t like the comment that Mike should have purchased a Japanese bike instead of Italian crap. So we took it home to Mike’s place and picked up his KLR to resume the trip. His KLR 650, which is 7 years old and has 8K+ miles on it, ran like a champ all weekend.
So, 160 miles for me, and we were now leaving Richmond. Nice enough ride, if a little hot and humid. Not long before we hit the wet stuff and had to don our rain gear, in the rain, on the side of the road.
At one point my bike hit exactly 50,000 miles, so I pulled over for a picture.
Off again for 45 minutes of rain riding, and a nice dinner at a cool roadside place. We had no more gotten our drinks when Mike saw a cute waitress and got all wet in his lap. LOL No, he just spilled his drink all over. Apparently it was not his day.
And at one stop for a picture and a drink.
Now cooler, and entering WV, the rain had stopped and it had cooled down, just in time for some great roads! This is where the weekend really began. We rode along in beautiful weather far into WV, and enjoyed no traffic, perfect weather, twisties galore and the serene rugged beauty of WV. Other than Mike nearly running over, and getting bit by a water moccasin the ride was fantastic! What a great ending to a day that didn’t look promising at first.
We saw a bunch of balloons taking flight, and were under them for a while. I really want to do that one day!
We got in to Marlinton and went to the River Run Lodge looking for a place to stay. There was no room at the Inn, but the very helpful, and pretty hostess, Cassy called around for us and got us a place down the road. The people here are so nice.
We thanked her and headed for the hotel. It was 9:45, and we had covered 399.4 miles.
At the hotel we met the night manager, who told us of a nearby bar, and offered to take us to one a little further away since she was going in a few minutes. I think she liked Mike!
We declined politely and went to our room and got changed for the short walk to the local bar.
Nice place, the hotel McCall’s Inn, but a little rustic on the outside, it looked like new inside. No AC, but it wasn’t a problem.
The Roadhouse Saloon was having a special band that night, and actually charged a $5 cover charge and wanted to see our ID’s to get in. Small place nearly empty and loud, but we were parched and decided to stay a while.
Turned out to be a good decision as the band was very good, and a cool name of Fat Headed Monsters, plus the drinks were cheap, and there were drunken redneck women and men having a blast. Very entertaining. I envied their lack of self-consciousness as they danced, and especially the guy doing the Robot to a bluegrass song. What a hoot!
Then the waitress gave me a free drink, and I was soaring. A roofie? LOL nah, just nice people again.
The next morning we got up around 8 and headed over to the River Run Lodge for breakfast on the patio. Great views of the river, and decent breakfast for a good start.
Packed up and ready to go, we headed out 59 with New River Gorge and Bridge as our first destination. Fantastic roads, and no traffic to speak of.
We passed a group of Rainbow Club partiers, basically hippies from the sixties that never grew up, and use this as an opportunity to get together and relive their glory days. It was interesting to see thousands of hippies, yuppies that looked like hippies, and freaks of all kinds congregate in their beater VW’s, bestickered Subaru’s and overpriced SUV’s! Strange mix of old and new stoners having a party in a state park. We were told something like 20 thousand of them were converging on the park to commemorate the police beating death of a couple of their original members 25 years ago. The facts may be off, but the idea is right. And no, not THAT Rainbow Club.
More great riding, and LOTS and LOTS of twisties. WV must not have more than 10 miles of straight roads.
Finally arriving at the New River Gorge Visitor’s Center at around 1:00, we were both exhilarated, and tired, but having a blast! The staff was very helpful in getting us the number to the hotel at our next destination so Mike could make the reservation. Nice people!
He was thirsty I guess!
We went down a very twisty road for 7 miles, following the only real traffic we found all day, to the bottom of the gorge 900 feet below. The NEW River is actually one of the oldest in North America, and is very majestic! The bridge that spans it is the world's largest steel span and the second highest bridge in the United States. It is 876 feet high, and spans 3030 feet in one arch. Very cool, as is the road to the bottom and the old bridge.
Mike
Me
The bridge
We stopped for a little sight seeing, and took some great pictures, as well as watching the rafters on the New River having fun!
Back on the road we headed towards Gauley Bridge and had lunch nearby at the visitor’s center. Nice place, very good food, dirt cheap! Nice waitress too!
We met a few cool bikers that we talked with for a while. They seemed impressed that we rode so far. Care to guess what they rode?
Off to Gauley Bridge
Again, beautiful roads as we followed 39 heading North and somewhat East. We picked up 41, then 20 and 55 to complete the incredible ride to the Snow Show Inn at Snow Shoe Mountain. These roads were just turn after turn after turn, back and forth for a hundred miles, with a few small towns thrown in for variety, it was a great route.
Mike was excitedly looking at my Jesse bag and asking if I felt it hit? I had no idea I even did until he showed me. Cool! Though I must admit it must have been an off camber turn since I had been taking it mostly easy so Mike could keep up on his KLR!
We even took in about 10 miles of dirt road to mix it up a little. Mike really was glad for the KLR then, though the wind buffeting was getting to him!
Finally he stopped and removed the fairing on his KLR all the way. We then strapped it on the back of his bike. Talk about a happy man. It totally cured his wind and buffeting problem, but man did it make his bike ugly!
We took Routes 39 to 41 to 20 to 15 and on up to Snowshoe. I think we hit one stoplight all day. Nothing but two lane twisties, and great ones at that. Have I said I love WV yet?
We showed up at the Inn at Snowshoe, checked in and headed for the shuttle for the top of the mountain and Snowshoe Village. Beautiful faux Alpine look, but cool anyhow. The weather was cool, but not bad. Still I was underdressed and was soon in search of a sweatshirt.
But first we had to have some food, and all the restaurants were packed, so we hit a stand and got Pita Sandwiches. They were actually quite good.
The band was playing, and cold girls were everywhere!
Soon we were back to finding me a sweatshirt, and happened across a shop with a great sale, but no size XL. $69 sweatshirts for $19.99. So I give the last large a try, and holly crap, it fits. It pays off being 100 pounds less than Christmas, and now instead of 3-4X, I am wearing a LARGE!!!!!
Anyhow, we went back out in search of a place to watch the fireworks, not easy since everyone was already there. Besides, the fog was rolling in very thick, so I suggested a return to the bar and get some prime seats, which we did.
3-4 drinks later, and a lot of noise from outside, and we were ready to head back to the hotel. We wanted to get up fairly early for the last day of riding.
Day three started beautiful. Excellent weather and cool, but not cold, temps. After a breakfast in the hotel we were off and running. First destination, Spruce Lake.
The ride was becoming almost boring, twist after twist after twist, then followed by more twists!
The lake was OK, but the ride to it was fun, 11 miles of fairly easy dirt roads with just a little extra gravel to make my GS squirely. This was my first trip off road with the GS and I wasn’t ready for how easily it was pushed around by a little loose gravel. But by the time we got to the lake it was better. I guess I just needed to get used to it.
Then it was 6 more miles to Spruce Knob, the highest point in WV, though just 50 feet higher than Snow Mountain according to my GPS.
Strange one-sided denuded trees probably caused by the constant wind.
Spruce Knob also provided us with the best roads that contained no pavement that we had seen. A rutted, full of holes back road to Route 33 that lasted just 12 miles, but had both Mike and I laughing in our helmets as we descended. Then, a 7 mile twisty that was the best of the trip, and that is saying a lot!
The road.
Dusty bikes, but happy bikes.
Our last destination was Seneca Rocks, and we made it there in just an hour. Took us 3 minutes to do the “Vacation” power tour, and we were off to Yokum’s for lunch.
Apparently so was every other biker in the area, as it was hopping with bikes, mostly cruisers, though we did see one 1200GS and two yellow V-stroms with Jesse Bags. ADV Riders? Maybe, but they were too far away, and I was too lazy to go find out.
After that it was a nice ride 220 miles home. Nice that is until we hit the VA line and instantly were in traffic, then in Harrisonburg we hit at the beginning of a parade that had me detouring all over town, and at one time even going the wrong way on a one way road. A fact nicely pointed out by the female police officer.
Overall the trip was absolutely incredible, 900 miles of nirvana, and I will be back again and again, until I can find a job there and move to Redneck Country! Did I mention the awesome roads and nice people?
Jim
the signs on the bridge said NO STOPPING so of course I had too, and I can see why they were put there as everyone would want to stop and take pics and clog up the whole bridge.
