rocketman
03-22-2010, 08:19 AM
A West Virginia Airhead adventure
Spring is Here!
(note that some photos are from a ride last year in May thru a few of the same areas so the shots along the Rt. 640 valley may look a little greener than the others!)
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/spring-buds.jpg
With the warming weather and new, fully broken in motor in the airhead, I figured it was time for a good spring time ride on my 78 R100…
Especially considering that not to long ago on my last day long ride things looked more like this,
The main hotel at Orkney Springs, Va that dates back to the 1800’s when people went to such places to “take the waters” as they used to say
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Main-house-side.jpg
Now a little over a month and half later things are warming up nicely, no need to plug in the electrics, even in the earlier part of the day, so at 8 AM I headed out for a day getting lost in the back roads of West Virginia.…
First I rode out Rt. 55 just past the Va/Wv state line...
First shots taken as we enter part of the Geo Washington Forest
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Rt-55-1.jpg
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!
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Rt-55-1-detail.jpg
And like so many of the mountain passes or valleys in the area, there is almost always a nice trout stream close by the road. Makes sense really, let the watershed lead you thru the lowest passes when building a road, just as the early settlers did, no doubt. Some of the east-west roads in the area follow the same routes they first took when heading west.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Rt-55-stream.jpg
Once I got to Rt 259 I headed 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 that at any one point along the way, 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, simply by heading in a northern or southern direction. With so many mountain 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 into yet another in quick order.
This is 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.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/259-valley-1.jpg
And as we near the southern end of the first farming valley south of Rt. 55
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/valley-view-2.jpg
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 additions over the years to a point where the main structure is often lost.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/valley-home.jpg
At other times you’ll come across some old abandoned homestead that leaves you wondering about what transpired that it came to be so…sometimes it even turns out that it is still occupied just not well maintained…pretty sure this one is no longer lived in though. Still is shows how popular long front porches were, still are for that matter, as a place to sit and enjoy the cool evenings or escape the summer heat inside.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/abandoned.jpg
When I got to Rt. 613 I came across an interesting rock out crop, not more that 6 feet wide at its base… again this is fairly typical of the area, with the age of the mountains and shifting over time combined with all the runoff from the mountain slopes there is a lot of exposed rock
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/outcrop.jpg
Later I saw this one way up high along a ridge line where the rock face was exposed…
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/outcrop-2.jpg
Next I headed down Rt 613 to Singers Glen, one of my newly discovered favorite little towns
Just across from the Post Office a nice home
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/singer-glen-1.jpg
And few more homes and a church along the main road thru town
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/singers-glen-2.jpg
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/singers-glen-3.jpg
Then on to Rt. 33 to head west again and climb a few mountains, the first which rose to slightly over 3400 feet then next one at close to 4500
But before climbing the mountains again 33 takes a nice jaunt thru more of the Geo. Wash. forest along, you guessed it, another trout stream
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/rt-33-1.jpg
From the top of the first mountain crossing looking west, the mountains just seem to go on forever....
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/rt-33-2.jpg
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!
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/rt-33-3.jpg
end of Part One
RM
Spring is Here!
(note that some photos are from a ride last year in May thru a few of the same areas so the shots along the Rt. 640 valley may look a little greener than the others!)
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/spring-buds.jpg
With the warming weather and new, fully broken in motor in the airhead, I figured it was time for a good spring time ride on my 78 R100…
Especially considering that not to long ago on my last day long ride things looked more like this,
The main hotel at Orkney Springs, Va that dates back to the 1800’s when people went to such places to “take the waters” as they used to say
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Main-house-side.jpg
Now a little over a month and half later things are warming up nicely, no need to plug in the electrics, even in the earlier part of the day, so at 8 AM I headed out for a day getting lost in the back roads of West Virginia.…
First I rode out Rt. 55 just past the Va/Wv state line...
First shots taken as we enter part of the Geo Washington Forest
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Rt-55-1.jpg
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!
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Rt-55-1-detail.jpg
And like so many of the mountain passes or valleys in the area, there is almost always a nice trout stream close by the road. Makes sense really, let the watershed lead you thru the lowest passes when building a road, just as the early settlers did, no doubt. Some of the east-west roads in the area follow the same routes they first took when heading west.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/Rt-55-stream.jpg
Once I got to Rt 259 I headed 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 that at any one point along the way, 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, simply by heading in a northern or southern direction. With so many mountain 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 into yet another in quick order.
This is 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.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/259-valley-1.jpg
And as we near the southern end of the first farming valley south of Rt. 55
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/valley-view-2.jpg
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 additions over the years to a point where the main structure is often lost.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/valley-home.jpg
At other times you’ll come across some old abandoned homestead that leaves you wondering about what transpired that it came to be so…sometimes it even turns out that it is still occupied just not well maintained…pretty sure this one is no longer lived in though. Still is shows how popular long front porches were, still are for that matter, as a place to sit and enjoy the cool evenings or escape the summer heat inside.
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/abandoned.jpg
When I got to Rt. 613 I came across an interesting rock out crop, not more that 6 feet wide at its base… again this is fairly typical of the area, with the age of the mountains and shifting over time combined with all the runoff from the mountain slopes there is a lot of exposed rock
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/outcrop.jpg
Later I saw this one way up high along a ridge line where the rock face was exposed…
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/outcrop-2.jpg
Next I headed down Rt 613 to Singers Glen, one of my newly discovered favorite little towns
Just across from the Post Office a nice home
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/singer-glen-1.jpg
And few more homes and a church along the main road thru town
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/singers-glen-2.jpg
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/singers-glen-3.jpg
Then on to Rt. 33 to head west again and climb a few mountains, the first which rose to slightly over 3400 feet then next one at close to 4500
But before climbing the mountains again 33 takes a nice jaunt thru more of the Geo. Wash. forest along, you guessed it, another trout stream
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/rt-33-1.jpg
From the top of the first mountain crossing looking west, the mountains just seem to go on forever....
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/rt-33-2.jpg
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!
http://roadrunes.com/images3/spring-ride-03-10/rt-33-3.jpg
end of Part One
RM