After much delay, we finally got off on our long talked about overnight backwoods West Virginia adventure. The “we” are my two primary riding partners here who just did the TAT this summer.
This trip was absolutely amazing. I hope this trip report in some way conveys the fun we had.
The Cast
Dr. Z – a DRZ400s piloted by Dave
Pickle – a KLR688 piloted by Kristen
Fancy – a SuperTen piloted by yours truly
The Route
The “plan” called for a trip from the New River Gorge to Seneca with as much dirt/gravel as possible with only minimal blacktop used to link offroad riding. Now that we are back, I think we probably managed to do the trip on about 75% off of blacktop. Screenshots of the up and back tracks are below. I can send GPX files upon request.
To Seneca
From Seneca
The Report
Departure time was targeted around 1330 on Saturday afternoon after I slept off the third of three night shifts. I had Fancy packed and ready to go so that I could awake and go.
Dave and Kristen made their way to my place and we eventually hit the road. We started on pavement to get over to Ansted where we topped off the tanks. Saturday road led us over to the start of the gravel into Woods Ferry on the Gauley River where we picked up the old railbed that we had ridden for years. Halfway out the rail trail we met some folks out for a nice fall ride on their horses
But only a short bit further, we hit a major unexpected roadblock…
I have lived in Appalachia my entire adult life where I have seen and circumnavigated all kinds of “closed” roads but I have NEVER seen a road so thoroughly shut down as this. This wall of rocks was placed within the last week or ten days and took some seriously large machinery as some of these blocks are easily the size of mini cooper. With no way to get around the blocked road we had to reverse course and detour out of the Meadow River gorge via Shawver Bridge road which I have no pics of but was easily the nastiest riding of this entire trip. I had to take the boxes off Fancy and hike them up the trail in order to feel comfortable getting the bike up such rocky terrain.
So we made it out and were forced to ride some blacktop to get over to Glade Creek where we could once again hit up gravel over to Nallen where the rail trip was passable again. One section had a tree across it that was just barely high enough to get Fancy through with her windshield tilted down.
We headed out onto some large Westvaco timber holdings were the roads ranged from really rough gravel to full on dirt roads. At our crossing of Anglins Creek (just behind us in the below pic) I decided to take Fancy on a slightly different line than Dave and ended up stuck in large boulders with my new to me Sidi Adventure GoreTex boots in water almost high enough to leak in the tops. Fancy clawed her way out and I kept mostly dry feet. Sorry about few action pix as I rarely think to stop in technical terrain and to try to document.
It was MUCH later than we had wanted due to the hourlong detour around the recently blocked roads. It was getting colder and colder (high 30’s) but we kept into the dark and soon found ourselves too far from our intended campsite to keep pushing on some of the rougher terrain of the trip. So we pulled into a side road that SpklBk and I had exploring months ago and found to be very muddy. We went maybe a quarter mile in till it got bad and then we found a wide spot in the logging road to camp on. Tents were setup, a quick dinner was wolfed down, and we all crashed for the night. We woke up here in the freezing cold
And as we drank coffee, broke camp, and packed up, the sun started to come out
But by the time we started riding, the clouds closed in again and we found ourselves at higher elevations with a good bit of snow on the ground.
We came down at Bear Run to join Rt 39 that took us over the Highland Scenic Parkway where we caught USFS 216 down into Marlinton where we caught a much needed break at DirtBeans for breakfast and to allow the sun to warm things up a bit.
The next leg was gonna be hardpack to link us back to dirt/gravel. We headed out of Marlinton on 219 and veered off on some backroads to connect into Back Mtn rd that took us up to Rt 66 west of Cass. We crossed directly over Rt 66 and continued out Gum Rd to rejoin Back Mtn Rd that took us to a left on FR235 that was a great gravel road that switchbacked up Back Allegheny Mtn through a carpet of fall colors to then stretch all the way down the ridge to Cheat Bridge. Up at this altitude, there was plenty of snow on the shady sides of the ridges.
This road was in great shape so other than the snowy/icy spots we could really make some good time. It eventually dropped us off the end of the ridge down into Cheat Bridge where we stopped at the little train depot near the Cheat Mountain Club.
We crossed the Shavers fork here and blasted up and over Cheat Mtn where there is a huge reclamation project going on from an abandoned strip mine and timbering operation from the 1970’s.
Some discussion of our route provided some humor for us. We were always cross referencing the GPS maps with our Gazetteer in an effort to maximize our dirt/gravel.
We dropped down to cross Hwy 92 and continued out FR92. We took a side road excursion down FR47 to eat and rest at the Shavers Fork.
Dave and Kristen pumped water while I properly tested out my brand new Sidi Adventure GoreTex boots. Yep… totally waterproof!
Again a lack of action photos due to waning daylight and little interest to stop having fun on these awesome roads. But we did drop down into the Laurel Fork drainage and found an awesome looking USFS campground that I’ll have to come back and check out. Again… map consultations in Laurel Fork.
With daylight closing and fearing getting to Seneca before the Front Porch Restaurant closed…we pushed on into Whitmer and then popped over the Allegheny Front near the Sinks of Gandy before coming down Whites Run to intersect with the paved Rt 33 a few miles west of Seneca. A quick hop on this road took us right to Seneca and an open restaurant. Bellies were filled and Dave even tried to smoke a pretzel.
Our appetites sated, we headed a few minutes over to a cabin that a buddy of mine loaned us for use that night – yay… hot showers and beds!!!
Some beers on the porch after the 2 days and 190+ miles led to a great nights sleep. We woke to frosty temps but knew that the forecast was calling for sunny skies with highs in the low 60’s. We drank coffee and rolled out around 0900.
We decided to roll up the east side of Spruce Knob and then back south over a different route than what we had come up. We stopped at the Gateway Restaurant for breakfast.
And this is where I discovered that Fancy had blown her right front fork seal yesterday. The front wheel and the entire front of the engine were covered in oil where the seal had been puking for god knows how long. I am out in the middle of nowhere so I have little choice but to limp her home.
We went around Spruce Knob Lake and went back over Dry Fork rd where this time, I did stop for a pic. This is Kristen and me up top and way down below, Dave is the black spot in the gravel road.
Most of the riding was on very good USFS gravel roads
We dropped into Durbin to shed some layers and I discovered that a previous wreck I had last Dec had bent the arm for the right pannier enough that under the heavy load and rough terrain we had crossed, the rear suspension was compressing enough for the bent pannier arm to scrape my swingarm and shave off a thin layer of aluminum.
I am down on the ground looking at this thing and Dave is making some snide comment about my “Fancy” bike (he did nickname her, afterall!). He had plenty to say about the fact that I had brought a cover for the bike at our first night’s camp. And he happened to have the camera out as I gave out a whine of protest… “and I even brought a cover!” Oh well… it is an adventure bike and we had established that there was no whining in adventure biking. Onward…
From Durbin he hit Bartow and decided to scope out a road unknown to us that looked to be a great option to find some dirt/gravel. Old Pike Rd (CR3) to Buffalo Mtn Rd (CR5) turned out to be a stellar find and for me, was likely the highlight of the trip. Below are a bunch of pix from that section of the trip. The first one is not clear enough to tell but way out in the valley below you can see the huge Greenback radio telescope at the NRAO.
What a blast!!! If you make it to this area – be sure to put this on your route. We dropped down out of the mtns into some gorgeous farmland and had to take another stop to delayer in the ever increasing heat. And there was some route finding to be done as well.
We found this cool looking road – FR55 – that follows the WV/VA border for like 10-15 miles and decided to hop on it. Yet another GREAT find!!
This awesome road dropped us down to Rt 39 right on the border where we had to once again reformulate our plans.
And recheck the ongoing oil fest on my right front fork
We spied a very cool looking potential road headed south called Douthat Creek Rd (CR 23) that cut south off Rt 39 just east of Minnehaha Springs. This was a great road and as a bonus it soon turned to gravel – an added bonus! We were a good ways down there and had stopped to examine the maps when a local drove by and stopped to chat us up. He told us that the road was closed a few miles down the road for a two mile span by private property. We were not psyched for another detour so we kept going to check it out. We did indeed hit a gate with a no trespassing sign and all the telltale signals that we were deep in backwoods Appalachia. Dave was not going to give up so easily so he went thru the gate and drove up to the shack to talk to the owner. A few minutes later he reported that we had permission to cross but that there was another guy a mile or so down the road that we would have to ask. Off went and found the road rougher due to no county upkeep but totally passable. We came upon the next shack and Dave again approached the porch where an old man was sitting and spoke with him a bit. He again granted us to go through the gate. Dave must be a silver tongued devil! We wasted no time in hurrying through and I snapped this pic as Dave was leaving after thanking the man.
The road out of there was county maintained but it had a ton of very legitimate river crossings as the road zig zagged over the N Fork of Anthony Creek. This was a very fun section and below are some of our river crossings.
We hit pavement on Rt 92 at Neola where we headed south to get a stop at the Trails Inn restaurant. Rain was threatening and we were hungry. It was right at closing time for the restaurant but the lady stayed open and fed us very generous servings of chili, grilled cheeses, and curly fries. Definitely stop by here if you find your way through!
It started raining while eating and we eventually had to suit up and go ride home. Luckily the rain was not consistently hard and we had good gear. We did eventually stop in Williamsburg under an old shed roof so I could make a phone call.
The rest of the trip was rainy enough that the cameras stayed well covered. All told we travelled 520 miles over 3 days with most of it being on dirt and gravel. There are several standout takeaways from the trip for me.
1) First of all… I had two great travel companions that made the trip ridiculously fun.
2) Having all three of us connected via Scala Rider intercoms was vital to the success, safety and fun of this trip.
3) The SuperTen proved to be a very capable offroad touring machine and did well enough hanging tough with the KLR and DRZ that I still think I will take it on the TAT someday.
4) Until I see otherwise, I will have a VERY hard time believing that WV does not have some of the very best ADV riding in the East if not the US.
Enjoy! - Trikepilot
This trip was absolutely amazing. I hope this trip report in some way conveys the fun we had.
The Cast
Dr. Z – a DRZ400s piloted by Dave
Pickle – a KLR688 piloted by Kristen
Fancy – a SuperTen piloted by yours truly
The Route
The “plan” called for a trip from the New River Gorge to Seneca with as much dirt/gravel as possible with only minimal blacktop used to link offroad riding. Now that we are back, I think we probably managed to do the trip on about 75% off of blacktop. Screenshots of the up and back tracks are below. I can send GPX files upon request.
To Seneca
From Seneca
The Report
Departure time was targeted around 1330 on Saturday afternoon after I slept off the third of three night shifts. I had Fancy packed and ready to go so that I could awake and go.
Dave and Kristen made their way to my place and we eventually hit the road. We started on pavement to get over to Ansted where we topped off the tanks. Saturday road led us over to the start of the gravel into Woods Ferry on the Gauley River where we picked up the old railbed that we had ridden for years. Halfway out the rail trail we met some folks out for a nice fall ride on their horses
But only a short bit further, we hit a major unexpected roadblock…
I have lived in Appalachia my entire adult life where I have seen and circumnavigated all kinds of “closed” roads but I have NEVER seen a road so thoroughly shut down as this. This wall of rocks was placed within the last week or ten days and took some seriously large machinery as some of these blocks are easily the size of mini cooper. With no way to get around the blocked road we had to reverse course and detour out of the Meadow River gorge via Shawver Bridge road which I have no pics of but was easily the nastiest riding of this entire trip. I had to take the boxes off Fancy and hike them up the trail in order to feel comfortable getting the bike up such rocky terrain.
So we made it out and were forced to ride some blacktop to get over to Glade Creek where we could once again hit up gravel over to Nallen where the rail trip was passable again. One section had a tree across it that was just barely high enough to get Fancy through with her windshield tilted down.
We headed out onto some large Westvaco timber holdings were the roads ranged from really rough gravel to full on dirt roads. At our crossing of Anglins Creek (just behind us in the below pic) I decided to take Fancy on a slightly different line than Dave and ended up stuck in large boulders with my new to me Sidi Adventure GoreTex boots in water almost high enough to leak in the tops. Fancy clawed her way out and I kept mostly dry feet. Sorry about few action pix as I rarely think to stop in technical terrain and to try to document.
It was MUCH later than we had wanted due to the hourlong detour around the recently blocked roads. It was getting colder and colder (high 30’s) but we kept into the dark and soon found ourselves too far from our intended campsite to keep pushing on some of the rougher terrain of the trip. So we pulled into a side road that SpklBk and I had exploring months ago and found to be very muddy. We went maybe a quarter mile in till it got bad and then we found a wide spot in the logging road to camp on. Tents were setup, a quick dinner was wolfed down, and we all crashed for the night. We woke up here in the freezing cold
And as we drank coffee, broke camp, and packed up, the sun started to come out
But by the time we started riding, the clouds closed in again and we found ourselves at higher elevations with a good bit of snow on the ground.
We came down at Bear Run to join Rt 39 that took us over the Highland Scenic Parkway where we caught USFS 216 down into Marlinton where we caught a much needed break at DirtBeans for breakfast and to allow the sun to warm things up a bit.
The next leg was gonna be hardpack to link us back to dirt/gravel. We headed out of Marlinton on 219 and veered off on some backroads to connect into Back Mtn rd that took us up to Rt 66 west of Cass. We crossed directly over Rt 66 and continued out Gum Rd to rejoin Back Mtn Rd that took us to a left on FR235 that was a great gravel road that switchbacked up Back Allegheny Mtn through a carpet of fall colors to then stretch all the way down the ridge to Cheat Bridge. Up at this altitude, there was plenty of snow on the shady sides of the ridges.
This road was in great shape so other than the snowy/icy spots we could really make some good time. It eventually dropped us off the end of the ridge down into Cheat Bridge where we stopped at the little train depot near the Cheat Mountain Club.
We crossed the Shavers fork here and blasted up and over Cheat Mtn where there is a huge reclamation project going on from an abandoned strip mine and timbering operation from the 1970’s.
Some discussion of our route provided some humor for us. We were always cross referencing the GPS maps with our Gazetteer in an effort to maximize our dirt/gravel.
We dropped down to cross Hwy 92 and continued out FR92. We took a side road excursion down FR47 to eat and rest at the Shavers Fork.
Dave and Kristen pumped water while I properly tested out my brand new Sidi Adventure GoreTex boots. Yep… totally waterproof!
Again a lack of action photos due to waning daylight and little interest to stop having fun on these awesome roads. But we did drop down into the Laurel Fork drainage and found an awesome looking USFS campground that I’ll have to come back and check out. Again… map consultations in Laurel Fork.
With daylight closing and fearing getting to Seneca before the Front Porch Restaurant closed…we pushed on into Whitmer and then popped over the Allegheny Front near the Sinks of Gandy before coming down Whites Run to intersect with the paved Rt 33 a few miles west of Seneca. A quick hop on this road took us right to Seneca and an open restaurant. Bellies were filled and Dave even tried to smoke a pretzel.
Our appetites sated, we headed a few minutes over to a cabin that a buddy of mine loaned us for use that night – yay… hot showers and beds!!!
Some beers on the porch after the 2 days and 190+ miles led to a great nights sleep. We woke to frosty temps but knew that the forecast was calling for sunny skies with highs in the low 60’s. We drank coffee and rolled out around 0900.
We decided to roll up the east side of Spruce Knob and then back south over a different route than what we had come up. We stopped at the Gateway Restaurant for breakfast.
And this is where I discovered that Fancy had blown her right front fork seal yesterday. The front wheel and the entire front of the engine were covered in oil where the seal had been puking for god knows how long. I am out in the middle of nowhere so I have little choice but to limp her home.
We went around Spruce Knob Lake and went back over Dry Fork rd where this time, I did stop for a pic. This is Kristen and me up top and way down below, Dave is the black spot in the gravel road.
Most of the riding was on very good USFS gravel roads
We dropped into Durbin to shed some layers and I discovered that a previous wreck I had last Dec had bent the arm for the right pannier enough that under the heavy load and rough terrain we had crossed, the rear suspension was compressing enough for the bent pannier arm to scrape my swingarm and shave off a thin layer of aluminum.
I am down on the ground looking at this thing and Dave is making some snide comment about my “Fancy” bike (he did nickname her, afterall!). He had plenty to say about the fact that I had brought a cover for the bike at our first night’s camp. And he happened to have the camera out as I gave out a whine of protest… “and I even brought a cover!” Oh well… it is an adventure bike and we had established that there was no whining in adventure biking. Onward…
From Durbin he hit Bartow and decided to scope out a road unknown to us that looked to be a great option to find some dirt/gravel. Old Pike Rd (CR3) to Buffalo Mtn Rd (CR5) turned out to be a stellar find and for me, was likely the highlight of the trip. Below are a bunch of pix from that section of the trip. The first one is not clear enough to tell but way out in the valley below you can see the huge Greenback radio telescope at the NRAO.
What a blast!!! If you make it to this area – be sure to put this on your route. We dropped down out of the mtns into some gorgeous farmland and had to take another stop to delayer in the ever increasing heat. And there was some route finding to be done as well.
We found this cool looking road – FR55 – that follows the WV/VA border for like 10-15 miles and decided to hop on it. Yet another GREAT find!!
This awesome road dropped us down to Rt 39 right on the border where we had to once again reformulate our plans.
And recheck the ongoing oil fest on my right front fork
We spied a very cool looking potential road headed south called Douthat Creek Rd (CR 23) that cut south off Rt 39 just east of Minnehaha Springs. This was a great road and as a bonus it soon turned to gravel – an added bonus! We were a good ways down there and had stopped to examine the maps when a local drove by and stopped to chat us up. He told us that the road was closed a few miles down the road for a two mile span by private property. We were not psyched for another detour so we kept going to check it out. We did indeed hit a gate with a no trespassing sign and all the telltale signals that we were deep in backwoods Appalachia. Dave was not going to give up so easily so he went thru the gate and drove up to the shack to talk to the owner. A few minutes later he reported that we had permission to cross but that there was another guy a mile or so down the road that we would have to ask. Off went and found the road rougher due to no county upkeep but totally passable. We came upon the next shack and Dave again approached the porch where an old man was sitting and spoke with him a bit. He again granted us to go through the gate. Dave must be a silver tongued devil! We wasted no time in hurrying through and I snapped this pic as Dave was leaving after thanking the man.
The road out of there was county maintained but it had a ton of very legitimate river crossings as the road zig zagged over the N Fork of Anthony Creek. This was a very fun section and below are some of our river crossings.
We hit pavement on Rt 92 at Neola where we headed south to get a stop at the Trails Inn restaurant. Rain was threatening and we were hungry. It was right at closing time for the restaurant but the lady stayed open and fed us very generous servings of chili, grilled cheeses, and curly fries. Definitely stop by here if you find your way through!
It started raining while eating and we eventually had to suit up and go ride home. Luckily the rain was not consistently hard and we had good gear. We did eventually stop in Williamsburg under an old shed roof so I could make a phone call.
The rest of the trip was rainy enough that the cameras stayed well covered. All told we travelled 520 miles over 3 days with most of it being on dirt and gravel. There are several standout takeaways from the trip for me.
1) First of all… I had two great travel companions that made the trip ridiculously fun.
2) Having all three of us connected via Scala Rider intercoms was vital to the success, safety and fun of this trip.
3) The SuperTen proved to be a very capable offroad touring machine and did well enough hanging tough with the KLR and DRZ that I still think I will take it on the TAT someday.
4) Until I see otherwise, I will have a VERY hard time believing that WV does not have some of the very best ADV riding in the East if not the US.
Enjoy! - Trikepilot
would make a great place for a tenere mini-rally someday and they have potable water in the front yard.
