Spring 2014 - Romney, West Virginia - May 2-4

[Dirt_Dad]

I can't make it this year is there a way I could get in on the raffle? I would proudly wear that shirt!

Sorry you can't make it. If you want in on the raffle I'm sure we can work out something. I'll send you a PM in a bit.

Dirt_Dad you make it sound so good. I went to check out the routes and see that you have them on Ride with GPS which from what I see is primarily a bicycle program/app. Is there a section for motorcycles? BTW: the routes look great.

Yes, it is a bicycle based website. When I started using that site it was the first one I found that would allow me to easily upload a .gpx file. It also allowed people to download a .gpx file, so it worked wonderfully for my purposes. I'd love to suggest they expand to motorcycles, but honestly I'm happy to be flying under the radar on their site and they seem to be going strong.

If anyone want's a .gpx or .gdb of the routes I've posted just send me a PM with your email address and I'll send either or both to you.

Put me on the in-list. I wanna hang with you Kool Kids, drink beer at the camp fire, and listen to your big stories! The RiderCoach class requires 100% attendance and I am going to miss part of a day for work so needed to drop out.
::018::


I'd be willing to lead a group. I'll probably be a bit over the limit but seldom more than 10 or so, making this not the racer group. While I know several of the routes that D_D listed, I now have an open weekend or two before May to pre-ride one or two of the routes and make sure they are usable.


I'm leaning toward easier dirt/gravel in a Dolly Sods / Seneca Rocks orientation. It could also be the torn up mill roads in western MD. If Karen wants to come, I could see if I can find my covered bridge all-pavement route that goes up to PA and back for the 2-ups.

Bob, I'd be a baldfaced liar if I said I'm sorry your class didn't work out for you. Truth is, you just made my day. Very happy to hear you're going to make it, and really appreciate you taking on a ride. Let me know if you're interested in doing a scouting day like last year. I can see if the other ride leaders are interested in the same.



Looking at the number of people coming there is going to be no shortage of people wanting to do a ride. The number of volunteer ride leads is growing, but still not sufficient for everyone that may want a group ride. Any one out there that knows the area, doesn't mind leading a few guys around, please consider taking a few guys with you on the ride.

The ride leader I've been in direct contact with are doing the following:

-) All paved Breezwood Loop
-) Mixed dirt and pavement ride
-) Fast pavement twisty ride
-) Checkswrecks ride
-) My ride - currently leaning towards aggressive twisty and fast dirt ride - but not settled on anything yet.

There are other guys that have informally said in different threads they'd be willing to lead some people. Most ride leaders I've talked with are of the same mind and want to keep their groups between 4 and 6 people to make sure everyone has a good time. That will be up to the individual ride leader.

6 weeks and counting...

 

[Checkswrecks]

Karen likely will not be able to make it, so unless somebody says they want it, I am thinking to pass on the MD Greenbriar Forest & PA covered bridges route.


I'll probably put something together south toward Seneca Rocks & Dolly Sods,
or west toward the lakes of Mt. Storm & Deep Creek.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Romney confirmed today the food situation will be changing this year.

The Ruritan Club will be there Saturday to provide another food option. If you're interested in purchasing breakfast onsite before the ride they will be cooking up bacon, eggs, and some form of potatoes, plus also have coffee and juice. The club will also be cooking the evening meal of chicken, burgers and some side dishes. Romney Cycles will be picking up the cost of the Saturday evening meal for the attendees.

I'm really pleased Romney was able to coordinate this option. There are limited breakfast spots in town. Considering the number of people we are expecting I think we could easily overwhelm the available restaurants. Personally I'd much rather eat before gearing up. Always preferable to the gearing up, gearing down, gearing up again process of going to a place 5 minutes away.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Ruritans seem to exist solely to show the better side of their community. Great folks!

 

[MojoToot]

Couple questions:

Anyone attending Romney that may be along my Friday & or Sunday routes?

Saturday rt options....I hope there is a way we could finalize the exact rt and load it into GPS in advance....but if we are waiting until Friday night campfire to find a ride group I am wondering how this will work.
Can we get the finalized Sat. rts online before the event? (Then we could pre-load them.)

 

[twodogs]

::026:: I like the idea of eating on site. If it's like any other Ruritans food event, it should be good. I'm liken this more all the time.

Should be a great weekend.

 

[NittanyXT]

Mototoot, I'm about twenty minutes from Tyrone, I,m planning on going but only if the weather's good, I don't camp in the rain!

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Saturday rt options....I hope there is a way we could finalize the exact rt and load it into GPS in advance....but if we are waiting until Friday night campfire to find a ride group I am wondering how this will work.
Can we get the finalized Sat. rts online before the event? (Then we could pre-load them.)

Finalizing a route didn't really work for me last year. From the time I hit the tent Friday night until the end of the ride on Saturday, I had planned four different rides and executed parts of three of them.

I plan to show up this year with my GPS loaded with all the suggested routes I posted earlier in this thread. I don't know that I will stick to any one particular route. It will just depend on how things are going with the group and what everyone feels like doing. There are so many good roads in the area it's hard to go wrong jumping from one route to another.

If anyone wants a .gpx or .gdb file of the suggested routes send me a PM with your email address and I'll get them out to you. If any of the other ride leaders have a different finalize route they would like to post it should be done in this thread.

 

[trikepilot]

Jon - sounds like you have a hell of a weekend planned for Romney. It kills me to sit here reading about all that riding in my old backyard and not being able to join in. I'll just have to live vicariously through the trip reports here at the forum after the weekend is over. Don't forget to add the Smith Mtn road option that you and I took when we were last at Seneca on the WR's.

 

[snakebitten]

How far away are you trike?
Or is it your schedule?

 

[Dirt_Dad]

How far away are you trike?
Or is it your schedule?

Snake, when I saw you were to most recent person to respond on this thread, I thought for a second...is Snake coming now? You had me going there for a moment. You know you're welcome to join us, right?

Jon - sounds like you have a hell of a weekend planned for Romney. It kills me to sit here reading about all that riding in my old backyard and not being able to join in. I'll just have to live vicariously through the trip reports here at the forum after the weekend is over. Don't forget to add the Smith Mtn road option that you and I took when we were last at Seneca on the WR's.

It would be great if a poor college kid like you could make it up for the weekend. Just seems wrong we're riding through some of your favorite territory without you. I've posted at least two suggested routes that include Smith Mountain Road. I've still only ridden it that one time with you, and it was a blast, even with all the cattle. It was definitely my favorite road that weekend. I know you're swamped and probably have finals around then, but just explain to the professors what you're missing. I'm sure they'll understand.

 

[snakebitten]

Thanks DD.
My problem is I wanna do ALL of the Tenere rides.
If I could be more like Chris (sail2xx) I could sneak out & back without drawing so much attention. Lol

May 2-4 huh?
I'm trying to figure out how to pull off that Vegas run too.

 

[trikepilot]

Jon - were it down near the New, I might be able to swing it. But Romney is about twice the commute. If you make it into Smoke Hole, take them up that road to the top of North Fork Mtn with the great views. Time is a premium right now and I gotta keep focus on what I can and cannot do.

Snake - I am pursuing a midlife crisis via grad school and I just do not have the time to get up there for the event.

I am hoping this thing grows and that once I am out and back living in the heart of the best dual sporting in the US - I can contribute to these Romeny gatherings. Hell... when I get back there I am gonna start pestering Jaxon to bring the big SuperTen gathering to the New River Gorge area of WV.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

If I could be more like Chris (sail2xx) ....

Dare to dream, buddy. None of us are like Chris. I'm looking forward to catching with him again in Romney.

If you make it into Smoke Hole, take them up that road to the top of North Fork Mtn with the great views.

That's a great suggestion. Since we were on the WRs for that ride I have no GPS record of which road to take off SHR. Do you have a coordinate for, or a name of that road where we departed SHR?

when I get back there I am gonna start pestering Jaxon to bring the big SuperTen gathering to the New River Gorge area of WV.

::012:: ::008::

 

[trikepilot]

Jon- I dont have access to the coords in my gps off this laptop. See if this link below helps.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8575524,-79.28088,712m/data=!3m1!1e3

Zoom out and follow cty rd 2/3 up to the top. It has another USFS designation but I do not know it.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Jon- I dont have access to the coords in my gps off this laptop. See if this link below helps.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8575524,-79.28088,712m/data=!3m1!1e3

Zoom out and follow cty rd 2/3 up to the top. It has another USFS designation but I do not know it.

That's what I needed. Anyone that is interested in taking the road that will give you a great look over the valley including a rarely seen view of Seneca Rock, take Public Road 79 (N38 50.683 W79 18.188). When the road looks like it ends in a field (possibly muddy, maybe under water) keep going straight until you get here.

Walk out to the very end of that trail, which is a pretty good drop off. Not really a great idea to ride much further than Trikepilot has gone in this photo. Nothing can be ridden past where this trail ends in the photo (JamieV excluded).

 

[trikepilot]

Good stuff, DD. Looking forward to being back out in that part of the world with you soon.

 

[avc8130]

Looks like I'm IN! Woohoo!

SwampyVT and I will be heading down from NJ.

ac

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Little more than a month away and we've unofficially crossed the 100 person mark. I'm adding up everyone that posted, plus the people that say they are bringing multiple people, plus the people I know of who are not on any of the forums but plan on attending. This is going to be a real opportunity to get to know your fellow adventure rider.

I've spent some quality time with Kevin (owner) and Larry (GM) this month. They are really looking forward to the event. Larry always has his notepad out taking notes on what needs to be accomplished in preparation. Safe to say they are committed to the success of this event and seeing it grow. When I told Kevin the number of people coming, he gave a big smile and said, "good, that means we'll have 200 next year." Whoa fella, I'm not ready to think about next year.

I believe all of the major announcements regarding this event have been mentioned at this point. There may be a few tweaks here and there and I'll put those out as the situation warrants. In the last week or two I've had a number of additional people contact me and express a willingness to lead rides. Thanks to all of you who are planning to take a group. I still can't say there are enough leaders for the number of people we have coming, but the situation is better that it was. I don't think we can have too many leaders ready to go, so if you're still considering it...thank you.

Since we have so many coming from far away who are probably not familiar with riding in this area I'm planning to do a basic ride brief here in the tread when time gets closer. Just the basics of what is unique to this area from a safety standpoint. If you're from this area that will be a post you don't need to bother reading. If you've never ridden West Virginia it might help to know what to expect. If you've only ridden straight roads in the past, you'll want to memorize every word of it.

5 weeks and counting.

 

[MojoToot]

................................. I don't think we can have too many leaders ready to go, so if you're still considering it.............................................

I ride a lot in WV BUT it has always been PAVED. I was hoping to FOLLOW someone on a paved PLUS 'easy' dirt road route, this trip....but I will volunteer if needed.

................................. If you've never ridden West Virginia it might help to know what to expect...........................................

When I first started riding that area, I was impressed by the pick-up-trucks....they are often the fastest things on the road........and off!

I hope things are better there (WV) than here (NW PA)...just had more snow last night...so more plows & more ROAD SALT (and I was hoping to get the bike out this week)...the dirt roads here still have snow, ice, and where they have thawed, are totally saturated.

today here: