Heat, Mud, Rain, and Music.....or the WV Jailbreak
On the road to West Virginia - Wooo Hooo!
June 8 - June 12, 2005
Mileage: 1,493 Mi door-to-door
Up close and personal mud encounters: 1 (more on that later)
Finally, after tinkering with tires, new clutch cable, adding bar end weights, buying some slime and a cool CO2 cartridge combination bike pump contraption, and assembling more tools that I thought I'd need, it's time to ride!
PART 1 - THE TRIP THERE (Heat and Rain)
I left at 4:40 AM on Wednesday morning to avoid the NYC commuter traffic and hauled butt down I-84 to Brewster, NY. Ya gotta love the tri-state area - even at 5:30 in the morning there was heavy traffic in a construction zone in Waterbury, CT.
From there I decided to take NY Route 6 which has fantastic twisties all the way down to the Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River.
The views of the River are spectacular
Views of Hudson River
Route 6 and Bear Mountain Bridge
After crossing the bridge, I took NY Route 6/Route 17 to Port Jervis on the PA line. I stopped off in Middletown, NY for some breakfast - God, it's only 9:00 and its already hotter 'n hell out. From Port Jervis I decided to ride PA Rt 209 through the Delaware Water Gap. This seemed like a great idea, there's no commercial traffic allowed through the Water Gap, so traffic was light, and it was much cooler riding along the river valley. Of course, all good things MUST come to an end. When I got to Stroudsburg, PA it was about 91-94 F according to all the bank signs and traffic was at a crawl. By now I was cooking in my ATGATT and pulled into a church parking lot with nice shade trees in the back parking lot for a break. I got some funny looks from the parishoners, but I guess they figures I was harmless and let me sit in the shade for a half hour or so.
I got back on the road continuing to take Rt 209. Everytime I thought the traffic would clear out, I came to another town that was crowded and traffic was moving slowly. Finally by the time I got to Pottsville I bailed out onto Rt 61 and headed northwest. Finally, I got to ride through some quick roads. Nothing too twisty, but with the heat, it was just nice to be moving along at more than 30 MPH.
Somewhere north of Pottsville, possibly at Minersville, I came across an old mining town that was abandoned and had one big white sign with red lettering warning people of an underground mine fire in the area. I had heard of this in other areas of PA, but didn't know there was more than one. Basically the town literally was a ghost town. Driveways were overgrown with weeds and some of the houses that normally would be at the end of the driveways were gone. Others had obviously been abandoned for quite some time.
I continued on and crossed the Susquehanna River at Sunbury, PA. Then got onto Route 522 heading west. I took 522 to Rt 322 North to the town of Milroy. My destination now was Reeds Gap State Park and a campsite for the night. Reeds Gap is about 7 miles west of Milroy on some great twisty roads. If you've never stayed at a PA state park, I recommend them. It's one of the best systems in the country - they're clean, well organized, have good shower/bath facilities. If you're not camping for $14/night, you can rent either rustic or modern cabins at really reasonable rates.
Here's my F650GS at the campground
And, here's my camp
I grabbed dinner in town, went back to the campsite read for a while and fell asleep by around 9:30.
After a quick breakfast I took Rt 322 south back to 522 and continued West to Huntingdon, where I picked up Rt 26 south. Route 26 is a nice, fast country road with some good twisty’s and follows the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River – very pretty farmland and state forests along the route. At Everett, I took Rout 30 to Bedford and picked up Route 220 south through Cumberland, MD to Keyser, West Virginia.
At Keyser, some big thunderstorms were forming to the south and west, so I threw on my rain gear and continued through the light to moderate rain. I followed Rt 220 which merged into Routes 28 and 55 and followed Rt 55 into Seneca Rocks
and Yokum’s Vacation Land – home of Planet Orange for the next few days.
I decided that given the weather and my old tent, to not camp and met Randy and Risha on my way in to register for a motel room – Finally I get to meet my first Chain Gang members. I then dropped some gear, and rode down to the Planet Orange HQ
Planet Orange WV Division - Entertainment Central
and was greeted by Ken with a great big “Welcome to West Virginia”.
PART 2 – Rain, Mud, Friends, and Music
As I pulled into our camp it was raining lightly but then it began to open up and just pour for hours. I don't think it stopped till sometime around 3:00 or 4:00. The moment it let up (Ken was saying for hours "it's lettin' up now") the grand rallymaster himself couldn't wait to get out and show us some WV dirt roads, so off we went. First up, a nice easy short run up a gravel road up behind Seneca Rocks. It was wet, but not bad conditions at all.
Then Ken showed us Smith Mountain Road (aka a cow-tromped stretch of West Virginia's finest red clay mud). It started out innocently enough with a paved hairpin turn off the main road, then gravel, then somewhat hard-packed dirt with grass down the center strip. Sorry no pictures, at this point my lack of dirt experience was demanding all my attention to keep the rear end under me. About 10 miles into this 12 mile jaunt, we hit the dreaded red clay that the cows and the 3 riders (Ken, Zane, and Matt) in front of me had turned into the consistency of axle grease. Back down to first gear and crawling along for me - of course I realized that no one was really pulling away from me either, so maybe they're having as much "fun" as I was.
Near the top, with the hillside sloping from my left to right, there's a beautiful pasture about 30 feet below me and a good embankment on my left, the road is really slick, but I'm doing ok. I come to a water-filled pothole, don't think anything of it, then without any warning at all the rear end lets go and I'm sliding at about a 45 degree angle (from vertical and relative to travel direction) toward the pasture below - absolutely nothing I could do except try to slow down, left foot down and the rear brake had little to no effect and down I went. The bike stopped just over the lip of the grassy slope leading down to the pasture while I low-sided into the mud.
Matt came back and helped me pull the bike back up onto the trail. No major damage, broken turn signal, bent shifter lever, and a PIAA light knocked out of alignment. Nothing a little elbow grease and duct tape engineering couldn't fix. What I didn't know at the time was that Zane had gone down up ahead of me also. He fell to the left and slammed into the side of the hill - no damage except a few scrapes to his leg and his plastic side panel.
Back at Camp Orange Power, the evening festivities began with chef Ken cooking up some delicious chicken breast sandwiches and baked beans
MMMM, Yummy
Randy, Risha, and Zane at dinner
Matt and Ken after dinner
After dinner, on came the stage lights and we were all entertained by Jay belting out your favorite tunes:
Jay Providing Thursday Night's Entertainment
Jay Rockin' Planet Orange
Friday morning brought a group ride to breakfast before the big GS Ride to the top of Spruce Knob (WV's highest point).
Before the ride, a hearty WV Breakfast
Six F650's at Friday morning's breakfast
The gravel/hardpack road up to Spruce Knob was in great shape and we all had a great time blasting along at around 50 MPH on some sections.
On the road to Spruce Knob
My GS (black) and Zane's (yellow)
Here's Friday's GS ride crew on top of Spruce Knob
L to R: Neal, Courtney, Zane, Ken, Matt
The View from the Top
After the gravel/dirt ride portion of our ride (about 60 mi), we went in search of Extraterrestrial Life - cause WV is known as the home of the SETI project. Who woulda thunk it, but the National Radio Observatory is based right in the heart of Ken's WV Hills!
Looking for ET from WV
National Radio Observatory
Ok, enough space exploration - now lets get serious and find ourselves some grub - which was found at the old general store at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park
Here's Courtney posing with Grace in front of the Cass RR Caboose
Reconstructed Water Tower at the Cass Scenic Railroad
Steam Train's A Comin'
I'm glad I didn't park on the tracks!
"Grace" posing with a slightly larger displacement engine
After the railroad, we all rode down WV Route 33 (I think) to Warm Springs, VA through some of the best twisty roads I've ever seen, then hauled back to Camp Orange for some R&R.
Mark & Zane relaxin' at Entertainment Central
We were such a big hit we had college girl groupies hangin' around us (or at least around Tanner and Matt)
Here's Randy with his Great Pumpkin and Risha with her 250 Rebel
Friday night's entertainment included Ken on the guitar and vocals and Randy on the Mandolin
West Virginia Hills Ken - LIVE
I know what I'm playin', but what the heck is Ken playin'?
Next up for Friday's Entertainment was Matt The Balloon Guy
What the heck's he makin' with them balloons?
Holy Cow - It's a Motorcycle, and It's a Single!
Wonder what he's makin' now?
Aaawww, ain't that cute - a penguin for the pretty lady!
Matt and his balloon lion
Next up was Ken and Son Tanner:
Some More Live Music:
Friday night's party went till around 1:30 or 2:00 AM - a good time was had by all. Saturday AM came around all too quickly. Since its a day and a half ride back to Connecticut, Zane and I decided to depart our new friends and leave the beautiful WV hills behind after breakfast. We rode hard and fast out through PA and hit only about a half hour of rain. We were chasing one big thunderstorm cell that caused runoff from farm fields to come across the road like small rivers. We found a hotel south of Wikes Barre, PA - after trying about 4 or 5 hotels - little did we know that all the hotels in the area were sold out for the NASCAR Pocono 500 race on Sunday.
Sunday AM, we departed by around 8:15 and I made it back home by around 12:30. I had a great time, and was glad to meet all the truly wonderful people of the Chain Gang. I can't wait to do it again.
Dave.
June 8 - June 12, 2005
Mileage: 1,493 Mi door-to-door
Up close and personal mud encounters: 1 (more on that later)
Finally, after tinkering with tires, new clutch cable, adding bar end weights, buying some slime and a cool CO2 cartridge combination bike pump contraption, and assembling more tools that I thought I'd need, it's time to ride!
PART 1 - THE TRIP THERE (Heat and Rain)
I left at 4:40 AM on Wednesday morning to avoid the NYC commuter traffic and hauled butt down I-84 to Brewster, NY. Ya gotta love the tri-state area - even at 5:30 in the morning there was heavy traffic in a construction zone in Waterbury, CT.
From there I decided to take NY Route 6 which has fantastic twisties all the way down to the Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River.
The views of the River are spectacular
Views of Hudson River
Route 6 and Bear Mountain Bridge
After crossing the bridge, I took NY Route 6/Route 17 to Port Jervis on the PA line. I stopped off in Middletown, NY for some breakfast - God, it's only 9:00 and its already hotter 'n hell out. From Port Jervis I decided to ride PA Rt 209 through the Delaware Water Gap. This seemed like a great idea, there's no commercial traffic allowed through the Water Gap, so traffic was light, and it was much cooler riding along the river valley. Of course, all good things MUST come to an end. When I got to Stroudsburg, PA it was about 91-94 F according to all the bank signs and traffic was at a crawl. By now I was cooking in my ATGATT and pulled into a church parking lot with nice shade trees in the back parking lot for a break. I got some funny looks from the parishoners, but I guess they figures I was harmless and let me sit in the shade for a half hour or so.
I got back on the road continuing to take Rt 209. Everytime I thought the traffic would clear out, I came to another town that was crowded and traffic was moving slowly. Finally by the time I got to Pottsville I bailed out onto Rt 61 and headed northwest. Finally, I got to ride through some quick roads. Nothing too twisty, but with the heat, it was just nice to be moving along at more than 30 MPH.
Somewhere north of Pottsville, possibly at Minersville, I came across an old mining town that was abandoned and had one big white sign with red lettering warning people of an underground mine fire in the area. I had heard of this in other areas of PA, but didn't know there was more than one. Basically the town literally was a ghost town. Driveways were overgrown with weeds and some of the houses that normally would be at the end of the driveways were gone. Others had obviously been abandoned for quite some time.
I continued on and crossed the Susquehanna River at Sunbury, PA. Then got onto Route 522 heading west. I took 522 to Rt 322 North to the town of Milroy. My destination now was Reeds Gap State Park and a campsite for the night. Reeds Gap is about 7 miles west of Milroy on some great twisty roads. If you've never stayed at a PA state park, I recommend them. It's one of the best systems in the country - they're clean, well organized, have good shower/bath facilities. If you're not camping for $14/night, you can rent either rustic or modern cabins at really reasonable rates.
Here's my F650GS at the campground
And, here's my camp
I grabbed dinner in town, went back to the campsite read for a while and fell asleep by around 9:30.
After a quick breakfast I took Rt 322 south back to 522 and continued West to Huntingdon, where I picked up Rt 26 south. Route 26 is a nice, fast country road with some good twisty’s and follows the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River – very pretty farmland and state forests along the route. At Everett, I took Rout 30 to Bedford and picked up Route 220 south through Cumberland, MD to Keyser, West Virginia.
At Keyser, some big thunderstorms were forming to the south and west, so I threw on my rain gear and continued through the light to moderate rain. I followed Rt 220 which merged into Routes 28 and 55 and followed Rt 55 into Seneca Rocks
and Yokum’s Vacation Land – home of Planet Orange for the next few days.
I decided that given the weather and my old tent, to not camp and met Randy and Risha on my way in to register for a motel room – Finally I get to meet my first Chain Gang members. I then dropped some gear, and rode down to the Planet Orange HQ
Planet Orange WV Division - Entertainment Central
and was greeted by Ken with a great big “Welcome to West Virginia”.
PART 2 – Rain, Mud, Friends, and Music
As I pulled into our camp it was raining lightly but then it began to open up and just pour for hours. I don't think it stopped till sometime around 3:00 or 4:00. The moment it let up (Ken was saying for hours "it's lettin' up now") the grand rallymaster himself couldn't wait to get out and show us some WV dirt roads, so off we went. First up, a nice easy short run up a gravel road up behind Seneca Rocks. It was wet, but not bad conditions at all.
Then Ken showed us Smith Mountain Road (aka a cow-tromped stretch of West Virginia's finest red clay mud). It started out innocently enough with a paved hairpin turn off the main road, then gravel, then somewhat hard-packed dirt with grass down the center strip. Sorry no pictures, at this point my lack of dirt experience was demanding all my attention to keep the rear end under me. About 10 miles into this 12 mile jaunt, we hit the dreaded red clay that the cows and the 3 riders (Ken, Zane, and Matt) in front of me had turned into the consistency of axle grease. Back down to first gear and crawling along for me - of course I realized that no one was really pulling away from me either, so maybe they're having as much "fun" as I was.
Near the top, with the hillside sloping from my left to right, there's a beautiful pasture about 30 feet below me and a good embankment on my left, the road is really slick, but I'm doing ok. I come to a water-filled pothole, don't think anything of it, then without any warning at all the rear end lets go and I'm sliding at about a 45 degree angle (from vertical and relative to travel direction) toward the pasture below - absolutely nothing I could do except try to slow down, left foot down and the rear brake had little to no effect and down I went. The bike stopped just over the lip of the grassy slope leading down to the pasture while I low-sided into the mud.
Matt came back and helped me pull the bike back up onto the trail. No major damage, broken turn signal, bent shifter lever, and a PIAA light knocked out of alignment. Nothing a little elbow grease and duct tape engineering couldn't fix. What I didn't know at the time was that Zane had gone down up ahead of me also. He fell to the left and slammed into the side of the hill - no damage except a few scrapes to his leg and his plastic side panel.
Back at Camp Orange Power, the evening festivities began with chef Ken cooking up some delicious chicken breast sandwiches and baked beans
MMMM, Yummy
Randy, Risha, and Zane at dinner
Matt and Ken after dinner
After dinner, on came the stage lights and we were all entertained by Jay belting out your favorite tunes:
Jay Providing Thursday Night's Entertainment
Jay Rockin' Planet Orange
Friday morning brought a group ride to breakfast before the big GS Ride to the top of Spruce Knob (WV's highest point).
Before the ride, a hearty WV Breakfast
Six F650's at Friday morning's breakfast
The gravel/hardpack road up to Spruce Knob was in great shape and we all had a great time blasting along at around 50 MPH on some sections.
On the road to Spruce Knob
My GS (black) and Zane's (yellow)
Here's Friday's GS ride crew on top of Spruce Knob
L to R: Neal, Courtney, Zane, Ken, MattThe View from the Top
After the gravel/dirt ride portion of our ride (about 60 mi), we went in search of Extraterrestrial Life - cause WV is known as the home of the SETI project. Who woulda thunk it, but the National Radio Observatory is based right in the heart of Ken's WV Hills!
Looking for ET from WV
National Radio Observatory
Ok, enough space exploration - now lets get serious and find ourselves some grub - which was found at the old general store at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park
Here's Courtney posing with Grace in front of the Cass RR Caboose
Reconstructed Water Tower at the Cass Scenic Railroad
Steam Train's A Comin'
I'm glad I didn't park on the tracks!
"Grace" posing with a slightly larger displacement engine
After the railroad, we all rode down WV Route 33 (I think) to Warm Springs, VA through some of the best twisty roads I've ever seen, then hauled back to Camp Orange for some R&R.
Mark & Zane relaxin' at Entertainment Central
We were such a big hit we had college girl groupies hangin' around us (or at least around Tanner and Matt)
Here's Randy with his Great Pumpkin and Risha with her 250 Rebel
Friday night's entertainment included Ken on the guitar and vocals and Randy on the Mandolin
West Virginia Hills Ken - LIVE
I know what I'm playin', but what the heck is Ken playin'?
Next up for Friday's Entertainment was Matt The Balloon Guy
What the heck's he makin' with them balloons?
Holy Cow - It's a Motorcycle, and It's a Single!
Wonder what he's makin' now?
Aaawww, ain't that cute - a penguin for the pretty lady!
Matt and his balloon lion
Next up was Ken and Son Tanner:
Some More Live Music:
Friday night's party went till around 1:30 or 2:00 AM - a good time was had by all. Saturday AM came around all too quickly. Since its a day and a half ride back to Connecticut, Zane and I decided to depart our new friends and leave the beautiful WV hills behind after breakfast. We rode hard and fast out through PA and hit only about a half hour of rain. We were chasing one big thunderstorm cell that caused runoff from farm fields to come across the road like small rivers. We found a hotel south of Wikes Barre, PA - after trying about 4 or 5 hotels - little did we know that all the hotels in the area were sold out for the NASCAR Pocono 500 race on Sunday.
Sunday AM, we departed by around 8:15 and I made it back home by around 12:30. I had a great time, and was glad to meet all the truly wonderful people of the Chain Gang. I can't wait to do it again.
Dave.
posted by dbtgeology at 2:26 AM
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