Ryan imagining the miles and miles of
mountain biking goodness in Virginia.
We made a plan to camp at Todd Lake Campground in the George Washington National Forest, southwest of Harrisonburg. From this campground many of the rides in the SBC packet were accessible.
A couple weeks before our September trip I discovered Douthat State Park and Carvins Cove are two additional areas with networks of mountain bike trails. They are farther from home but due to their closer proximity to interstates less driving time. We decided to make one of these places a secondary destination on our trip.
***
The alarm woke me at 5:50, I dressed and jumped into Ryan's car that I drove home and packed yesterday.. I was out the driveway before 6 and at Ryan's house by 6:15. We added Ryan's food, gear, and bike then drove south. It was a sunny day and we made good time to Parkersburg, WV.
A packed car.
The roads became smaller as we headed east. A older lady at a gas station in Elkins, WV warned us that GPS is misleading in this neck of the woods. She said people doubted her in the past, asked the magistrate across the street for directions, and still got lost. Meanwhile old man Gerald was trying to buy more scratch off lottery tickets and the lady seemed dismayed at his request for "just one more!"
In Virginia we met up with US250, ironic because the same road connects my house to Ryan's, and really got into some twisting and turning mountain terrain. We stopped at Confederate Breastworks and hiked a short interpretive trail. Civil War soldiers under the command of Andrew Jackson trenched in on this mountain to guard the Shenandoah Valley from Union Forces.
Signs along the interpretive trail included letters home
from a soldier stationed on this mountain.
Maybe the signs in the parking lot notifying of a lost hiker, from two years ago, were a warning that we were headed into back country, but I didn't realize it at the time. We continued on twisty roads in the George Washington National Forest. Pavement turned to gravel and there were no houses, structures, or people to be seen; just forest.
There were plenty of places to pull off and setup primitive camp. Maybe this is an option for a future trip, but this time we were headed to Todd Lake Campground. We setup in a secluded and almost level site number 12. Out came camping gear and then bike gear. Let's go ride.
We did a short loop on Trimble Mountain. It was a multi-use trail for hikers, bikers, and horses. We started climbing almost immediately and it felt kind of strange to be riding on what seemed a hiking trail. That would be a no-no back home.
The hierarchy around here.
The climbing was pretty continuous for over an hour. The trail was rocky, very rocky in some places, but rideable. We made it to what seemed the top of the mountain and had a little bit of a view, though it had become overcast.
Some rocky fun.
After the view we started down, down, and more down. Our brake fingers were getting a workout as we bombed down the mountain. Before I expected we were back to the trailhead where we started. The down was only a fraction of the time it took to go up.
And more rocky fun.
It was a good first ride in the area and definitely felt more back country than most places I've ridden. We rode back to camp and cooked up some rice, vegies, and chorizo sausage for dinner. Watch out for the Spoon Market Butcher's chorizo sausage, it was spicy delicious. Nice work Adam!
Jasmine rice, vegies, and sausage in the works.
An advantage of the campground compared to boon dock camping is a hot shower. The showers at Todd Lake were working mostly well, except Ryan's seemed to emit a bull moose call when the button was pressed to keep the water flowing. Pretty funny or we were tired and easily amused.
After some reclining, reading, and chilling out we turned in for the night. More adventure to come tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment