A rare treat....Bill's Perspective...[and then edited and expounded upon by Kim to correct Bill's inaccurate memory of events]. :)
[We were excited to be riding at the Hatfield McCoy trails again.] We took
Friday and Tuesday off and we headed down to Twin Falls Resort
State Park near Pineville, WV, which is the default home base for
spending time in the area. Getting into and out of the park is a total
pain w/ the trailer but it's doable and the park is really nice so we
deal with it. There is a direct correlation between proximity to the
trails and the amount of drunken ATV revving antics that we're not
terribly fond of. So farther away is better.
We arrived early afternoon on Friday after a blissfully uneventful 5 or so hour trip
down. [Uneventful for us anyway, not so uneventful for the folks alongside the road from a blown out tire and resulting damage to their 5th wheel. We stopped to lend a helping hand....been there, done that....and after some very minor assistance, we were back on our way in a matter of 30 minutes.]
We got set up and offloaded the bikes and headed the 15 or so
miles to the trail head to ride the Pinnacle Creek trail system since it
is the closest one and we were burning daylight. Weather was gorgeous
and all was well. We were joined on the trip by our friends Bill and
Shele on their Arctic Cat 550 sport touring ATV.
First
day, first
hill out of the parking lot and within 30 seconds, we realized they'd
made some significant changes since our last visit. They'd "graded" the
road heading up the mountain. This means instead of picking a line and
dodging the big rocks and threading our way through the cat head sized
rocks, that now the entire road was nice and level with fist sized rocks
of varying depths. The 4 wheelers were loving it. The 2 wheelers,
not so much. It was worse than riding in deep snow and in the first
minute or so after the first turn, I heard a crunch and looked back to
see Kim's bike on the ground. We got her up and going again only to
have her get into a deep section of rocks she couldn't get out of. My
only advantage was weight. She just doesn't weigh enough sometimes to
get the traction she needs. I pushed her out of the hole and we poked
and paddled our way up the hill. Luckily the grading ended after about a
1/2 a mile so we put that behind us and started enjoying the trails.
It was Friday afternoon on the 4th of July holiday weekend and Bill and
Shele's truck was the 2nd one in the parking lot at the trail head. We
had a very good afternoon. We ran blue trail 19 which was a great deal
of fun. There was a very steep uphill leading to a 180 degree steeply bermed
but very
narrow turn that was a hoot. As soon as I got around it, which needed
to be done at a brisk pace to maximize the berm, it turned immediately
into a small section of double mud ruts right before leveling out.
First time up, my tail end passed me leaving me at 90 degrees to the
trail. Kim was right behind me and I was just able to get forward
enough so she could get by. Then I did some fancy spinny donut work to
get back in the right direction before the quad came along. Good fun. We rode for about 4 hours in perfect weather and I don't think we saw another person the whole time. [As we were making our way back and wrapping up the day, we popped out on the main trail and told the Sitts we would see them at the bottom. We knew it would take us awhile to make our way down the trail. They took off to the left and then Bill asks if I wanted to run trail 19 again. I quickly agreed and we took off after them. Funny thing is, they never saw us in the cloud of dust they had kicked up behind them. Bill and I jumped on 19 and ran it again (with a little more confidence this time knowing what was ahead). The trail is highly entertaining with a good mix of the stuff I love. We popped out on the main trail and headed back to the parking lot. The Sitts were gone by the time we got there, so we jumped on the road and made our way back to the campground. Mr. Sitt made his way over when we arrived and said they had seen a bear in the middle of the main trail. I was bummed I missed it, but we have bears at the house, so it's not my first time. :) We ate dinner and went to chat with them around the campfire - apparently, our favorite pastime after trail riding. We chatted about our options for checking out different trail systems on our long weekend. After much mapping and discussion, we headed to bed with a 9am scheduled departure time.]
Saturday
we decided to load up the bikes and head farther away to try a new
trail system. The Rock House trail head is located in Man, WV and it
took us about an hour and a half to get not nearly as far as you should
be able to get in that time. Driving those roads is a hoot but it
doesn't make for quick transit. We got the bikes ready and hit the
trails with some trepidation based solely on the name. What a blast.
Undulating doubletrack in incredible condition. The trail follows the
contour of the local hills so you're in and out and up and down
constantly. The name must be derived from the fact that there is actual
[bed]rock up there instead of just shale and [loose] rocks. Big difference.
Sometimes we'd be buzzing along only to have 1/2 the width of the trail
become solid rock. Rare down there. But it was often as smooth or
smoother than the dirt track. This went on for quite some time. We
stayed mostly on the green trails but hit a few blue as connectors. As
is often the case, what the quads find easy can be more than a little
challenging for a dual sport bike so even the green trails were taxing
in a couple places; particularly the steep, rutted, slimy downhills.
[As Bill and I we were riding along one particular trail, we saw a couple of quads pulled alongside the trail across from a bunch of holes in the side of the hill. We stopped to investigate. We chatted with the ATVers a bit and learned that these were auger holes dug by the coal mining companies. Humpf. I wonder how long before the bank erodes completely and crashes down on the trail? We hung out a bit and heard the sound of some ATVs rolling up on us, so we stepped back to let them pass.....and started laughing as we recognized the riders. Remember Tallie from the Memorial Day trip? You know, the little K9 Adventure Rider pup? Well, here she was again out riding with her parents. What?!? Wait. They're from Ohio. We're riding on a different trail system with hundreds of miles of trails and we just happen to bump into them again. Freaky!
We chatted for a while and played with Tallie a bit until she lost interest in us and hung out with the dude who was eating a Slim Jim. There's back scratching and ear rubs, of which most dogs really enjoy, and then there's processed meat stick. No competition. Tallie's parents (okay, so once again, we never got their names - we're terrible people) showed us their new machine and introduced us to his parents who were accompanying them on their own machine. The first time we met them, I told them about the blog and that I was going to make Tallie famous. :D Of course, I slacked off and never got around to posting the trip. I gave them the name of the blog again and, even though I'm still delinquent in getting it posted, perhaps one day they'll check and finally see Tallie, the K9 Adventure Rider featured here. :)
So, back to the auger holes...neat, huh?
And back to Bill....]
About
1/2 way through the day and after a really gnarly downhill, we took a
break to wait on Bill and Shele. We're generally way faster than they
are, especially since they're 2 up. I looked down at my brakes and
noticed that they weren't there anymore. 4K miles on the bike. I would
NEVER have thought to look out for that. We live, we learn. So I
stopped using the rear brakes for a while as much as possible and we
went on a quest. We got some elevation and some signal and called THE
place in town...on a Saturday afternoon....on a holiday weekend....
Figure the odds. Well, they had the parts in stock and could even get
them mounted so we didn't have to do it in the parking lot or along the
trail. We got there and the guy who owns the place also owns the eatery next
door. He gave us a 10% coupon to go have lunch while we waited. Keep
in mind, the bike is covered in mud. Like, not a little bit. We went
over and had lunch. Good burgers. [VERY good burgers.] We went back to the shop, picked out
a T-shirt for Kim and squared up. 89 dollars and nearly zero
inconvenience of waiting or penalty for being a stupid out of towner in
desperate need of assistance. Keith's Bar and Grille and The Junction
Motorsports in Man, WV both rate quite highly.
So off we went
back to the trails and rode for another 3 or 4 hours having an absolute
blast. The weather was perfect, the traffic was light, the riding was
really just so good. On the way back in the truck, we decided to go a
different route just to see if there was trail access on the other end
of the system and to check out a nearby campground for potential future
stays. Interesting joint.
http://www.twinhollowcampground.com/
Trail comes right to the campground so no trailering for the quad.
However, the road up is horrible and could be a deal breaker for me
pulling that camper up that rutted gravel hill w/ tight switchbacks.
Ugh. We'll see. We hung out there a while watching the world go by
then endured the long ride back to camp.
[At least there were wild raspberries to pick along the death climb. Note the road grader. They might want to pull it out on occasion. :) ]
[The return to the campground was the same as it always is....shower, eat, sit around campfire and chat about our day. The only difference this evening is we agreed on an earlier departure time the following morning.]
Sunday morning we
decided on a third system and yet another we'd not been to before. The
Pocahontas trail head is located in Bramwell, WV (near Bluefield and
near the WV/VA border). There was one guy in the parking lot when we
got there. Quite a few others headed past us from town to the trail
head as we were getting geared up. Like many others, this system
started with a nice long climb but without an opportunity to get warmed
up. The climb was somewhat steep and the trail was hard packed and
still damp from the previous nights showers / dewfall. Either way, the
theme of the day was slime. We rode for about 4 hours on a variety of
trails with typical varying levels of difficulty. We had to take a blue
trail to cross over to the other side (don't) and that was a real
treat. Completely covered in canopy, deep double ruts and slimy. This
means that on a bike, once you've chosen a side, that's where you
stay. It was a tough climb for me and as always I was checking my
mirrors hoping for the best but turned around at the top just in case.
Just in case was the case. Kim made it almost to the top and simply
fell over to the right which basically put her at a 45 degree angle with
the bike on/under her. A very boring crash.
[We continued to ride and were having a really good time. We popped out here, pulled over, took a short break and took some photos.]
After that, we finished
up the main trails on the other side and decided to head in to town for lunch and dump some much needed money into the local economy.
A
theme had been developing this weekend and the last time we rode to some
extent as well... Kim has been pushing herself to keep up with me.
Several times this has led to a cat and mouse on the trail that I simply
can't describe with any justice just how joyful it is for me. Her
skills are really coming up and sometimes I tear off and leave her
expecting that I'll have to wait for her to catch up. Then just as I
sit down to chill, there she is right behind me. Then off I go again.
Lather, rinse, repeat. I'm not sure how other people define marital
bliss, but this is pretty much it for me. Yeah, I like the [nope, that's getting edited] and the other wifely stuff a lot too but if I had to choose between some [you are definitely NOT describing undergarments on our family-friendly blog!] high heel combo and a full off-road get up covered in
mud chasing me down the trail on her own bike... well... she doesn't
wear heels anyway [I refuse to endure pain for the sake of "fashion"] so...Yeah, marital bliss.
Back
to the slime: As the hard packed dirt has water from puddles dragged
onto it by the quads and fast moving SXS machines, it gets really
slick. Like greased snot kind of slick. Unfortunately, the concept of
playing chase met up with a particularly gooey section of trail in a
most unpleasant way. We had been blasting through puddles and limping
through the slickery stuff on the way back. After a particularly big
puddle, I was spinning my way up a very slight incline and looked back
to check on Kim. All I saw was her tail light going sideways. That
can't be good. I turned to see her on the ground with the bike facing
the opposite way we were going. She came out of that puddle with a bit
of steam and didn't see that imperceptible crown to the trail.
Apparently her front tire went left of the crown and the throttle did
the rest. A nearly perfect long arcing 180 had she stayed upright. Her
peg dug into the trail and her clutch handle did it's part to slow her
momentum as well.
So much so, in fact, that it was nearly unrideable
after that. [Ya' think?]
Luckily she was undamaged if slightly bewildered and the
clutch handle was the only sacrifice. We finished the ride back to the
trailhead, went in search of some food as the skies darkened, then
decided that loading up would be the better option and getting food
could wait. We stopped an at unremarkable but open joint for food and
headed back to enjoy a slow afternoon at the campsite.
Monday ended up being a driving day of scouting another nearby state park
http://www.campcreekstatepark.com/
for future camping needs and having some drama on the local roads which
sometimes just aren't there or are actually in worse shape than some of
the trails we were on. But the GPS shows them as state routes. One
was so bad, I didn't want to jostle the bikes in the back of the truck
that much so we turned around and backtracked to something with lines. The morning was also torrential rain which meant a fair bit of standing
water and washouts along the way. [This road is state route 40 AKA Shady-Whitby Road on the map which is SUPPOSED to head east towards Interstate 77. Yeah, whatever.]
Long day. But we did find a Dickey's
BBQ joint on the way back so that helped. Bill and Shele got out in
the afternoon and had a good time at Pinnacle Creek on their own.
We
headed home Tue w/ very little traffic and a very uneventful trip
across 64 and up 81. We did witness some of the aftermath of the
flooding from the road. Even that bit was horrible. I can't imagine
what's going on inside of some of those poor little towns. We saw
several places along 64 where landslides had brought it down and the
lanes were either closed or you could see where they had been closed
earlier. Yuk.
All in all, a very very good trip. No injuries,
no drama, one unexpectedly awesome service call, one sacrificial lamb of
a clutch handle and many many miles of sweet sweet off road happiness.
[Yep, what he said.]
