Letters From West Virginia

[emptysea]

11 October 2016 - Tuesday

Cheryl,

I hope you enjoyed your last day in Chapel Hill. It was good to hear that Chris and Kristin survived Hurricane Matthew with no damage to person or property. They have enough on the plate already with his dad's funeral and all. I saw on the news that there's a lot of flooding in the Carolinas, but I guess that it's not near either of their homes. Please be careful on your drive home; it's a long way to Chicago and Kristin can be a little...ummmm... aggressive. Are you going to the wake? The funeral? I think Chris would like to see you.

Another chilly start to the day today in Elkins. We planned a late start anyway, though, since that would put us in Webster Springs at lunch time. Remember Mike and Judy raving about the meatloaf they had on their last trip to West Virginia and how it was "not to be missed"? Well, that place is in Webster Springs and we didn't miss it. After lunch, Mike planned our route to have two more "not to be missed" things. We missed both of them. More on that later, but if either of them are as good as our lunches were, then we will just have to come back here again. (At this point you might be noticing a "we have to come back here" theme in my notes to you. Trust me when I say that everyone here wants to come back to this area soon).

Here's our route for the day.
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As you can see, another "west to go east" route was mapped for what should be a straight drop south from Elkins to Marlinton (Finally memorized the name. Not sure why it was so difficult for me.) Even with the C carved into the route, it was still only about 100 miles, but what a 100 miles it was!

I had a thought that since Judy is a passenger and they are in the middle of the pack, it might be fun for her to carry the point-and-shoot. All of the road pictures today and a few others, too are from her perspective. I think it worked out well and I may have her keep it for the rest of the trip. We'll see.

US219 southbound was interesting enough, although it was 4 lanes for a good piece of it through the sprawling metropolis of Elkins. It was WV15 that brought the early fun. Pretty big elevation changes with tight corners turning the road back on itself as it winds up one mountain and down another. I think we crossed over about 5 mountains en route to Debbie's Main Street Cafe in Webster Springs. My bike handled very well and I am now convinced that having it fully loaded with gear affects the way the suspension loads and unloads going into and coming out of turns. Not that I'm complaining, of course - it still did everything I asked of it. I'm sure you would have scraped a peg or two on your CTX. On the other hand, if we bought you that Tiger or the R1200RT.......

One of the few pictures I can find that captures a bit of the golden hues that have fascinated me so much this week.
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Judy is better at this than I am. Besides, I was too busy Look-Press-Rolling to take photos today.
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We spent a fair bit of time in Webster Springs. The ride on WV15 was a little fatiguing mentally -- imagine a cross between "The Dragon" and Cherohala Skyway with small towns tossed in every 10 miles or so. Anyhow, it was probably good to have a nice long lunch stop. We got to meet Debbie and her husband, Tom. Tom regaled us with stories about the town, about how high the water was during the big floods this past June, about all the mountains and mountain passes we rode on to get there, and about how good their food was. He was quite the character and I seriously doubt that we would have struck a conversation had we not been on bikes. They certainly are two-wheeled ice breakers.

Here's us parked across from the cafe. Tom is sitting on the bench in front of the restaurant. I thought I took a closer picture of him, but I can't find it now. I'll show you when I get home.
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Still LOVE me a CB1100 pic (thanks to Travis for providing us with the "Love me a ____"/"Hate me a ____" catch-phrase for probably the rest of our trip)
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FINALLY got these dorks to park in some sort of formation....
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The food was great and, again, I think there are some food pics around, but they'll have to wait for our ride debriefing party (errrr....meeting) for those.

We headed out of Webster Springs toward the town of Cowen on WV20. Just before Cowen, we'd come to a Y intersection with a gas station in the crotch of the Y. The plan was to fill up there and then exit the parking lot on the opposite side of the Y onto Williams River Rd. one of Mike's "not to be missed" places. We'd take that back east across the southern portion of the Monongahela National Forest, onto the Highland Scenic Highway and eventually back to 219 and into Marlinton. Except that almost none of that happened.

When we got to the gas station, aptly named Y-Mart, we found out that Williams River Rd. was closed for most of its length and has been since the June floods. In fact, there is some speculation as to whether it will ever re-open, at least as a through road. Oh, Mike G. dropped his Wing in the Y-Mart, but unfortunately, I was in the men's room when that happened. No photos. No damage. He'll be pissed if he finds out I told you this, so ssshhhhh.

Getting to the Y-Mart was a hoot and a half. Leaving Webster Springs on 20, you cross the Elk River and start up a steep hill. Then its a up-hill slightly off-camber hairpin to the left and the mirror of that a few hundred feet later. The road at this point is basically residential and lined with homes so it's not like we were coming into the corners fast, and the funny thing was that I think it would have been a little easier carrying in some speed before the hairpins--I felt a little out of sync for those couple of turns. I may have even touched the yellow line on one of them (again.. ssshhhhh).

Here's our revised route. I drew this up after the fact.
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Once it was determined that Williams River Road was a no-go, we decided to stay on 20, connect to WV39 which, along with WV150 comprises the Highland Scenic Highway. 39 runs along a river and you know how much I love me a road along a river. It also traverses the national forest so we again enjoyed that filtered autumn sunlight I've been raving about. 39 has a few curves, but it's mostly straight. I felt so relaxed for the entire length of it. There was almost no traffic, the road was newly paved, it was cool but not cold, it was peaceful. I should tell you that my bluetooth crapped out on Day1 so I've been listening to the wind and my motorcycle and enjoying that 'music' probably more than I would have enjoyed my regular playlist, although I really need a new helmet (Christmas? hehe).

OK, speaking of music....thanks for the reminder about Justin's concert Saturday night. We're lucky that Lawrence University has these webcasts. If all goes well, I'll be home early enough on Saturday to catch the Wind Ensemble concert from the comfort my lounge chair, maybe with a martini as accompaniment. Is he playing with the Symphony on Friday, too? I can tune in from the hotel Cincinnati, if he is. Let me know.

39's portion of the Highland Scenic Highway emerges from the deeper woods just about where it intersects with WV150. The Cranberry Mountain Nature Center is located at the top of this intersection and it seemed like a good place to re-group and figure out where we would head next. Mike's other "must see" was Beartown State Park. He's told us all about it and its unusual rock formations and it sounded great, but going there from where we were would take longer than continuing onto 150 back to US219 and on to the Marlinton Motor Inn -- our home for the next couple of nights. Mike said that we could probably make it to Beartown SP tomorrow.

The brain trust figuring out our next move
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Judy enjoying the view from Cranberry Mountain
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We enjoyed our short stay at the Nature Center, but then we layered up a little as it started to get cooler and we headed out and up on WV150.

I was told to pull off at a scenic overlook (the map showed several) for pictures. I found one and a round little man who loves motorcycles came over and took our pictures. He must have used Glen's camera though, because I don't have them with me to show you now. LOL. I did snap a few pics myself, though, so here you go...

Group Montage
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Me
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150 runs along a ridge line which gifted us with some of the most expansive views we've had thus far. The picture from behind Judy and the one of me give you just a hint of what we could see from our bikes as we worked our way back to US219. Amazing.

Once we got back to 219, it was a right turn and a relatively short ride downhill to the Marlinton Motor Inn. It was on the last little stretch that it dawned on me that "US219" is "US129" in Pig Latin (sort of). The few miles just north of Marlinton coming out of the mountains was very reminiscent of "The Dragon". There weren't as many turns, but they were sharp like on 129. The views were much better here. We got stuck behind a truck for part of it. I think I would have passed it if I were alone (sssshhhhh), but it was fine with me to take a breath after a fairly long day of twists and turns.

We arrived at the Marlinton Motor Inn in short order. Very large motel with very few people in it. I was preparing for the worst, but they the rooms are clean, they have a nice bar and restaurant on property, and the folks were friendly. We'll have breakfast here tomorrow and then head on another loop that looks pretty amazing.

Pretty much have the place to ourselves
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Roommates
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I'm going to get some sleep now. have a good trip tomorrow.

Oh...I hit a milestone today....
Turned 25,000 miles somewhere between Cowen and Cranberry Mountain. I LOVE me a milestone!

Where was I? Oh yeah. Have a good trip. I love you.

Matt