Weekend Ride to eastern WV Panhandle (Sun 8/1)? Options

[SouthsideDuc]

Great day out on the road. Just under 420 miles for me, by far my longest since entering the post-kid phase of my life four years ago. My first lesson of the day was that there is a pretty stiff penalty for having a Turnpike ticket blow out of your 'Stitch. After being treated like I had committed a federal crime, I was given a form to send in (and hopefully get some of that $25 back) and was off to meet my fellow riders at the New Stanton Eat N' Park. Always great to ride with Mapmaster. We've been riding together since '02 when I first moved to the Burgh and I don't think we've ever had a bad ride. Also great to meet and ride with fellow tagger MrSticky. It didn't take too many miles on Rt. 31 out of Mt. Pleasant to realize the three of us had similar riding styles and that we were looking at a great day.

I always prefer to ride new roads, so in that sense the route we took was a lot of fun. On the other hand, to answer Stumpy's question, some were very "goaty" so I won't go too far out of my way to hit many of them again. Started out on Garry's route before the road closure threw us and the GPS machines for a loop. Literally. Down 2.5 miles of gravel. And back. Mental note, always zoom out the Nav a bit before following a Garmin detour down a gravel road. On the plus side, the gravel was nicely packed and there were some nice mountain/river views.

By the time we finished lunch it was after three so we agreed to slab it to Cumberland, then come up through Meyersville, Connellsville, etc.

Here's some pics from my end.

Temperature dropped to about 60F early in the ride, so let's pull over and put on a sweatshirt. Ten minutes later we're on tar chips in 75F.


$0.25 and a few minutes of digging out the wallet gets you across the bridge:


Having no idea what that road closure had in store for us. Notice the lack of dust on the bikes/riders. This was about to change.


This is a pretty sweet bit of road, so feel free to wick it up a bit to make up a bit of time from the gravel detour. Oh wait, is that loose gravel just over that last hump of brand new pavement? Crap. My next charity will be to help the state of Maryland purchase a few "Dead End" signs.


Route 9 just above Berkely Springs, MD. This was a great road, but by the time I took this picture my bike's computer had been telling me for ten minutes that my fuel would take me zero miles so I was more focussed on saving gas than fully enjoying the road. I should have chilled, because when I filled up 2 miles later I still had about 2/10 of a gallon left.


B&O Canal in Hancock, MD. The Potomac is just on the other side of those trees.

[MapMaster]

A very fun day.
Observatioins:
At breakfast deciding not to chase a PA tag that was claimed long before we would've gotten to it, "I lead a lot rides and am quite happy to just follow both of you." (SSDuc and MrSticky both had Garry's route in their Garmins). After 4 or 5 dead-ends, I remain a Luddite adherent regarding GPS technology.

The goat trails weren't too baaaahhd (sorry, couldn't resist).

Signage: Free Yard Sale!

We saw the Fair Family Farm, but no Lifttruck.

A Mennonite church parking lot filled with black cars. Not a single rebellious soul showing off so much as a charcoal gray set of wheels.


My pixel contributions:


Cacapon Overlook. Great View, the restaurant across the road was geared toward a different clientele.




Lunch in Hancock, good eats here


The bikes at lunch. Much dustier than earlier.

[MapMaster]

Oh yeah, mission accomplished, the rear tire was done at the end of the ride.
I had the new one mounted on the wheel last night. More cleaning yet to do this afternoon, but then I should be good to go for the rest of the season.

[SouthsideDuc]

More cleaning yet to do this afternoon, but then I should be good to go for the rest of the season.

Damn, just take a shower already and do it all at once. I know your not talking about the bike, you'd lose some of that Alaska dust.

How long was that lunch? When I parked my bike was still in the sun.

Can't believe you changed a tire after you got home. That's insanity. I used the last of my energy to help bathe the kids and get them to bed. After that I could barely get myself to the kitchen to make a crappy sandwich.

[MapMaster]

Damn, just take a shower already and do it all at once. I know your not talking about the bike, you'd lose some of that Alaska dust.



How long was that lunch? When I parked my bike was still in the sun.

Can't believe you changed a tire after you got home. That's insanity. I used the last of my energy to bathe the kids and get them to bed. After that I could barely get myself to the kitchen to make a crappy sandwich.

Bathe two kids vs. change a tire w/hand tools. - I had the easier job.

I snarffed some leftover wings when I got home. That 5 hour energy shot was good till 10, I started the tire at 930 ... finished at midnightzzzz (my technique still needs some work).