Tonight I'm packing up my trusty DR650. I'm packing light. My brother and I will be heading out to WV for a 3 day ride. He is piloting his K1200LT, he is kind enough to packmule the tent. The only extra thing I will be carrying is two small AL fuel bottles, to supplement the stock tank of my bike. I'll also bring a camera.
If I had the money I would have ordered a larger tank, and a rear rack.
I did put on a fresh rear tire. I hope to have the wanker strips completely scrubbed off by the time I get back.
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New River Gorge, WV
New River Gorge, WV
Yamaha WR250R
Yamaha TW200
Yamaha TW200
Re: New River Gorge, WV
Ride safe! and save your money for the 250!Bucho wrote:Tonight I'm packing up my trusty DR650. I'm packing light. My brother and I will be heading out to WV for a 3 day ride. He is piloting his K1200LT, he is kind enough to packmule the tent. The only extra thing I will be carrying is two small AL fuel bottles, to supplement the stock tank of my bike. I'll also bring a camera.
If I had the money I would have ordered a larger tank, and a rear rack.
I did put on a fresh rear tire. I hope to have the wanker strips completely scrubbed off by the time I get back.
Ken
Die young as late as possible, remember who you were before the world told you how it should be. -- Barry Morris
Die young as late as possible, remember who you were before the world told you how it should be. -- Barry Morris
Re: New River Gorge, WV
Be sure to take the old road across the river under the bridge, mostly dirt & lots of steep switchbacks.
Re: New River Gorge, WV
We made it back, mostly safe and sound.
I'll give a few notes from my recollections but this was sort of my brother's trip. He planned it and had it all mapped out on his gps. So I mostly just followed and only passed him when going through some of the mountain passes when the road gets unbelievably awesome.
He came by my place in Frederick Friday morning and we hopped on I70 west and took it all the way to I68 west and took that to Cumberland and finally hopped on 220 and made our way over toward Blackwater Falls.
We continued more or less south and at one point we passed Smoke Hole Road, (one of Mdubya's favorite supermoto roads), I thought about getting my bro's attention and heading back but then I didn't know where the road came out and figured it wasn't worth the bother. I'm not sure how much further we went but then sure enough I saw the other side of Smoke Hole Road, it came out right along our trip! I was mad at myself for not taking it.
We eventually got on 219 and took it for quite a long way South. We finally got on I64 west for just a short hop but took a wrong turn (I thought GPS was supposed to prevent that?), and got a little mixed up. It was getting late in the day and we pulled over and our magic GPS found us sort of nearby Babcock State Park where we camped for the night.
The weather for the whole weekend was scattered/isolated thunderstorms. So far we had avoided all rain, but had ridden on some wet roads where we had just missed it. As soon as we set up our tent it started raining.
This was sort of an empty part of West Virginia and we hadn't seen anywhere to stop to eat for miles and miles. The magic GPS found us a place 15 miles away or so in Fayetteville. As we rode there we crossed over "the largest arch bridge in the western hemisphere". We didn't realize we were so close and didn't plan on finding the New River Gorge bridge till the next day.
We found a place that was a bar/pizza joint. It was dark by this point and we had ridden about 450 miles and it was raining. The place was packed but without any other options we found a place at the bar and only had to wait an hour for some pretty good pizza.
My brother thought after we got already were eating, was that he wished we would have left my bike at the campsite, and rode his two-up. So he could drink 4-5 beers before I then ride him bitch back to the camp so he could pass out.
But alass, we both rode so we had a pitcher of iced tea.
Just a gas stop/short rest near Harmin I think.
The first of our rainy crappy campsites. A hotel would have been nice, but $4 or more for gas there wasn't much left in the buget for warm beds and showers.
The next morning we packed up the wet tent and for the next several hours it was sunny then dark ominous clouds, but we didn't get rained on till later in the day
Here are some pictures of what used to be the largest arch bridge in the world from the late 1970's till a few years ago they built a bigger one in China or somewhere.
We of course took the old road down to the river and crossed at the old bridge. The road had several extremely tight hairpins, a van or large pickup truck would have to use up all the available room to make it. It was a great supermoto road, but b/c of last night's rain it was a little slick.
A large tree had fallen in the road and we had to go around through the muddy slick shoulder. I stopped and got my camera out to wait for my brother to come along and I was gonna get an action shot of him dropping his luxotourer. However, he made it through slow and steady.
Even w/ the slick pavement and mud it was still pretty fun and I went for another lap of the old road why my brother waited.
I went down a gravel/dirt road that I saw the first time that I didn't take b/c my brother couldn't follow. It led down to a different spot along the river where concrete had been poured to make a landing for rafters and kyaks. It also involved going through a neat tunnel under a rail road. Luckily this road was deserted and I was able to wail on it and not have to worry about dodging big loaded down vans of tourists waiting to hit the water in rafts.
The rest of our day was spent riding along the the southern part of new river gorge hitting the roads we missed the day before when we took a wrong turn or two. We rode pretty hard all day even w/ being hit by two very hard, but very short downpours. By 7pm or so we made it all the way back to Black Water Falls State park. Before laying down money for camping I made a call to Mdubya but he didn't answer so we didn't crash his place. I pretty sure he doesn't lock his doors and I sort of thought about crashing it anyway.
But we had a second night of rain as we set up camp. In the morning my brother was beat and we went our separate ways. He headed straight north to the interstate and rolled home at 85mph along I68 and I70.
I didn't think I could take that on the DR so I made my way over to Route 50 and headed east toward Winchester. (I passed El Puente where Rob, Ken, and I ate lunch the other week.) I motored home going by Harper's Ferry and made it home in the early afternoon.
It was a good trip, as most motorcycle trips are. I would hate to admit that I wish I would have brought my Concours instead. The DR is hard to beat in the tight twisty roads and I would have missed out on the the cool gravel/dirt road, but we did alot of "liason" stretches where the Connie would have been much, much, easier on the body.
I'll give a few notes from my recollections but this was sort of my brother's trip. He planned it and had it all mapped out on his gps. So I mostly just followed and only passed him when going through some of the mountain passes when the road gets unbelievably awesome.
He came by my place in Frederick Friday morning and we hopped on I70 west and took it all the way to I68 west and took that to Cumberland and finally hopped on 220 and made our way over toward Blackwater Falls.
We continued more or less south and at one point we passed Smoke Hole Road, (one of Mdubya's favorite supermoto roads), I thought about getting my bro's attention and heading back but then I didn't know where the road came out and figured it wasn't worth the bother. I'm not sure how much further we went but then sure enough I saw the other side of Smoke Hole Road, it came out right along our trip! I was mad at myself for not taking it.
We eventually got on 219 and took it for quite a long way South. We finally got on I64 west for just a short hop but took a wrong turn (I thought GPS was supposed to prevent that?), and got a little mixed up. It was getting late in the day and we pulled over and our magic GPS found us sort of nearby Babcock State Park where we camped for the night.
The weather for the whole weekend was scattered/isolated thunderstorms. So far we had avoided all rain, but had ridden on some wet roads where we had just missed it. As soon as we set up our tent it started raining.
This was sort of an empty part of West Virginia and we hadn't seen anywhere to stop to eat for miles and miles. The magic GPS found us a place 15 miles away or so in Fayetteville. As we rode there we crossed over "the largest arch bridge in the western hemisphere". We didn't realize we were so close and didn't plan on finding the New River Gorge bridge till the next day.
We found a place that was a bar/pizza joint. It was dark by this point and we had ridden about 450 miles and it was raining. The place was packed but without any other options we found a place at the bar and only had to wait an hour for some pretty good pizza.
My brother thought after we got already were eating, was that he wished we would have left my bike at the campsite, and rode his two-up. So he could drink 4-5 beers before I then ride him bitch back to the camp so he could pass out.
But alass, we both rode so we had a pitcher of iced tea.
Just a gas stop/short rest near Harmin I think.
The first of our rainy crappy campsites. A hotel would have been nice, but $4 or more for gas there wasn't much left in the buget for warm beds and showers.
The next morning we packed up the wet tent and for the next several hours it was sunny then dark ominous clouds, but we didn't get rained on till later in the day
Here are some pictures of what used to be the largest arch bridge in the world from the late 1970's till a few years ago they built a bigger one in China or somewhere.
We of course took the old road down to the river and crossed at the old bridge. The road had several extremely tight hairpins, a van or large pickup truck would have to use up all the available room to make it. It was a great supermoto road, but b/c of last night's rain it was a little slick.
A large tree had fallen in the road and we had to go around through the muddy slick shoulder. I stopped and got my camera out to wait for my brother to come along and I was gonna get an action shot of him dropping his luxotourer. However, he made it through slow and steady.
Even w/ the slick pavement and mud it was still pretty fun and I went for another lap of the old road why my brother waited.
I went down a gravel/dirt road that I saw the first time that I didn't take b/c my brother couldn't follow. It led down to a different spot along the river where concrete had been poured to make a landing for rafters and kyaks. It also involved going through a neat tunnel under a rail road. Luckily this road was deserted and I was able to wail on it and not have to worry about dodging big loaded down vans of tourists waiting to hit the water in rafts.
The rest of our day was spent riding along the the southern part of new river gorge hitting the roads we missed the day before when we took a wrong turn or two. We rode pretty hard all day even w/ being hit by two very hard, but very short downpours. By 7pm or so we made it all the way back to Black Water Falls State park. Before laying down money for camping I made a call to Mdubya but he didn't answer so we didn't crash his place. I pretty sure he doesn't lock his doors and I sort of thought about crashing it anyway.
But we had a second night of rain as we set up camp. In the morning my brother was beat and we went our separate ways. He headed straight north to the interstate and rolled home at 85mph along I68 and I70.
I didn't think I could take that on the DR so I made my way over to Route 50 and headed east toward Winchester. (I passed El Puente where Rob, Ken, and I ate lunch the other week.) I motored home going by Harper's Ferry and made it home in the early afternoon.
It was a good trip, as most motorcycle trips are. I would hate to admit that I wish I would have brought my Concours instead. The DR is hard to beat in the tight twisty roads and I would have missed out on the the cool gravel/dirt road, but we did alot of "liason" stretches where the Connie would have been much, much, easier on the body.
Yamaha WR250R
Yamaha TW200
Yamaha TW200
Re: New River Gorge, WV
Oh man, you guys SO should have come here. Not sure where I was, but you would have been welcome. If you had left a message, I would have called you back.
DRZ S and SM
Vertemati SM
KTM 520 EXC
Vertemati SM
KTM 520 EXC
Re: New River Gorge, WV
I know, I was gonna try calling you earlier in the day but I didn't think we would make it that far. Then by the time we got to Black Water Falls, I thought I'd just try a shot in the dark about 2 minutes before we were ready to get a campsite.
My brother was thinking it would be rude to just show up at your house, but I was trying to explain, that you don't have a wife to be upset at two wet motorcyclist showing up w/ no warning.
My brother was thinking it would be rude to just show up at your house, but I was trying to explain, that you don't have a wife to be upset at two wet motorcyclist showing up w/ no warning.
Yamaha WR250R
Yamaha TW200
Yamaha TW200
Re: New River Gorge, WV
welcome back! Can you imagine driving a semi down that road? It used to be the only way across the gorge. I've been there many, many times in my kayaking days.
Ken
Die young as late as possible, remember who you were before the world told you how it should be. -- Barry Morris
Die young as late as possible, remember who you were before the world told you how it should be. -- Barry Morris