Where to begin... Perhaps about 1500 miles ago at the start. Deals Gap was certainly interesting, fun, and a unique adventure in many ways; however, the trip itself was fantastic. This is simply the best bunch of folk you could possibly imagine.
Last Saturday morning I left my house to meet up with 4 other guys for a week long escape from the day to day. Two of the four I had never met, one I had only met a couple of times (though it seemed pretty likely we'd get along just fine), and the fourth is a friend who I already knew would be great to travel with. Beyond that I really didn't know at all how this would go. This was actually the first non work related, multi-day trip I'd gone on without family in 22 years. Seriously. Not because I'm opposed to it, or any real reason that I can think of that doesn't sound stupid saying out loud LoL. With all of the above I was actually a bit nervous and a little apprehensive. I was also truly thrilled and humbled to be invited along on their adventure.
Any concerns on my part about what these guys would be like were gone within minutes, and any remaining apprehension was entirely wiped out (along with a few precious remaining brain cells) Sat night. More accurately Sunday morning I suppose. Did I mention that this is an unusually awesome bunch? Funny, engaging, incredibly damn smart, and genuinely caring. And they are all excellent riders.
Thank you Bruce, Duncan, Yermo, and Josh for including me. You didn't just invite me and let me come along. I absolutely felt "included", there is a difference and it was awesome.
Trip notes:
Sat - ready to roll at 8:30 and that was my first mistake
Skipping ahead we departed NOVA in the afternoon and got hit with the weirdest darn set of events I've seen in a long time. We were held up by cars, trucks, bikes, a parade, a completely blocked off town (at least Nokesville is small :-)), and then a series of mail trucks. Weird but funny.
Sat highlights for me were the dancing cows barn, the assorted muscle cars that seemed to come out of nowhere, the Barnes and Noble with the seemingly out of context clientele, and the poor waitress at dinner who i think was desperate for a polysyllabic conversation.
Sun- A late and painful start...I coughed in my helmet and was genuinely concerned that my head would have exploded into pieces were it not for the helmet. We made good progress on the slab though and got to the top of 129 pretty quickly. Dinner at a decent place and a quick run to Target for supplies before heading through the gap to the Deals Gap resort. Turns out that strapping water jugs to the top of saddle bags changes the handling dynamics. Shocking. The ride through the gap that night also highlighted that although I kept a light grip on the bars, my positioning and weight distribution on my hands was all wrong. Yermo patiently showed me a better way and it made an immediate impact. It was the first of lots of great skill improvements I picked up. Like I mentioned earlier these are all great riders, and they were awesome at sharing, teaching, and collaborating.
We got in to the Deals Gap resort pretty late and got situated in the room, then started to acclimate.
Mon - A pattern emerged of getting to breakfast around 9/930 each morning to get the day started with some clogged arteries :-).
Here's what Monday morning looked like for me:
Honestly though, it's a pretty good bargain especially considering where it is and the relative lack of options. Mon proved to be pretty hot and humid as well which made everything more challenging to start off. First runs on the dragon were eye opening for me. I've been riding since 1984 but for the last 25 years it has been on open roads and a couple of track days. I haven't experienced extremely tight concentric switchbacks and such an overall technical road since growing up in New England a long time ago. It was a harsh classroom where you are best served by being very, very honest with yourself. On Monday I sucked LOL. Improvement came, but it was honestly a little frustrating at first. It helped immensely being around riders who are supportive, experienced, and clearly not out to prove anything to anyone. Monday afternoon included a fun ride out to Fontana for lunch taking rt28. This was the kind of road I'm familiar with and I thought it was a blast. We had a great lunch, touched base with the outside world, and then headed back towards the gap. We ended up going back to Fontana for dinner and had a remarkable ride in light rain and fog to get there.
It was absolutely beautiful and hopefully some pictures for the ride out will get posted.
That was followed by a fire in the firepit that required a toiletpaper/gasoline type candle to get going, but eventually it lit. Small but interesting group at the fire Mon night.
My favorite bike on Mon: an early GSX-R 750 with basic track plastics, fully safety wired, and running slicks. Definitely a track bike and completely bonkers on the road.
Will add notes on Tues/Weds tomorrow.
Some vids from the trip:
"Skyway on Tuesday"]
"An anonymous rider on a borrowed bike, going quickly"
