**** Gathering Sat 14Sep at the Manassas Starbucks at 10am, returning through Winchester/Front Royal sunday early evening. Mid point and overnight at Summersville, WV****



ALL,







We are fast approaching fall and will sooner than we realize come ot the end of the best riding weather to take on WV. Even though we are luck enough to have a very long riding season here in the Washington, DC metro, the WV mountains are not as forgiving. I think we should look to the last weekend in Sept or first weekend in October for a season closing West Virginia road trip. The plan would be an early morning departure on Saturday, an overnight Sat night, and an eventual return Sunday. We would select a route that takes the best roads through WV with the best mix for all our typical riders (pavement only on this trip). I know the idea has been floating for a while and both Yermo and I are on board. Our previous trips through WV have been amazing and I highly encourage participation. We find great roads that are fun without being terrifying for less experienced riders. Although the last few have been day trips, as the hours of daylight in the early evening shrinks it starts to make more sense to treat this as an overnight. This will be a fantastic adventure, close enough to home to make for a very easy trip.















Let us know if you're interested.















Cheers!







Rob

I'm definitely in.

If it can be the first weekend of Oct. , I'm definitely in. Sep 28th could be a problem.

Check the weather report for this weekend in Elkins, which is the weather center for our WV rides. There is not another set of good weather on a weekend going out past 7 weeks. I can't remember seeing a forecast like this across two days on a weekend in a long time. Simply perfect.

This is the route I had in mind. Note that 81 is shown because of a glitch, it's actually Fort Valley Road down to the Lurray area.

Here is the corrected map, moving the western portion to Rt 20 (very nice). This has the halfway point and overnight spot as Summersville, WV.

Ok. I'm in.

I'm in. The bike is clean and serviced (mostly) and the new tires are on. The only thing left to do is mount the Sena.

Outstanding. I've virtually driven the route via Google Street View and some vids I found and I promise you will not be disappointed. I really believe this one is going to be memorable.

Yermo I conccur with you that meeting Sat morning at the Starbucks in Manassas makes sense. What time would you like to meet? My thinking is that we'll probably be on 33 in WV around lunch. Since we won't have to worry about hightailing it back in one go (for a change ) we'll actually have time to maybe even look at things on the way through LOL.

On our last ride I was feeling particularly rough and it was showing in my riding. I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping of late so I would be all for something a bit less intense. I would be all for stopping and looking at things. 

Jay, just clarifying in case it wasn't clear, this is a leave Saturday come back Sunday ride.

Anyone else in?

Oh, and to answer your question rshaug, how about we say 10AM?

10am, Saturday, Usual Manassas Starbucks, check.

I will put together a slightly more detailed road plan and will work to identify good sports for breaks. Instead of the usual 90min runs I'm thinking that once we get into WV we'll want to look at hourly (unless something interesting appears in the interim ). If we meet at 10, we can run down Fort Valley North to South (it's very good in that direction), then a quick jump down to 33. I'm thinking we stop on 33 for lunch. From there we'll be in nice roads for the rest of the day towards Summersville and Mt. Nebo which will be our overnight spot (lots of decent motel choices that are easy, with dinner options). I've intentionally selected a route that is less intense as we go close to Summersville. The most interesting/intense stretch will be Rt. 20 which we will take basically from just outside Summersville all the way to 50. The most intense part of the road will be the section we'll hit late morning (after being fully awake, while still fresh). If all goes like I think it will we should be in Winchester in the pretty early evening Sunday (earlier than last time actually). Broken into two appx 300mile days, leaves plenty of room for both breaks and reduced daylight.

ALL,
Here is a link to the full final ride map, with planned stopping points, detailed directions, and timing for each. Currently targeting to leave from Manassas NLT 10:30am on Saturday. Lunch is planned for stop "C". The overnight stop is planned for stop "F". We will want to be at "F" before dark, which is why I made the first leg from "A" to "B" superslab. We would have to leave Manassas NLT 9am if we want to avoid slabbing it to "B". The good roads start at "C" anyway so it made the most sense to make up time at the start of day 1, then simply enjoy the rest of the day. If folks are up for an earlier start I would certainly be up for doing the Ft. Valley option instead of 81. Please review the map and detailed directions in the PDF I put together. It's public on my Google Drive here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_5f9tTZcbSOcHozay1HNzd...

ALL,
Here is a link to the full final ride map, with planned stopping points, detailed directions, and timing for each. Currently targeting to leave from Manassas NLT 10:30am on Saturday. Lunch is planned for stop "C". The overnight stop is planned for stop "F". We will want to be at "F" before dark, which is why I made the first leg from "A" to "B" superslab. We would have to leave Manassas NLT 9am if we want to avoid slabbing it to "B". The good roads start at "C" anyway so it made the most sense to make up time at the start of day 1, then simply enjoy the rest of the day. If folks are up for an earlier start I would certainly be up for doing the Ft. Valley option instead of 81. Please review the map and detailed directions in the PDF I put together. It's public on my Google Drive here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_5f9tTZcbSOcHozay1HNzd...

I'm an early bird anyway so I can be ready to go whenever. And I'll gladly trade some sleep for better road selection.
Anyhow, whatever the group decides, I'll be there. Looking forward to it.

Jay meet at my house at 8:45AM on Saturday?

Please set up your Sena or at least charge it and bring the mount and we can set it up. It'll make things a lot easier if you're "hooked in". 

I was wondering if I can meet you guys in Front Royal ( same Starbucks as last trip). I can cut out a lot of slab heading Southwest. Just give me a time and I'll be there.

Should be this one:

125 Riverton Commons Plz

Front Royal, VA, 22630
Between Riverton Commons Dr and Country Club Rd

Yup, that's the one.

If I meet Rob at 10 in Manassas, we should be in Front Royal between 10:45 and 11:00.

Cool, see you then.

Yermoand Jay, do we want to just meet in Front Royal at 10:30? We're going to be slabbing down 81 for a little bit anyway down to 33 to give us daylight in WV. I think we'll want to leave Front Royal before 11, which will put us in WV for lunch at the Rt33/Rt250 intersection at about 1pm.

I can do that. 10:30 Front Royal. Check. See you there then.

there/then it is.

Yermoand Jay, I went ahead and reserved a couple of room at the best hotel I saw in Summersville, the Hampton Inn. I wasn't thinking and should have reserved three, so one of you might want to go ahead and reserve another, it was pretty cheap (like around $100). There were surprisingly few rooms available in Summersville, I checked two other places first but this had the best rooms and availability. For ALL of the hotels they only had smoking rooms available but I've requested non-smoking if at all available. There's also an Applebees right down the street so a fairly decent dinner is available. What is it with M-by-MC overnights and Applebees LOL. Hotel info:
Hampton Inn Summersville
5400 Webster Road, Summersville, West Virginia, 26651, USA