West Virginia Fall Leaf Trip

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Goodman4

Pressing on
Joined
May 18, 2012
Messages
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Location
Hopkinsville, KY
Here are some pics from our West Virginia trip last week, Oct 9-14. We left Wednesday night from Hopkinsville, KY after work and stayed in Lexington to get a full day in Thursday. We rode slab all the way to Huntington and took 10 and 3 down to Fayetteville, WV to see the New River Gorge bridge. This route had a lot of good curves. We rode across New River Gorge and then took the Fayette Station Road down under the bridge as recommended by spklbuk. Many thanks for the advice on that or I would have missed it. My Mad Maps route had that area all screwed up. They are usually great, though.

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We stayed in Beckley Thursday night and headed east to Covington, VA. We found the Humpback covered bridge in Covington which was pretty cool.

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We rode up 220 and came back across 39 to Summersville. The leaves across the Alleghenies were beautiful and added with the awesome roads and interesting towns, this was one of our favorite days of riding to date even though it got a little misty in the afternoon.

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We headed back east from Summersville Saturday morning. The Cranberry Wilderness Center was closed due to the government shutdown, but we went down to Cranberry Glades and walked the boardwalk around the bog.

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Highland scenic 150 up around to 219 was stunning. We just kept saying, "wow".

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On 219 we headed north.

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We saw a bear that had just crossed the road running up the hill south of Elkins. I know for hitting a deer it's better to just aim for the rear end of the deer and plan on going through it. For hitting a bear, is the procedure just saying goodbye? No pics of the bear as he was really moving. Tammy saw it first and yelled, "bear!" I really had no clue how to react. It was like she was saying some phrase that I couldn't process into a reasonable reaction.

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The Mountaineer Wind farm was interesting driving towards when the turbines appear in your view ahead above the trees.

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We headed on up to Blackwater Falls. It was pretty crowded but we enjoyed seeing the falls.

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Then we went a little farther north into Maryland and cut back across 50 west. I think this day topped the previous as our favorite riding day.

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After spending Saturday night in Mineral Wells we rode through southern Ohio hitting several good roads but nothing like West Virginia. Took some pics of the bridge crossing into Kentucky in Maysville.

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We stayed in Lexington again before heading home Monday. We had never been to the Shaker Village so we stopped by there on the way home. I thought about posting this pic from there on TripAdvisor in one of my hotel reviews and say that I thought the bed was small but I liked the toilet.

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Here's the whole ride from my MotionX-GPS tracking (I forgot to turn it on after stopping by that section near the Kanawha River).

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Now I'm waiting for the leaves to turn a little more here to compare our Land Between the Lakes forests to WV this year, but I doubt it will compare.

 
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WV was a popular spot I see this past weekend!

Great shots and it looked awesome (except that bed!).

Thank you for sharing
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It looks like you hit peak on 150 Highland Scenic Hwy... a huge amount of the trees were bald this past weekend. There were still a few pretty ones... but alot of trees were bald. The area around Lewisburg/Rainelle was stunning, though. I have no pictures due to the fact that our tour guide didn't stop. Oh hell... I was having fun riding, too. I would've liked to stop for a piccie, though.

I expect that Fayetteville would've been peak the weekend that we were there. We stayed away due to Bridge Day where they close a lane of the bridge... & the circus that ensues.

Great pictures Goodman. Thank you for sharing.

 
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Thanks for the TR! I got out in Pennsylvania this past Sunday and photographed from the high Appalachian mountains (Blue Knob 3300 feet) and looped back around through the Laural Highlands, including a visit to the Flight 93 Memorial. The color was fantastic, but ranged from completely blown out to still green. The sunlight really makes the colors pop and it looks like the sun was scarce on your trip. WV and PA riding are much better than I expected.

 
Tom, in my opinion the riding in the southern half of WV blows the northern half away... not to say that there isn't good riding in the northern half. The good roads just aren't as concentrated.

 
It looks like you hit peak on 150 Highland Scenic Hwy... a huge amount of the trees were bald this past weekend. There were still a few pretty ones... but alot of trees were bald. The area around Lewisburg/Rainelle was stunning, though. I have no pictures due to the fact that BOB our tour guide didn't stop. Oh hell... I was having fun riding, too. I would've liked to stop for a piccie, though.
I expect that Fayetteville would've been peak the weekend that we were there. We stayed away due to Bridge Day where they close a lane of the bridge... & the circus that ensues.

Great pictures Goodman. Thank you for sharing.
Fixed...it's purely a guess, but did I get it right?
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Great pictures Goodman!

 
The colors in the southern parts where not underwhelming. Now, around the old clark area... very underwhelming.

 
WV is such a great place to ride, 39 is one of my favorites. That Humpback bridge is very cool, hadn't seen that one.

 
Thanks for the RR. Just got back from a similar ride. I need to learn how to stop more and get some great pics like yours

 
Looks like the Ski area's of WV got their first snow last night & it's currently still snowing (8:16am at least)! All the leaves look down in this part of the state.

Canaan Valley Live Cam

 
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I intended to get to the Highlands Scenic Highway on my recent tour but never made it that far. The Breaks Interstate Park was as close as I got. I see from your pictures that I will indeed have to get there one day. Something to look forward to another time.

Thanks for the ride report.

 
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