Roadtrip Sept 17, 2009
- Thursday – September 17, 2009 -
Today would be another fairly easy day. My only goal was get back to somewhere in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virgina. On my way there I’d be sure to stop at the New River Gorge Bridge.
Somewhere in Eastern Kentucky..
Oscar will have killed me if I didn't go back for this pic
There wasn’t really too much of interest between there and the bridge. I stopped in Summersville, WV for lunch and gas then it was on to the bridge.
Longest arch bridge
The best I could do ON the bridge
Now if you’ve never visited the bridge there is a nice visitor center right next to the bridge. It’s worth a stop if you’ve never seen it. However if you continue past the visitor center you can take CR-82 down to the bottom of the gorge. It’s a very tight road but it is one way most of the way so if you get stuck in one of the turns you don’t have to worry about people coming from the other side while you wiggle your long car or truck through the hairpins.
I hear banjo's.....Paddle!!!!
After the bridge I headed for the Monongahela. I spent the next few hours taking just about every road that crosses back and forth over the ridge from West Virginia into Virginia. I did stop at the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area for a quick photo. It’s hard to tell in this picture but the bike is about to fall over on the side of the road. Between the camber of the shoulder and the soft gravel I was sitting on the bike just kept leaning as the kickstand sank into the ground. It was so bad I had to push the bike down the road to get to a place where I could rock it up off the side stand. Good Times!
About half a degree from falling over.
Further down the Highland Scenic Highway I came around a corner to some cows in the road. No wonder you never see any police down this way. You never know what may be around the next corner.
Beef...on the hoof
What are you lookin' at?
I needed to find a campground but still had about 2 hours until sunset so I headed a little further north through the forest. I couldn’t find any campgrounds on my map so I ended up circling back around and camping on the Highland Scenic Highway. I was at about 3500 feet at the Day Run Camping Area, but everything was soaked so no fire tonight.
Ghosts!!!
The skies cleared and the stars came out
I killed as much time as I could goofing around but eventually went to bed. It was pretty early still but it was too dark and damp to do much of anything.
Tomorrow we make the run for home.
Meeester Chris,
” Manongehala” That’s where Eliott worked for his summer job. It’s out in the sticks man. As you saw only black animals live there. Not much on hairpin driving. Would rather be in the raft listening to banjo music with a bunch of cronies.
Sam