JB's Adventure Blog: Going Big with Bike Magazine

Erin and I just wrapped up a spectacular week of back county riding with Chris Millem and Kip Mikler of Bike Magazine.

Chris is a freelance photographer from New England and Kip is six months into his new job at bike. He formerly worked for VeloNews. I am sure he's feeling refreshed not having to constantly write about doping road racers, and is back to the adventure side of cycling.

Day #1 was the Shenandoah Mountain Trail with it's off camber all-day super-fine single track. After it was proclaimed an IMBA epic, I thought it was sure to become over ridden. But, this is not the case. In fact, we were out there for hours and only saw our long shadows in the late afternoon light.

Day #2 was one of my favorite trails deep in West Virginia - the North Fork Mountain Trail. The weather was warm and the view awesome. The west side of the mountain is lined for a few miles with cliffs looking down to the north branch of the Potomac river. Our group was bigger for this one. It made for some nice hangin out on one of the cliff overlooks. Erin, Kip, Chris, Sue, Thomas, Tim, 'The Wo' and Jeff Shalk rounded out our crew.

That night we split ways, Erin headed back with the H-burg crew, and Kip, Chris, Sue and myself headed for the small town of Davis, West Virginia where we rode the perennial classic Plantation Trail.

After a Fat Hellbender Burrito sleep came easy thanks to some cold mountain air and Laird Knight letting us crash at his place in the town of Thomas. Laird spends most of his time in Morgantown with his wife these days so we just made ourselves at home. Thomas is the sister town to Davis, Thomas more the coal town and Davis more the logging town. Since there is less of both going on these days it is a blessing to the regenerating rare ecosystems of the area. Not so good for the towns though. Tourism is starting a renaissance for the two towns and work is underway for a riverside park in Davis.

Day #3, the next morning Laird met us. We talked West Virginia mountain bike history, and Laird can talk! We got a hearty lumberjack breakfast and headed to Black Water Bikes to meet Sue. After waiting for a while we headed off in a rain shower up the foggy mountain and into the dark forest. The Forbidden Forest was the name of one of Sue's insider trails. It reminds me of the Ardens of Belgium, except cooler! The spruce trees were tall and the understory lush with ferns and moss. Then we hit the Son of Plantation Trail and then the granddaddy, Plantation. It was wet foggy real technical but somehow grippy at the same time. The roots and rocks were a stark contrast to the bone dry Virginia trails. That place is special for sure. Tunnels of Rhododendron, cranberry bogs and tea colored steams snake thru the maze-like forest. We had a blast seeing what we could ride. Sue even challenged me to ride a deep stream crossing at the end of the ride. "I'll buy you lunch if you can ride this one!" Sweet! I had no clue how I was going to ride the knee deep crossing filled with concrete-like rocks at all angles but I went for it - and the Pizza at Siriani's was the sweet reward! Nailed it!

Go Big.

Jeremiah

Labels: Epic Adventures

posted by Jeremiah Bishop # 5:42 PM

Going Big with Bike Magazine

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