Yesterday I drove from Davis up high in WVA mtns down to Harrisonburg: 3000 to 1400′ there abouts. RT 33 is a mountainous US route. What mountains exist albeit covered w/ trees and less height than western mtns. Still enjoy them. Broadleaf trees reach a height then just get bigger around. The shear mass of life.

GPS navigated me right to parking lot of Shenandoah Bike Company. Greeted Tim who now has a beard. Later I met Thomas who no longer has his beard. Asked if the facial hair change occurred simultaneously and they weren’t sure.

AT SBC I was sort of seeking a ride but not too hard as my rear brake pads are all but shot. Then Thomas invited me to their bike club trail work out @ Massanutten trails. Hot & humid. I said yes and rode w/ Thomas out. The site is location for their stage race ( Missing details here). A new short track trail has been built machine cut big berms & flowie across meadow. Brock built the machine trail w a Ditchwitch tracked machine. Did nice job. Our manual effort was to smooth out the back slope. All of us were dripping sweat wet from heat & humidity.

A snapping turtle the size of a medium pizza pan was spotted out in open on a dirt bank, perhaps it was a female and she was laying eggs. I do not know how to sex a snapper besides “she” would have resisted perhaps being bitten. Legend is a snapper bites and doesn’t let go until a certain phase of the moon.

3 hours of muscle work left me worn out.

Drove back into town to Thomas’ house where he offered me his yard and dinner. Spent night.

My dad is in the hospital back home w/ intestinal bleeding which is of concern.

Friend Grace Ragland for Huntsville, AL started a Facebook group for people who know both of us. On page 116 of July issue of MountainBikeAction there is a piece about Grace. Both of us have fame in national publications. If you know both of us, let me know and i will invite you to the group.

A note about Davis: I like the challenge of tech challenge. Not every foot of the ride was “nasty”. The locals have that figured out. I sought out that kind of trail sort of. Locals always know their home turf better than a touron can find using a map. I wanted to put their terrain in perspective of other places ridden.

Check out the thread on MTBR about my odyssey as started by Duane in Davis.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=6972174&page=2

Off to find a ride here.

State College next week.

Say what you want about your nastiest trail, slime, slippery roots, rock gardens, bogs, dense tight trees, rhody thickets what ever or all you might have I will put it up against this Canaan shit. I have seen lots of nasties elsewhere. WVA is a hand full. No machine cut trails here. Outside of rhody thickets or dense conifers trail can be rake & ride. The tread will be what it is, ain’t no slick rock but will be slick rock. It never dries out except like last year’s drought, doesn’t seem to make much difference riding it in the wet. Stimulating riding, complete involvement.

Today young Van from Blackwater lead me on a ride. He rides a 29 hardtail, young svelt stud. Some places my 26″ wheels bested his 29″. I gush over my DW Spot.

Back in early 1900s Davis was all about timber and was strip cut of everything as seen in a historical picture. Thomas 2 miles up the road was coal. Towns were built up for the labor. Resources played out & towns crumpled. Tourism is the economic engine supporting antiques and some hospitality jobs. People have no reason to stay on the land so they move to cities where the jobs are. Some stay.

Drove to state park outside of town yesterday seeking a shower. Attendant said go ahead. After today’s muddy ride I sought same cleaning source. Super, another compliments of WVA shower.

After today’s shower I drove to Parsons, the county seat. Davis sits 3000 some feet, Parsons drops down to 1700 in major river valley. I was seeking a better grocery store, failed. The food selections are unhealthy like the poor south. Whole wheat bread that is squishy.

Drive took me over a ridge that was host to a large wind farm. On the way back i stopped and observed the spinning 3 blade prop that has a nose fitting on it that maybe allows feathering of the blades(?), the blades individually create a whooshing sound. Didn’t see transmission lines.

Drove back up Beaver creek camp spot for 3rd night. Real place down by the river which is tannin colored brown. Still it attracts many fishermen.

I accepted invite from Jeremy to ride State  college Mon & Tues. He called me last night. I met him @ the IMBA summit.

Yesterday was a rest day letting the trails dry out. Forecast was for rain which never fell. Afternoon turner out nice but I was clean from my shower. Couldn’t count on 2 showers in same day.

First day I rode here we finished in a t-storm down pour soaking me which washed the sweat away. I used the garden hose to wash off  my bike and my legs and I was good for bed.

Tomorrow is Harrisonburg, VA, a bigger city that has big box stores and Krogers. Home to several chicken processing plants. Wonder what summer heat will do to the essence of the area?

Today in Davis it was another caught in a T storm out in the open ride. Oh, watched a black bear sow & twins from maybe 50 feet away. We were just across the Blackwater river from Davis. She was more protected than we were during the storm. Further on the ride I spied one up in a tree and that is where it stayed.

Today i drove from White’s run outside Seneca Rocks, WVA wandering miles of back woods dirt followed by narrow 2 lanes. Small communities sprung up, faltered, and failed. Residents now drive great distances to jobs that aren’t on the land and learning life skills. How to farm instead of running a drill press or clerking in a store. Had to resource extraction of some kind and it played out or lost customers. Steep hillsides in grass. Some cattle grazing but no tillage. Would be small farms. Could you start your own city today? Own the land, sell lots, name it after yourself?

Stopped @ Blackwater bikes in Davis to chat and plan a ride. Learned that there is a 10:30 ride and I was going to be late. geared up and made shop while riders gathered. Todd led it, Brian an electrical engineer working for federal energy dept, Duane active in clubs & organizer near Marietta, Ohio, and another guy whose name I never did catch works for EPA. Riding here is on resource extracted scared land. Todd led out on trails that were new to me. We rode into the forest over some of the nastiest stuff I have ridden all at once: Rocks were sweating wet when not covered w/ moss, roots as it mats, w/ some wet pits mixed in filled w/ black mud. No Sedona step ups but I used Sedona skills. Another plus comment about my Turner DW 5 Spot. Fall of ’08 I rode other trails on my former TNT 5 Spot. This DW allows me to pedal over the stuff while allowing me to sit & spin. I can loft the front end easily. Rocks were subdued here but roots made up for loss. Rode lots over way overgrown railroad lines w/ lumber ties decaying, and logging roads. Some single track but old stuff rode like mild ST.

Ride was shortened by T storm. Wet & muddy again. Being drenched negated the sweating wet from the humidity. My bike has spent more time in the rain being ridden than on the back of my van.

Drove van to front of bike store for pictures for shop web site. Got out of van and a wet rider approached me and said he just read about me. He is a local. He said he is 2 high school graduations away and he is gone. He is a heavy equipment operator that gets sent around the US to work and he always has his mtn bike. As a result he gets to ride distant places to compare to his home turf. Riders like us are rare as most riders stay within so many driving hours, certainly lesser than days.

Meeting sharing locals sharing all kinds of ride ideas is rewarding, sometimes overwhelming. Too many places to ride and so little time. Hopefully i will ride w/ a young local on secret handshake trails. More T storms are forecast.

N of Davis is a wind turban farm.  Sue Haywood has a home here. She is a Turner sponsored racer. I met her in Harrisonburg in ’08. Grace raced here several times and knows Sue.

Rambling: July issue has blurb on Grace. She has bike national recognition now. We are now identifying who knows both of us. Grace said someone befriended her that knows us. During Grace’s & my telecon late this afternoon we started rattling off names of people we both know, they are all from the South. Grace & friend John drove to French Lick, IN for a race last weekend to get out of rain in Huntsville.

Drove out of town to another camp down by the river. Settled in when a T storm struck. Then a sucker hole followed by a flat out violent downpour T storm.

Spent last night outside of Seneca Rocks, WVA along Seneca creek, a TH of Allegheny trail I rode earlier, and a trailhead. Gravel road went up creek canyon w/ no off the 1 lane road pullouts. Place turned out to be active w/ several cars b4 dark. After dark a car pulled in, people w/ headlamps & barking dogs took off. They left a dog behind that voiced it’s disapproval of being left behind like almost in my van. Oh well, best to stay inside and go back to sleep. This AM rigs were in b4 I got out of bed.

Sunday i notched another IMBA epic @ Spruce Knob. I parked @ Big Run TH and rode 8 miles of gravel then pavement to top of Spruce Knob, highest point in WVA @ 4836. ST starts on Huckleberry trail on top of ridge hidden by spruce trees. Some sections of flat out nasty rock gardens. DW success again. 3 miles later the trail drops off the ridge down into typical broadleaf forest. Crossed Seneca creek & climbed up Bear hunter trail in a creek canyon. Joined Allegheny trail on ridge back to TH is just an old road: boring. Don’t know how epic status is given. Can’t see it after my ride.

Took 1st solar shower yesterday @ TH. Drove down mtn to Seneca Rocks. Plan is to check out potential rides from the climbing store there. Met Tom the owner. He told me that for a 6 back  someone would drive my rig back to town after dropping me off @ upper TH. Ride down was a mix of msih mash followed by a pipeline descent. Decided to pass on it for what I was to experience later in the day.

Sat night after Slatyfork I drove E towards Seneca on rt 33 looking for FS access for sleep spot. Picked 1st gravel road to the South.  Passed on cty road and infrequent houses until FS land. I located my sleep spot by GPS and plotted it on NAT Geo Topo scanned USGS maps. Research revelaed that I could drive to Spruce knob on the road I was on. Headed out Sun AM. Increasingly narrow dirt road passed former farms w/o electric. Saw several solar panels. Road cut into mtn side creating no camp spots. Found spur road w/ locked gate that allowed me to get 50 feet from road which had some traffic on it.

Moonshine is not uncommon here but try as I might none has made it into my possession. I nipped on a Pisgah stash served from what else? A fruit jar.

Back outside Davis for the night.