BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

« Back to Archive
4

Ride out of Fayetteville, WV. Advice?

I may be down in Fayetteville WV next week-end (don't ask why) but I'd like to do some riding. I checked the interwebs and found a ~80 mile ride at http://www.mapmyfitness.com/routes/view/723721145 It looks like a nice mellow ride, with a max 3.6% mean grade on the "steepest" bit. I could probably take my commuter on this one (think Liberty climbing up to Bloomfield). So: 1) Have you done this? I realise that the above is just some random person's idea of a ride. But did you ever do a ride in that area? Are there alternate routes [though constrained by the need to get across the New River; also, I need to ride through Clifftop at the tail end (~50mi)]. Any suggestions? (There's a bunch of non-road MTB suggestions which won't work: I don't own the right kind of bike at the moment.) 2) It's a tourist area (for river sports). Are those people dangerous?
ahlir
2015-07-18 19:45:23
That sounds like a serious workout to me, with "total ascent of 7100 feet". The rides down into New River Gorge will probably be quite spectacular, and the climb back up tiring (and spectacular). I hiked at New River Gorge once and we got drenched in a thunderstorm.
paulheckbert
2015-07-19 17:12:07
Good point about the thunderstorm. I was actually going to try to cadge a ride from Babcock State Park, which would make the gain more like 5000. Still a chunk.
ahlir
2015-07-19 19:31:20
Well, I'm back. Things did not go as planned, but it all worked out. Just off highway 16 WV. First observation: maps are important, really. Particularly if you follow a suggestion to check out the (7mi) rail-to-trail in and around Oak Hill. I ended up lost; 11mi detour (+ the 7mi). Note that my, and possibly your, data plan will not work everywhere. Rather than what I originally intended I decided to go down to Thurmond then head upstream on what google had indicated was a bikable road. The road was rough. Around Thayer I was feeling lost; I asked a man fixing a house: "People don't seem to use it much, for some reason, but t's a good road. Well, it's good for a truck; probably wouldn't want to take a car up there though. You should be OK on a bike." I believed him. Anyway, I ended up developing an appreciation for MTB. Also why you might want to have one of those bikes with the big tires and a suspension, disc brakes. Large rocks, puddles and deep mud require different technique from pavement. But I got into it.
ahlir
2015-07-26 19:24:21