PODUNK DEPARTURE: WV and VA, May 4 - 6

It's the night before departure, it's May 3, 2012.  

I made a trip to Charleston way and spent the day with Family and Friends. Mom and Dad got back from Lewisburg about 1:30 and met them at Anika's. Said my goodbyes to Sis, Rod and the girls, goodbyes to Melody, Thomas and Michelle. I followed Mom and Dad back north to Ravenswood and Kahlan is staying over.

Little India artwork is done, printed and installed. Daddy Ray screen print for O'Sullivan is also taken care of. I just need to power wash the screens and that can wait till the morning. I'm in no rush, I have time on my hands.

It's 11:30 pm, I ask the clear night sky if it would remain and if the stars are going to let me sleep underneath them. Bike is ready and 99.5% packed and loaded. Mileage is 12,155. Loaded down heavy she is, I'll wait and throw on the sleeping gear tomorrow in case I need to dig around in the boxes one last time. I'm looking forward to the addition of the cot.

I'm anxious yet calm. Carole asked at Sis and Rob's how long I was going to be gone. I shrugged my shoulders and told her it's unknown and indefinite at the moment.

I'll stop by Burning Springs in the morning. It will be my first stop and I'll give Zach a call. He'll appreciate a call from here and we did a impromptu stop here a while back and it has stuck with him. Nothing of importance ride wise happened, but a serendipitous feeling of calm. A calm that will always last.

May I pay attention, enjoy and get something out of this.

Man, it's Friday the 4th, I'm ready to go and it's raining. I've left a number of times in the rain, but with time on my hands, what's the rush? I'll hang, if it clears I'll leave. I guess if it doesn't I'll still leave but I'll wait and see.

Anticipation. I pass the time, clean the print screens and scrub them down and put them away to be ready to use next time I find myself here. Bike is ready, she's under the car port with her front fender pointing to route 56 at the end of the driveway. Mom, Dad and Kahlan just left to go to Parkersburg, I said goodbyes incase I'm not here when they get back and Kahlan gives me a dandelion (still in my wallet). 

I feel like I'm walking in circles while watching Sky, begging it to clear. it's 2 pm already. I'm planning on the eastern side of WV which is still doable before dark, but come on Sky, lighten up already and lets do this!

SUN! 

Thank you Sky. I'm leaving NOW! 

I lace my boots, I throw on the leathers in a matter of seconds. I kiss Bike and say, 'Let's do this.", and we do. I roll a mile down the road to Pit 'n' Git and top of the tank.

Mileage upon departure

I take Turkey Fork, Rt 7 north towards Palestine and Elizabeth. This road is magic since the resurfacing a year or so back. 2 lanes through the valley with Courtney Ridge on my left. Wonderful area. Bike and I have traversed the dirt and gravel ridge numerous times, but Courtney will have to wait for our return at some point in the future. The road is tight and full of cornering, being Friday afternoon I have the road to myself, keeping an eye out for horse buggies that are known to be out here on the road. A good way to start the travels, 2 lane WV backroads. I make Palestine in 20 miles or so and on to Elizabeth where I hang east on 53 and pause in Burning Springs. There's old oil field equipment set up off the road, fly wheels the size of trucks and a small museum that I've never seen open. I smile thinking what's up ahead.

I stay on 53, taking me through small villages and Burnt House, mentioned in the Tell Tale Lilac Bush or Coffin Hollow, one of those WV ghost story books. There's literally nothing in Burnt House besides a couple of houses. It's a wonderful up and down and all around 2 lane road. 53 turns into 47 which will take me Weston. 33 is a good, no, a great road. This is where WV really starts feeling elevated and up ahead past Buckhannon  onto Elkins, this is where Wild Wonderful West Virginia resides. I have found myself starting Journeys in this direction even if it's not in the general direction I'm headed. This is where I say, 'thank you', to what we have and it's easy to appreciate. This is my land. This is good honest OLD land.

I pass through Weston and carry on 33, a 4 lane here, Robert C. Byrd highway I believe. An hour later I find myself zigging through Elkins goofy engineered streets that remind me of Pittsburgh. Just up ahead, I can see it, I can smell it, I can feel it, the Appalachians are evident here. A number of miles outside Elkins I enter my 1st National Forest of the Journey. NF's will be my primary source of REM, sleeping in the forests for free off of forest roads and trails. I laugh to myself, I feel so good.

I make Seneca Rocks, I stay on 55 where it takes a dogleg to the north. I pass the campground where a year or 2 earlier I attended the /5 Beemer Rally and smile. Good times and a small get together with a group of great guys.  It's turning into evening, I know exactly where I'm going to sleep tonight from riding and sleeping here the night before the /5 Rally I just mentioned. I pass the road on our right and ride the few miles into Peterson where I'll get some cans of food, a pint of spirits and go ahead and get fuel cos it's cheaper here than back south in Seneca Rocks. I pass the ranger station and I follow a NF Ranger towards town, take the sharp curves ascending and descend back down more sharp turns into Peterson where I get what I need.

Back out of town, 15 miles or so just past Smoke Hole Caverns and Cabins, I make a left and hop onto ---- Road which will take me to North Fork Mountain. It's a tight 2 lane road, I go 10 miles and keep an eye out for a forest road I remember pasting in the past. I pass a truck where a couple are camping of the road with a nice fire, I smile. I go another mile or so and there it is where I remember scouting it before and it happens to be also be a trail head, FR 214. I pull up the single dirt track and theres a pull off before the closed road gate to the trail that climbs the mountain. It looks safe and I should be good. I park Bike in the pull off, toss the leathers off and hike up the trail about a mile and a half while Sun begins to set. 

I head back down and get my sleeping situation arranged. I want to keep it simple and start experimenting. I take the tents footprint, tie it to the right side of Bike so she doesn't topple over on me if she takes a hankering to do such a thing, and create a lean-to. It so happens that the cot slides right underneath and tucks in well, looks cozy. 

Rigged up lean-to

I nip on the spirits outside, admiring the closing Sky and that's when headlights pop up on the road and a truck pulls right up to Bike. I throw on my flashlight and aim it at the truck to mask myself, the driver of the truck is doing just the same when I hear him say, 'Forest Service', I'm blinding a Forest Ranger as he blinds me. 

I apologize and turn off the light, he says, 'Thank you'. 

The NF Ranger who happens to be law enforcement gets out of the truck, looks me over and looks at Bike with the lean-to ramshackle shelter.

'What do we have here?', he says. He gets closer to Bike and then asks, 'You were behind me a couple hours back heading into Peterson weren't you?'.

'I guess I was, Sir. I was behind somebody driving a Forest truck.'

He gets even closer to Bike. 'Wanted to see who was up here. Where you coming from and where you going, Buddy?'

'Ravenswood and I'm not sure, Sir. Am I OK parked here? I'm clearly off the road and not obstructing anything.' I answer.

'That's pretty clever, a bike and tent in one.', as he approaches Bike and giving her and the set up a good look over. 'Yeah, you're alright, as long as you're off the road. Like I said, just wanted to see who's up here and if everything is good. Be safe wherever you're going and have a good night.'

'Thank you, Sir and you be safe out there also.', I tell him as he gets back in his truck, turns around and hangs a right on the road taking him towards the Potomac River.

I smile, take a swig and look up to the night Sky and notice I have left on a full moon. 'Awesome', I tell myself. I crawl under the roof, pat Bike's right cylinder and nod off to a sound sleep, first night on the road and I have no idea how many more to come. Life is good and free and this cot feels down right comfortable.

I wake to a truck pulling in and a single guy gets out and is preparing for a hike. I crawl out from under the lean-to and greet the hiker, 'Good Morning.'

'Morning', he replies. 'Great set up there.', looking at Bike.

'Yeah, it worked out well, first time I tried it in this manner. How far up does the trail go?', I ask him.

'Not too far, maybe 2 miles, 3 at most?', he guesses.

'Heck, I was almost at the end then, I turned around once Sun was going down behind the hills.' 

'It's a nice leisurely walk, have a good one.' he says as walking off up the mountain side. 

'A good morning it is.' I tell myself.

I got back on the road around 8 am, and I took the mountain road slow, admiring what is sensually offered and I get to Seneca Rocks around 8:30 or so. I feel like a hike this morning so I go and find the trail head where I see a bunch of climbers getting their gear ready. This is a big time climbing spot with the shear facing and razored teeth of jagged ridges that is Seneca Rock. I loaf around to wake up and took a walk through the nature path on the side of the parking lot. Feeling good  and awake I start the East Face Trail. It's a steady walk and I go to the end where it turns into private property with a sign loudly placed. 

I'm walking back down and noticed some climbers with gear disappear into the woods off the trail. I decide to follow. It's a straight climb up, a good challenge over natural rocks being used as steps. The rocks jutting out of the ground get progressively bigger and the formations are tall thin walls of rock poking out of Earth. Totally looks man made with it's precision, but only Nature could create something like this. I continue climbing and find a trail that walks horizontally along the mountain side where after 20 minutes of trail, it ends at the actual rock wall where the climbers begin their fun. I climb the rocks until I can go no further and scamper back down and follow it to where I can get a view of the towering wall. Upon the side surface of the rock, 'human beings the size of amebas ', are clinging to the vertical rocks. This is great. The trail I had initially been looking for was on the other side the mountain, I totally took the wrong one and ended up on the climbing trail. A good day it is!

A fantastic natural brick wall of Seneca Rock.

I slowly climb my way back down the trail on the mountain side and back towards Bike in the parking lot. I am beat and it's sprinkling. I take my time on putting the leathers on and Bike and I head towards Spruce Knob, the highest spot in WV at 4,860'. May not sound high but these mountains are ancient, older than time itself  and have been weathers for eons. The Rockies are the baby brother to the Appalachians. I try to imagine what these once looked like and appreciate what they are now, beautiful and layered and eroded to nice round continual bumps. I bet the pioneers got sick of seeing the ridge after ridge looking out into the distance. I bet that's how a lot of the holler villages got started, 'I'm going no farther.', I imagine a pioneer saying to the rest of the party.

I headed the 20 or so miles to Spruce Knob when the rain really started to come down and like I said, I was beat from the hike. I went to the parking lot where the observation tower is and found a trail with numerous picnic sights and signs saying no camping. I gather my tent pack and walk a very short distance down the trail, find a dry spot of ground under the Spruce where the rain has yet to penetrate and I threw the tent's rainfly into the branches creating a roof where I  took a nap on the still dry ground.

I wake to 3 people walking down the trail and I drift back to sleep. I wake back up still groggy to find the improv roof is getting heavy with water, the trees are saturated and the water is creeping into my dry space. I get up and ignoring the 'No Camping' signs, I pitch the tent by the picnic table, put on the rainfly and crawl back in where I sleep some more.

A short time later when the nap is apparently finished I notice another party setting up a pavilion and a couple of tents a couple of picnic spots over. I mill about and a guy about the same age walks over. He introduces himself as George and I shake his hand giving my name. He says they're about to eat and invited me over. I thanked him and tell him I may show up. He takes off and I notice there is a good number of them in the party. I really didn't feel sociable at the moment to deal with a number of people, and I'm still exhausted. Instead, I find myself sitting on a ledge watching Sunset while mist slowly filled the valleys of Appalachia at slow steady pace.

Moon is reportedly to be the largest tonight, ha, can't see a thing it's so misty, overcast and black.

I'm trying out another new item along with my cot, a Sterno Cooking Kit. I've been carrying a small propane tank and burner which flawlessly works but why not see what else works. Well, the Sterno Kit didn't work. Only good thing that came with the set up was a small grated grill that the burners go under. This thing sucks majorly. They market it as an emergency kit incase the world falls apart and you need to cook food. Have you ever tried cooking with a tea cup candle? Well, I have, in the form of stupid Sterno burners. I tried boiling some water to for ramen and I think the burners got the water closer to freezing point than boiling. I eventually blew the flame out and let the ramen noodles soften in the cold water and ate it that way. Ha, good times and a learning experience. I should have kept with what I know works. Bah, I ate my cold food, took a couple of nips. There's a chill in the air, I put on long sleeves and pants, steady mist now shrouding the world and the rain still drizzling.

Following morning I find Sun making an appearance. I slowly get going and layout the rainfly, WV map, the tarp and footprint in the morning Sun and it does the job effortlessly and rather quickly. It's a total 180 difference between today and yesterday evening and I welcome it.

I finally feel sociable from rest and meet up with the other squatters.  We talk and hang for about an hour in the parking lot and I find out that Larry and Jenny are the folks out with their son Ezra, daughter Mika and Son in Law George. Jenny has MD and I told them about my cousin Justin. Jenny informed me that females with MD tend to live compared to males. She has her van rigged up for her wheel chair and she pulls out a DeLorme WV Gazetteer and shows me all the back country roads she explores, good for her. Also come to find out that Jenny and Larry lived in the Lower East Side of Manahattan when Punk exploded and said it was a wonderfully fun time of their lives, Larry tells me, sporting a Gogol Bordello shirt. All good people and that will most likely be the last time I ever see them again.

Couldn't ask for anything better.

Day is clear and dry. Traveling is setting in. I'm on a WV backroad. I'm ziggin' and a zaggin' down gravel roads towards VA. I could have been there already but no rush. Nice rolling hills here in my State as I hit the VA state line and where they continue. I pause in Harrisonburg for fuel and groceries where I hit the 'managers special' and buy the discontinued, tossed out dented cans and cereal.

View from ancient hills

I head on towards Elkton where I'll get on the Blue Ridge Parkway farther west. You can't beat this country, it just rolls right along inviting you farther and farther in. I make the toll booth for the BRP where a gaggle of Beemers are exiting on the other side of the barriers running down the middle of the road. The views at these elevations are wonderful and the fog starts kicking back up thick and a drizzle is making itself known. I pull into vista after vista all which look out over the blue ridges  and the mist in the valleys.

I hung around one of the vistas when the rain started to pick up. There's a part of the Appalachian Trail here with a picnic table where I pitched my tent which I'm guessing is a no-no but I don't feel like dealing with the rain. Here I am and here I stay.