The trip report goes as follows:
My wife and I decided sort of last minute to head to the North River area of George Washington National Forest this weekend. Originally we were going to meet some of our lazy friends and camp and lounge about in the woods but they ended up having to cancel. So instead of being lazy beer drinking swine we decided to throw the bikes in the truck and head out. We left Annapolis around eleven am Saturday and started heading west. Traffic got crappy around Manasscrack VA so we stopped and had a bagel at a roadside rest area. Then we went on down to Harrisonburg VA. We ended up getting to the National Forest around 3 pm. Seeing as it was Memorial Day weekend the place was full to the brim with campers. We ended up driving around for about an hour trying to locate a flat piece of ground to throw our tent.
This is what we found:
It was a pretty well used and abused site but hey it got the job done. The nice part was that it was elevated about 10 feet above the road so we never had any problems with dust when cars went by. The rest of the evening was pretty chill. We set up camp, gathered up wood, and all that good campy stuff. We went for a short hike just to stretch our legs a bit.
The next day we planned to do some riding. Starting at our campsite I checked out the trail map and noticed we could take the forest service road up to the top of the ridge and then ride a 4 mile section of single track back down into a river valley and then out to the road and back to camp.
So that's what we set out to do. The day started off with a 750 foot climb to the top of the ridge up the road. We figured it was around 5 miles to the top and it took us about an hour with a few breaks here and there. Some of you may not think that 750 feet is much but when you live at sea level and the highest hill you have is around 50 feet it puts a hurtin' on ya.
Next we started down the single track. Almost as soon as we headed off the road and on to the single track we came across a nice spring with a 2" pipe that was just gushing icy cold water so we stoped and refilled our hydropacks. The cold water sure tasted good after the climb.
From the topo it looked like it was going to drop pretty rapidly down the mountain and into the river valley and that's pretty much what happened. The first mile or so was really steep and tech. I loved it. My wife was cursing my existance for taking her on such a god forsaken trail. She likes to climb but hates to descend. Here's a picture of one of the tamer parts of the upper section:
Pretty soon we where at the headwaters of the river. It was like a little enchanted forest. Ferns and moss everywhere. Lots of huge hemlock trees. It was a very surreal place.
Pretty soon the tech single track gave way to a fast rolling fire road descent that criss-crossed the river about half a dozen times. We made it out to the road and had a another 250' climb back to camp.
Totals: ~10 mi.
Climb: ~1000 ft
Descent: ~1000 ft.
Time: ~3 hrs with breaks and to chat with a redneck dude with a mull-hawk that was starting to go skullet - I wish I had a picture because it was classic.
Back at camp while eating and drinking beers we encountered several strange things. The first of which was a giant man eating dog.
We managed to save ourselves her by giving her a spoon full of peanut butter.
Later that night we were visited by the Blair Witch:
The next day we decided to go ride a fire road out to a bald and then back. We were running a little short on time so we needed a short ride. It turned out to be an awesome ride.
Down this road was a 300 ft descent followed by a 600 ft ascent (and then the opposite on the return trip). There were probably 50 rolling grade reversals. I took my hands off the brakes and let'er rip. The grade reversals had the prefect pitch to them. You didn't so much get great height off of them but you just floated barely above the ground for very long distances. So damn fun. Even my wife, who remember hates descents, and can barely get air riding off a curb, said she floated a few of them. We took the dog along as well. It was her first real ride and she did pretty well. She stopped to sniff around a few times but for the most part she ran with the "pack". We did manage to stop and smell the flowers a few times along the way.
The azelias were blooming:
As were the wild irises:
And there was one hell of a view from the top:
600 or so feet of grade reversal floating and 300 feet of climbing later we were back at the truck and headed for home.
Totals: ~9 miles
Ascents: ~900 ft
Descents: ~900 ft
Time: 1.5 hours
I can't wait to get up there again. There are so many trails up there and a bunch of reasonably easy to shuttle runs that involve elevation changes over 2000 ft. Mmmmm.
Hope you enjoyed. Sorry there weren't more riding pics but when you are riding and having fun that's just how it goes....
My wife and I decided sort of last minute to head to the North River area of George Washington National Forest this weekend. Originally we were going to meet some of our lazy friends and camp and lounge about in the woods but they ended up having to cancel. So instead of being lazy beer drinking swine we decided to throw the bikes in the truck and head out. We left Annapolis around eleven am Saturday and started heading west. Traffic got crappy around Manasscrack VA so we stopped and had a bagel at a roadside rest area. Then we went on down to Harrisonburg VA. We ended up getting to the National Forest around 3 pm. Seeing as it was Memorial Day weekend the place was full to the brim with campers. We ended up driving around for about an hour trying to locate a flat piece of ground to throw our tent.
This is what we found:
It was a pretty well used and abused site but hey it got the job done. The nice part was that it was elevated about 10 feet above the road so we never had any problems with dust when cars went by. The rest of the evening was pretty chill. We set up camp, gathered up wood, and all that good campy stuff. We went for a short hike just to stretch our legs a bit.
The next day we planned to do some riding. Starting at our campsite I checked out the trail map and noticed we could take the forest service road up to the top of the ridge and then ride a 4 mile section of single track back down into a river valley and then out to the road and back to camp.
So that's what we set out to do. The day started off with a 750 foot climb to the top of the ridge up the road. We figured it was around 5 miles to the top and it took us about an hour with a few breaks here and there. Some of you may not think that 750 feet is much but when you live at sea level and the highest hill you have is around 50 feet it puts a hurtin' on ya.
Next we started down the single track. Almost as soon as we headed off the road and on to the single track we came across a nice spring with a 2" pipe that was just gushing icy cold water so we stoped and refilled our hydropacks. The cold water sure tasted good after the climb.
From the topo it looked like it was going to drop pretty rapidly down the mountain and into the river valley and that's pretty much what happened. The first mile or so was really steep and tech. I loved it. My wife was cursing my existance for taking her on such a god forsaken trail. She likes to climb but hates to descend. Here's a picture of one of the tamer parts of the upper section:
Pretty soon we where at the headwaters of the river. It was like a little enchanted forest. Ferns and moss everywhere. Lots of huge hemlock trees. It was a very surreal place.
Pretty soon the tech single track gave way to a fast rolling fire road descent that criss-crossed the river about half a dozen times. We made it out to the road and had a another 250' climb back to camp.
Totals: ~10 mi.
Climb: ~1000 ft
Descent: ~1000 ft.
Time: ~3 hrs with breaks and to chat with a redneck dude with a mull-hawk that was starting to go skullet - I wish I had a picture because it was classic.
Back at camp while eating and drinking beers we encountered several strange things. The first of which was a giant man eating dog.
We managed to save ourselves her by giving her a spoon full of peanut butter.
Later that night we were visited by the Blair Witch:
The next day we decided to go ride a fire road out to a bald and then back. We were running a little short on time so we needed a short ride. It turned out to be an awesome ride.
Down this road was a 300 ft descent followed by a 600 ft ascent (and then the opposite on the return trip). There were probably 50 rolling grade reversals. I took my hands off the brakes and let'er rip. The grade reversals had the prefect pitch to them. You didn't so much get great height off of them but you just floated barely above the ground for very long distances. So damn fun. Even my wife, who remember hates descents, and can barely get air riding off a curb, said she floated a few of them. We took the dog along as well. It was her first real ride and she did pretty well. She stopped to sniff around a few times but for the most part she ran with the "pack". We did manage to stop and smell the flowers a few times along the way.
The azelias were blooming:
As were the wild irises:
And there was one hell of a view from the top:
600 or so feet of grade reversal floating and 300 feet of climbing later we were back at the truck and headed for home.
Totals: ~9 miles
Ascents: ~900 ft
Descents: ~900 ft
Time: 1.5 hours
I can't wait to get up there again. There are so many trails up there and a bunch of reasonably easy to shuttle runs that involve elevation changes over 2000 ft. Mmmmm.
Hope you enjoyed. Sorry there weren't more riding pics but when you are riding and having fun that's just how it goes....
