Country Roads Take Me Home: West Virginia

This week's bike overnight comes from Dave Battista, an adventure sports PE teacher in the Pittsburgh area, who says he enjoys four seasons of adventure, especially with his family. "I am currently motivated by creating long off-road tours in the Mid-Atlantic Region," Dave says. "I'm planning a 10-day loop through the Monongahela National Forest for this coming summer of 2012."

Dave's story about his inaugural trip, which he did with some friends back in 2006, is titled Country Roads Take Me Home: West Virginia. For three days, the group pedaled a combination of the paved roads, dirt and gravel roads, and rail-trails that wind through the crazy maze of terrain that is West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest.

"The reality of pulling our belongings behind us set in as we headed down the dusty and rolling forest road, quickly understanding why West Virginia is known as 'The Mountain State,'" Dave writes. "Soon we were treated to one of many mountain vistas. After rolling onto pavement (Route 28), we climbed over Allegheny Mountain and coasted into our campsite for the evening -- Island Campground, situated on the banks of the East Fork of the Greenbrier River. The fishing looked spectacular."

We were delighted to learn that for this and every subsequent West Virginia trip he has taken, Dave uses the Monongahela National Forest mountain-biking map that Adventure Cycling created in partnership with the forest back in the mid-1990s. "It's a great map for planning," he says; "a really good starting point."

One of the highlights of the group's trip was watching and hearing the Durbin Rocket storm out of the depot in the town of Durbin. The steam-powered excursion train is pulled by Old No. 3, said to be one of just three operational Climax geared logging locomotives remaining in the world. The 55-ton behemoth was built in 1910 for the Moore-Keppel Lumber Co. in nearby Randolph County.

You can read Dave's entire Bike Overnight tale at BikeOvernights.org. While there, also check out the archives of bike overnights and Photos of the Week. Our recent weekly photo selection, published April 6 and featured below, comes courtesy of Bill Chiles from his daughter Alex's post Hood Canal Loop: A Teen's First Tour.

BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 04.06.12.

Last but not least, if you haven't already done so, be sure to check out this fun bike overnights video (Santa Barbara to Los Angeles) from our friends at America ByCycle!

Top photo by Dave Battista.

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Mac also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to more than 44,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/04/country-roads-take-me-home-west.html

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