Rocketbunny in the Blue Ridge Mountains - Days 03 & 04

Days 04 & 05
Tuesday - Wednesday, August 11-12, 2009
near Williamsport, PA
0 miles

After a relaxing Tuesday morning, a group of us decided to spend the afternoon hiking in Ricketts Glen State Park. Scott's mom drove us to the top of the canyon, promising to pick us up at the bottom in a few hours. The ~3 mile long hiking trail follows Kitchen Creek down a series of waterfalls.



















That morning, we'd found construction equipment starting to grade the dirt access road to the house. Scott's mother had struggled to avoid the loosened mud on one side of the road. Coming back through a light rain storm that afternoon, the equipment was gone, but so was that lovely hard packed dry dirt road. I tried not to think about getting the ST out of there.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the porch and walking around the property. As the sun set, we walked down to the nearby lake with fireflys flickering around us.

It rained that night. Hard.

On the following day, Scott took me out on the lake in a two-person kayak. We paddled along the dam, visited the beaver house, and plucked blueberries off bushes overhanging the water.

I kept hearing horror stories about the state of the road. Just before dinner, we drove out to survey the conditions. The road was mud. Most of it was relatively smooth, but there were a few places where the rain wasn't draining well and several ruts were torn in by passing traffic. An alternate route through the fields was dry, but it was essentially a deeply rutted jeep trail with at least one steep hill. I was more worried about getting stuck in the woods than falling in the mud.

Rocketbunny in the Blue Ridge Mountains - Day 03

Day 03
Monday, August 10, 2009
Winchester, VA to near Williamsport, PA
235 miles

I was more excited than usual to begin my ride this morning. I had a little over 100 miles of interstate, followed by about two hours of local roads that I had high hopes for.

Back on I-81, I quickly passed through West Virginia and Maryland. Concerned about rain, I hadn't mounted the camera. I stared ruefully at the "Welcome to" signs as they flashed by overhead.

Just before Harrisburg, I exited I-81 to ride north along the west bank of the wide Susquehanna River.



Unfamiliar with what I call "the roads paradigm" of the east coast, I wasn't sure just how rural the area around the house would be. I was picturing the "few and far between" gas stations in some prime riding areas of California, Utah, and Nevada. Scott's mother had given me the names of some towns near the house with gas stations, but I decided to stop early (100 miles out) to get lunch and fuel up. I was spending too much time watching my gas gauge and not enough time enjoying the road. I shoudn't have worried. It turned out that there were little towns with adequate fuel availability all along the route.

From the road reviews I'd read while planning my route, US 220 was supposed to have been one of the better motorcycling roads in the area. There were some nice curves, but also lots of construction. Portions of the road were grooved and I was stopped a couple of times by flagmen.









The local roads close to Scott's family's house really shone. They dipped and curved over wildflower covered hillsides and through tunnels of trees.





I had been dreading the final approach to the house. Scott had warned me about the mile+ of hard packed dirt road that I'd need to navigate. Riding buddies know that I have an irrational fear of dirt and gravel roads. It had rained recently in the area, but the road was fine. I tried to relax, stay loose, and let the ST move as it needed to.

I ended up overshooting the driveway by a few feet, but Scott was sitting on the screened in sun porch and saw me arrive. He and his sister's husband helped me get turned around and gave me a push to get off the dirt road and onto the gravel driveway. I parked the bike and unpacked, very ready to stop riding and relax for a couple of days.

Rocketbunny in the Blue Ridge Mountains - Day 02

Day 02
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Athens, TN to Winchester, VA
481 miles

I was feeling very good about my schedule getting to Pennsylvania. With only ~700 miles to go and two days to do them in, there was no rush.



My SPOT was flashing a low battery light that morning, so I decided to look for a Radio Shack along the route (I also needed another stereo extension cable). I found a likely exit near Knoxville and pulled over in a strip mall to consult the GPS. A shouted question to a man who happened to be walking by resulted in a point at the large shopping center just across the street. I thought that I couldn't get any luckier until I rolled up to Radio Shack and found that it wouldn't open til 11:30 (over an hour later) on Sunday. I ended up finding everything I needed at the adjacent Walmart, but the gear-down and lock-up required for shopping at a large store delayed me more than I had really wanted.

I felt a little silly stopping for lunch at Hardees (Western Bacon Cheeseburger, WOOO!) less than 100 miles into my day. At least I was on I-81 (the interstate that would take me all the way to Pennsylvania) at that point.





I encountered some of the worst traffic of the trip on I-81 in Virginia. The interstate was congested and hilly. This translated into abrupt slowdowns that made this section of the trip one of the least relaxing. I was forced to cover my brakes more closely than usual.





For Scott:



I had been hoping for a cool down in temperature as I got into the mountains. Instead I had another crazy hot day. It was so refreshing to walk into my air conditioned motel room in Winchester, VA, only 230 miles away from tomorrow's destination in Pennsylvania.