In Search of Single Track Roads

[Azooper]

(02-24-2012 07:15 PM)Gungawoman Wrote:  There is also (in AZ) the "desert to tall pines" road (288) from Forest Lakes off the 87 and ends up in Globe. Then you can take any number of single tracks to the desert. Really a nice drive except maybe in the monsoon season I live up in the high country, so it's nice to go to the desert now and then.
Welcome, Azooper! Nice to have another Arizonan here!
I traced that one on Google Earth and that looks like a heck of a long ride.

[burma.girl]

Garden of the Gods/Cave in Rock are beautiful! We've camped at Glen O. Jones Lake on numerous occasions...

[teckla]

Well since my last post I have purchased a new 2011 BMW R1200RT at the end of November and am just getting ready to pass 6,000 miles; not bad for a winter in Cleveland, Ohio!

I am getting ready for a ride to Nova Scotia (and back) this summer and needed to determine if I could really ride that far. I just got my endorsement this last summer and have only ridden a little of 10,000 miles. So . . . with a need to be in Wilmington, DE this week and a few days off last week, I decided to ride down. On the way through Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, I discovered some fantastic roads. I managed to stretch a 427 mile trip to over 1,100 miles.

The first leg from Cleveland Hopkins Airport to Port Clinton, Ohio to just east of Columbus was uneventful, flat, and traffic filled. A rest in a hotel and strange looks as I filled a luggage cart with pannier's, top box, and extra gear from "just one motorcycle" and the next morning I was off in 35 deg F weather for somewhere not here. Stopping in Chillicothe, Ohio the trip leaped from first excitement to interesting. Hearing about the Indian Mounds, I did not understand the significance and extensive layout they represented from 2,000+ years ago. A stamp in my NP Passport book and I was off.

Route 50 to 327 to 32 to 93 to 233 to 131 and finally Huntington, WV.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/l6...directlink

A great 1 to 2 lane ride with no traffic. Open valleys with tight turns, but a few surprise gravel experiences, which raised my heartbeat and slowed my corners.

A stop at Hillybilly Hotdog (very friendly and tasty)

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/sk...directlink

Off to explore West Virginia.

Rt 52 to 119 to 10 to 99 to 3.

The section of 52 contained compound curves and moderate traffic.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Qo...directlink

No gravel - big smile.

A tour through this section reminds me how dependent this part of our economy is on coal, and more coal, and piles of coals, and holes of coal.

A night in Beckly, WV and up early and waiting for the temp to get above 33 deg F. I have already had one encounter with black ice - it is really embarrassing to have to wake your wife at 0630 in the morning to help you pick your bike up at the end of your driveway. A pulled hamstring and 7 days without riding and I had learned my lesson.

While this thread is the dedicated to "Single Track roads" This trip has a fantastic segment on I-64 through the hills of WV. Big sweeping turns (Speed limit posted at 70) past the exit for the Greenbrier and exiting at Covington. This started glass smooth sweeping turns past southern farms. Past the Homestead on RT 220 and North to RT 250.

My track on the map demonstrates the great twisties found on this road through George Washington National Forest.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vu...directlink

RT 250 to the entrance of SkyLine Drive through Shenandoah National Park. Early in the season the traffic built during the day. Restricted to 30 mph (ish...) and an officer waving at me as I rounded a turn at 42, limits some of the fun, but the view was fantastic. 2,500' above the valley and blue sky. The challenge was finding the Park office with the Passport stamp. The address on the NPS map took me off Skyline Drive after 60 or so miles and down to Luray to an empty parking lot.... no building... no stamp. Back up the mountain on 211 and the Ranger at the entrance back onto Skyline had the stamp... duh - should have asked earlier.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/14...directlink

Tooling north I was done with 30 mph and ready to pick up speed at the end of the park. I am glad I did it, but wouldn't do it again - too much traffic and too slow.

9 1/2 hour day and I was ready to rest in Frederick, MD. Just a few hours from my destination the next day, I had driven almost 1,000 miles and wasn't ready for the trip to end.

Morning found me on my to Gettysburg and my third NPS Stamp in three days. Fantastic new visitor's center and a 24 mile drive around the parameter of the battle field and I was left reflective. First time I saw another RT on my travels. In the perspective of history, it was not long ago that we were killing each other on our own soil. We are still figuring out this way of government.

An international perspective at Lee's Diner

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wh...directlink

Omar the owner and I had an interesting conversation about the Palestine state and Jewish state.

Traffic increasing and closer to my destination, I stopped at the Shine to the Lady of Lourdes out of curiosity. The challenge of the visit was balancing my bike in the parking lot. Being somewhat vertically challenged, I can't quite sit with my feet flat footed , so the addition of an incline required a Cirque like balancing act... At least I wouldn't have to wake my wife up for help getting the bike back up.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/G1...directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-C...directlink

A final cruise through amish country toward Wilmington, across Harper's Ferry and an very cow fragrant diary country of Eastern PA.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xz...directlink

1,100 miles and over 4,000 turns. I am looking forward to the next trip! Unfortunately, the trip home will be up to NJ and then a quick ride home.

[Jack Secret]

Living in the Midwest (read here, the cornfield plains), it is still fun to seek out the road that you secretly hope turns to rock and then to dirt. I was lucky enough to find exactly this last weekend. My trusty 800GS, freshly equipped with Heidenau tires (or as my Canadian friends would type, tyres) carried me down an aptly named 'Spook Road' to face down a three foot deep swollen creek. I took the challenge head-on. Fun times indeed!

If anyone is ever in search of challenging 'roads less travelled', there are still some to be found even in "southern" Illinois. Head 20 miles due east of St. Louis, and begin exploring. I suggest you start with 'Spook Road' just outside of Okawville.

[Rey]

(04-12-2012 01:14 PM)Jack Secret Wrote:  Living in the Midwest (read here, the cornfield plains), it is still fun to seek out the road that you secretly hope turns to rock and then to dirt. I was lucky enough to find exactly this last weekend. My trusty 800GS, freshly equipped with Heidenau tires (or as my Canadian friends would type, tyres) carried me down an aptly named 'Spook Road' to face down a three foot deep swollen creek. I took the challenge head-on. Fun times indeed!

If anyone is ever in search of challenging 'roads less travelled', there are still some to be found even in "southern" Illinois. Head 20 miles due east of St. Louis, and begin exploring. I suggest you start with 'Spook Road' just outside of Okawville.

I'm nowhere near Okawville, but I liked the sound of 'Spook Road' and your little story. So...in this wondrous computer age...I took a look at the road on Google Earth, which provides a nice overhead view through aerial photography. I could see the road, and I could see where you probably rode! It seems like the road dumps out into what looks to be someone's yard with some buildings? Then what did you do, go to the north, or the more challenging looking way that continued east? Although that could of been only a tractor access road, and seems to end up being a dead end, unless you swung to the south there, and that led to the creek?

I suppose Google Earth could be a little like reading the dust jacket preview that spoils the story.

[Jack Secret]

Rey,
I don't think Google Earth spoils anything. In fact I think it can whet the appetite for a good adventure!

You are correct in that the road does "end" at those barns, but the field road (or as you better identified it: tractor road) keeps on going. While the farmer didn't seem to mind my venture down his "road", I did make the mistake of picking the very day he was spraying anhydrous ammonia. That horrid gas hovered just above nose level and I held my breath as I hit the throttle. I had visions of my convulsing body pictured in the paper: 'In Local News...ADV'er Killed by Cloud of Farmer's Fertilizer!'

[Boomer]

Actually I use Google Earth to START all my route planning and work from there. Of course I have access to all sorts of other mapping that I can use to gain a more composite idea of exactly what I may run into. Unfortunately all those best laid plans always seem to fall to sh!t once I get into the metro areas. For instance today I somehow got all kinds of turned around in a river town called Davenport. After I passed the same college three times I realized I was driving in circles.

My navigational skills know no bounds!!!

[NWoBHM]

Quote:My navigational skills know no bounds!!!

Oh no Boomer......Didn`t you used to drive them new career submarines?

err.....were you on missile launch??

[Boomer]

Yeah...thats the funny part. I was in the navigation department on that darn boat, but I can't seem to navigate my way out of an open barn if I tried. I can find my way around until I get into town then my compass goes all kerscrewy on me. Wife says I need one of them newfangled GPS things, but I cant seem to trust me navigational prowess to some overgrowed bucket of diodes called DINGUS!

[NWoBHM]

(04-15-2012 02:57 PM)boomer Wrote:  Yeah...thats the funny part. I was in the navigation department on that darn boat, but I can't seem to navigate my way out of an open barn if I tried. I can find my way around until I get into town then my compass goes all kerscrewy on me. Wife says I need one of them newfangled GPS things, but I cant seem to trust me navigational prowess to some overgrowed bucket of diodes called DINGUS!

I have got the solution old mate! Get yer Harley underwater, get your iPod playing a beep beep beep sound in your earphones, and before you know it, navigation will be restored.........Maybe need some oxygen, I will work on that and get back to you......