Blue Ridge Trail

[mdubya]

You're on the hook for the whole story now, Jay.

[Wingfixer]

This was another GREAT ride organized by our fearless leader, Jay! I had a great time and really hated having to bail out early on tuesday. It sounds like I missed the best parts, I just might have to run the route backwards to fill in the blanks. In my defense, I knew I was going to have to bail out of the ride at nearly the furthest point from home and kept the slicks on for the 350 mile slab ride home. And besides, anybody can ride dirt roads on knobbies........

[Skinny-J]

Day 2: Sunday- Our lost but then found friend Gene had to leave for home in the morning so then there were 5. Over breakfast, the discussion of motorcycles and all things related lead to a 2 hour breakfast marathon at the restaurant at the Thompson motel and then we finally got on the road around 10 am. Well, on the road down the block to the gas station where Paul realized all the bolts that hold the rear-sub frame on his KLR were either loose or missing. Our first thought was where in the wide-world of sports are we going to find metric bolts in Franklin, WV at 10am on a Sunday morning. To our amazement, within 30 seconds, Sam whips out a bag of miscellaneous hardware he carries on his little WR 250 and he has the exact bolts that fit Paul’s KLR frame; problem, problem solved. We were then finally off and hit sweet little country road 21/2 that runs from 220 over to Brandywine where we picked up 33 right before the great twisty parts. Now, knowing that Wingfixer is behind you going up any twisty road is very intimidating because you know that it is only a matter of a short time before every thing degrades into a race. I suspect this was one of the few parts of the trip where WF did not miss his knobbies; after getting passed on the inside of a turn, I couldn’t run his 400 down on my big 650; can I cry that I was on knobbies? We soon jumped off of 33 onto Dunkle Hollow Rd. For anyone who has ever ridden the Shenandoah 500 you have most likely ridden this nice little gnarly road but probably in the other direction. Expanding on our earlier conversation at breakfast and the benefits of auto-clutches, suspension, engines size, etc, we then spent the rest of the morning trading bikes. It was fun to be able to ride a wide variety of bikes if for no other reason to make you like your own even better; or for others, realize how much better some thing lighter with better suspension can be. The route then took us right by Reddish knob so we took a quick break:

The group, from left to right- Wingfixer (Pat), Big-Bird (Sam), Paul and Mike.


And since someone had to take the group photo, I then got my own- your truly-


Looking at those pictures now, while the very dark storm clouds never rained on us, I now see them as an omen of what was to come this afternoon….

[Skinny-J]

Day 2 (continued) -We continued on and had lunch at a little country store somewhere. The afternoon saw us on a great little gravel road called Hite Hollow Rd. It was here; on a pretty decent downhill stretch with a left hander that Wingfixer washed out his bike and went down for the 2’nd time that day (did I mention he was running distanzias?). I don’t know if learning how to crash is something they teach you in pilot school but this bumble sure knows how to bounce and he was fine. However while in the process of collecting his bike, Mike came around the turn and saw WF. Here is what happened next in Mike’s own words from e-mails we have traded: “Reliving the incident, I think there was a bit of target fixation when I first rounded enough of the corner to see Pat having slid out. Thinking I wouldn't make the turn at that point, I stood it up and tried to brake hard. I remember the front tire crossing over the road crown, immediately washing out & slamming me down. It's upsetting to think about this; earlier in the day, I had avoided Pat in a similar situation although I did have better line-of-sight then.” This is the resulting damage report also from Mike’s e-mail: “At the Fishersville Medical Center, they first CT-scanned my eye & head -- my helmet smacked the ground and my eye must have contacted the helmet eye port. The scans were negative. X-rays of my left shoulder & ribs were taken. Widespread chest wall contusion started to make it feel as though some back ribs were broken; they weren't but several Percocets were necessary to control the pain for a couple days. I spent Sunday night at a nearby Hilton/Hampton, where they granted me the hospital employee discount. My sister drove down from Harrisburg to get me. My left clavicle is fractured mid-shaft, I'm using an arm sling. I go back to the ortho physician again in another week to check if the bone is knitting properly; otherwise, corrective surgery may be required to insert a metal plate. Since underlying nerve bundle issues are a serious concern with such surgery in senior years, I'm hoping to avoid it. If the healing progresses well into next week, the sling will probably be needed for an additional 3-5 weeks.” So needless to say it was a real disappointment to loose Mike in this fashion. A call to 911 brought the local rescue squad within 10 minutes to get Mike a ride to the hospital with his broken collar bone. The same rescue squad out of Craigsville, VA then allowed us to ride Mike’s bike into town and store it at the station house until Mike could collect it

Having secured Mike and his bike, there was then 4 and we found our way back on to the BRT and Archer fire road. Archer was a favorite of the day for many of our group as it was this up and down roller coaster with this perfect dirt surface for being able to get the rear loose and hanging out around every turn; and there must have been more than 100 of them! After coming down off the mountain and getting cell phone coverage again, we placed a call to Mike to see how he was doing. After getting and update, Mike’s last words to me before hanging up was to “tell Pat to be careful, 3 strikes in one day and he might be out”. The irony of what happened next is almost too much to take. Wingfixer lead us down this twisty little back country paved road at a very insulting speed and as he went into a left hander, hit some dirt and gravel that washed out his front wheel. When I said earlier, that bumble sure can bounce; this time he bounced, and bounced, and bounced and then flew up in the air and bounced over one last time. It was one of the scariest wrecks I have witnessed. The boy must have a golden horseshoe up his arse though because he and the bike missed a huge tree by a few feet as they left the roadway and found nothing else but 50’ of grass before both coming to a stop. Unbelievably, he got up and was o.k.. Let me tell you though, for anybody who does not believe in wearing a helmet, you are an idiot as WF’s helmet had real nasty scratches around at least 270 degrees of its surface and surely saved a few brain cells that day.

After regrouping from our second major incident of the afternoon, we decided to call it a day. We cruised Rt 39 west then south through Douthat State Park and into Covington where we found probably the worse accommodation of our whole trip at the Pinehurst motel. By this time it was 9 pm so our dinner options were going to be limited to left over pizza at the local pizza buffet which was preparing to close; until our charm and wit convinced them to keep the kitchen open and make us for real dinners. This was follow up with a night-cap of cold barley soup back at the Pinehurst, but after the events of the day, I couldn’t even imagine what tomorrow may hold in store….

[Wingfixer]

Sheeeeit! I was there and I'm on the edge of my seat! That's some good story tellin!

[Rut Row]

Sounds like Wingflopper was the problem!

You keep that up WF and you'll have to turn in your jersey!

[Skinny-J]

Sounds like Wingflopper was the problem!

You keep that up WF and you'll have to turn in your jersey!

Its a very fine line between being a "problem" and being "entertaining". The best part was the aftermath of every get-off where the rack for his saddle bags would be bent in some new direction and had to be man-handled back into place. After the real big one, the rack from the side that took the impact was pretty much bent 90 degrees and sticking straight up into the air; after realizing WF wasn't dead; it was pretty funny...

[Rut Row]

after realizing WF wasn't dead; it was pretty funny...

[Gene-TW200]

I'm starting to see a trend here !

[mdubya]