Re: Hatfield-McCoy trip, April 16-19
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 2:00 pm
All in all the trip was great.
Staying at the McCoy's hotel worked out pretty well. All of us (minus Sam/BigBird, Gary/GearedUp, and the quad crew) set out that Thursday afternoon for a couple hour ride. It started sprinkling on us almost as soon as we left and the trails were already pretty wet from previous rains. We found a nice tree down blocking our path. We did place a choice rock down for a kicker and we all made it over w/ minimal drama. We made our way up to the northern part of single track 195 and though perhaps a poor idea in the rain we did it anyway. We all had apretty tough time getting up one of the steeper hill climbs but luckily we all made it before it started totally pouring on us. We took one look at the insane hillclimb right at the junction where trail 195 turns into 198 and we took the downhill bailout to the quad trail below. The party weary and wet headed back toward Matewan. The rain just stopped as we got to the last intersection before the last quarter mile to the hotel. We split into two riding groups. My group headed up for the northern entrance to single track 150. The only tough hills were down hills. They were rough but easy enough going down.
This was the easy downhill. Kind of eroded and rocky.
This was the other one, a bit worse.
Andrew (one of my work buddies), Jay, and CJ (Darwain's grandson). We are all resting down at the bottom.
Coal shaft?
After this we decided we could do a little more. The rain was still holding off, and maybe even a little sun was peaking out. We headed up to 191 and went up the hard way.
CJ struggling on a little tough hillclimb.
By the time we finished that we were pretty much done and exhausted and headed for home. We took a wrong turn and went down old trail 39 (not on the map anymore but still there). Was pretty fun though we found one of the many puddles was deeper and muckier than the others. Andrew and I found out the hard way.
We finally made it home totally muddy and soaked. We all ate at Wingo's. BBQ was pretty good. I slept hard.
Staying at the McCoy's hotel worked out pretty well. All of us (minus Sam/BigBird, Gary/GearedUp, and the quad crew) set out that Thursday afternoon for a couple hour ride. It started sprinkling on us almost as soon as we left and the trails were already pretty wet from previous rains. We found a nice tree down blocking our path. We did place a choice rock down for a kicker and we all made it over w/ minimal drama. We made our way up to the northern part of single track 195 and though perhaps a poor idea in the rain we did it anyway. We all had apretty tough time getting up one of the steeper hill climbs but luckily we all made it before it started totally pouring on us. We took one look at the insane hillclimb right at the junction where trail 195 turns into 198 and we took the downhill bailout to the quad trail below. The party weary and wet headed back toward Matewan. The rain just stopped as we got to the last intersection before the last quarter mile to the hotel. We split into two riding groups. My group headed up for the northern entrance to single track 150. The only tough hills were down hills. They were rough but easy enough going down.
This was the easy downhill. Kind of eroded and rocky.
This was the other one, a bit worse.
Andrew (one of my work buddies), Jay, and CJ (Darwain's grandson). We are all resting down at the bottom.
Coal shaft?
After this we decided we could do a little more. The rain was still holding off, and maybe even a little sun was peaking out. We headed up to 191 and went up the hard way.
CJ struggling on a little tough hillclimb.
By the time we finished that we were pretty much done and exhausted and headed for home. We took a wrong turn and went down old trail 39 (not on the map anymore but still there). Was pretty fun though we found one of the many puddles was deeper and muckier than the others. Andrew and I found out the hard way.
We finally made it home totally muddy and soaked. We all ate at Wingo's. BBQ was pretty good. I slept hard.