new river gorge or bust

A week or so ago we hitched up the ECO and headed north into "wild and wonderful" West Virginia for our local club camping trip. It's a yearly event that's taken us to Warrior Creek for the past two years so we figured we were due for a change.

A couple of months ago Melinda and I drove up for the day to the New River Gorge area to do a bit of scouting. The trails were great and the area beautiful but what we saw in the local campgrounds, not so much. After multiple visits around town we finally had to call it quits and head home to finish our research via the interent. Our conclusion after a week landed us with reservations a few minutes up the road at a campground near Summersville Lake. We booked our sites 2 months in advance to insure we would have enough room for our motely crew of sometimes rowdy mountain bikers. Rumor has it, this group was nearly evicted from a state park in VA. for having a little too much fun.

Fast forward 2 months we were packing up and ready to leave town when I realized our campground played a bit of "let's switch up the campsites" and not tell anyone. Some were ok with it, some were not. A few heated conversations were had and the campground host involved declared that it was her right to do as she saw fit. Whatever lady, we took it with a grain of salt and delt with it. Unfortunately that wasn't our only issue with her. The campground itself was nice and so were most of the folks who worked there except for one badly balding older lady who thought she was queen bee.

At one point I thought Melinda was going to grab her by what was left of her hair and drag her into the street but she played it cool and we opted to ignore her as best we could.

Though the weekend got off to a bumpy start we didn't let it slow us down. We ate alot of pizza, consumed several adult beverages, (some made with corn), burned alot of firewood and rode the hell out of the local trails. On Saturday we started the ride with the Arrowhead trails not far from downtown. A stacked loop that was super tight, full of twists and turns, never really allowing you time to pick your nose or you would find your handlebars wrapped around a tree.

The trails were smooth in most sections, fast and begged to be ridden fast. The faster you rode the more intense the ride, it was a blast.

After we covered most of the Arrowhead loops we headed back to the parking lot to regroup and refuel. Most had brought a pb&j but with the local pizza and beer joint within riding distance via singletrack we opted to roll into town. The Fayetteville trails which connected downtown to the Arrowhead trails were more on the old school side. Gut busting climbs and screaming, ass off the back descents with plenty of roots & rocks to make you grin. I'm not sure which was more fun, the lunch ride or the loops, it was a close match.

As we decended into town, poor Mike Boggs had a make session with a bee which landed a real doozy on his upper lip. Unable to swat him off for fear of loosing control he opted to bite the bee into and spit it out. Luckily for Mike he's not cardiac arrest allergic but he was allergic just enough to make his upper lip swell to epic proportions. Once we hit town, Mike made a bee line, (no pun intended) for a pharmacy to pick up some benadryll.

After several benadryll were consumed we crossed the street and headed into pizza heaven. Pies & Pints the local gourmet pizza joint did not disappoint. It doesn't hurt that they have several excellent beers on tap along with a few local micro brews. They say Fayetteville is America's coolest small town and I think they might just be right.

After a monsterous amount of pizza was consumed we headed back to the singletrack and proceeded to find our way back to the trailhead. Having a belly full of pizza and Bridgework's Kolsh does not sit well on a steep climb.

More tomorrow and some Go Pro footage of the Arrowhead trail system. I just put the finishing touches on the video and it should be available for your viewing pleasure sometime tomorrow.

stay tuned...........