Did our first WV riding trip.... and it was awesome!

[thirdgenlxi]

Couldn't fit it in the title, but just a fair warning.... lots of pics, lol

So anyways, a buddy who I really don't get to see all that often, does a yearly trip up to West Virginia every year and usually gets a pretty good group together. They rent a handful of cabins and stay for the weekend. So my best friend Scott and I (who I ride with every single weekend, and sometimes during the week as well.... jokingly known around here as Team Green, since we always ride together. He has an '06 KX-250), decided to get in on it this year and check it out. We've both heard WV was awesome for riding, but never been up there

So we loaded up early Friday morning and made our way up there. It was a tight squeeze fitting both bikes on my little 4x8 trailer, but we made it work, lol. I really need to get a bigger trailer.....

Wasn't a bad drive at all.... a little over 3 hours and we were there. We stayed at the Ashland Resort in Northfork, WV if anybody knows where that's at. Met up with everybody, unloaded, and suited up to go ride the rest of the day. We didn't do many of the Hatfield-McCoy trails just because he didn't want to make everybody in the group have to get a pass, so we stuck to the free trails. I believe it was the Indian Ridge trail system. There's a whole bunch of them

There's hill climbs everywhere around here! Many of them covered with coal

Beautiful views everywhere too!

Stopped at another coal hill climb

Video..... didn't realize until afterwards that about half way through I totally wasn't paying attention and wasn't even aiming the camera down the hill....oops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YI3YyLbIV4

Got back to the cabins not too long before it started to get dark out..... it was a little wet along the way, lol

 

[thirdgenlxi]

Saturday morning, we all get up early and get ready for a FULL day of riding. Headed out again for more exploring...... started off on some very slippery technical singletrack right out of the campground, then made our way back to the main trails to head out. Made our way to this spot..... a whole bunch of little manmade mountains all in one spot, and it was hill climb after hill climb after hill climb. We were on top of the first one here

More awesome views

On top of the final hill climb..... the view here was incredible! We came up the back side, up and over that mountain you see in the background, coming down that little trail that goes straight down the middle. Which is in fact a LOT steeper than it looks in this pic. It was pretty sketchy coming down it..... pretty much a controlled slide, lol. There was a couple more on the other side of that mountain too. And that mountain is man made..... all that dirt was hauled there with dump trucks. Apparently what WV does now for coal mining, instead of digging underground they just dig it all up on top, and move all the dirt they dug up to somewhere else..... which is how these are formed. And there's a bunch of them here, and you just go up and down, up and down each one. it was crazy fun...... and the little green tractor known as the KDX is no doubt a hill climb champion, haha. Can't see the trail coming up to this spot, but it was a pretty good climb (it comes up right behind my bike in this pic).... didn't realize until I was almost to the top I was doing it in 4th gear, lol

Tried to get a panoramic

There wasn't really anywhere to go from there, so we had to go back across all the hill climbs and go back the way we came, to get back to the main trails. We were all getting hungry so we continued on to eventually make our way into town to get some food. Welcome to West Virginia, where you can be riding along on a trail, and it will literally just dump you off in the middle of town..... and it's perfectly legal to ride your mud covered dirt bike (or ATV, side by side, whatever) right down the road through town..... it's all good, haha. Stopped in the little town of Welch, where there is a pretty popular place to eat called the Sterling Drive In. It's not an actual drive-in anymore, but used to be back in the day. Pretty good food though

The one guy didn't realize he was leaking everywhere, since we were all soaking wet and disgusting, lol. He felt bad and asked the lady if they had a mop and he would clean it up, and she just said "ohhh don't worry about it.... we deal with this kinda stuff every day, it's no big deal". Ohhh....ok! hahah

After a great lunch, made our way down the road to fill up with gas. Scott and I, and one other guy on a KTM, were the only 2 strokes out of the whole group. Big group of ATV's and RZR's pulled in right after us

We were pretty much at our furthest point here that we were gonna go, so from here we had to start making our way back to the campground. Went back through town and got back on the trail...... it wasn't too much further into the trail that I learned a valuable lessson, lol...... came up to a big muddy water hole (there was LOTS of them along the way), and I stopped to try and figure out the best route to take through it. The guy on the KTM behind me said "I think the right side is probably the best", so he went ahead and went first. I made the mistake of following in right behind. Usually I would know better, but I was starting to get tired and fatigued, and wasn't exactly thinking at my best. Well needless to say about half way through, he started to sink and slide a bit, so naturally he hits the gas. And there I was, right behind him getting absolutely pelted with mud, hahahah. I was still in the middle of it and almost couldn't even see to get it..... I was covered! Had to stop there and do a little clean up, lol. He felt bad cuz he didn't know I was right behind him, but we both got a good laugh out of it. All part of the adventure, lol

After getting cleaned up, we were back on our way..... I had mentioned before we left that I had wanted to stop at this spot and take a couple pictures, so we met back up with the rest of the group here

Made it back to the campground again not too long before dark...... bikes were absolutely filthy, lol. We did close to 100 miles for the day Saturday, and about 35 for the half day on Friday

Every evening about the time everybody is getting back, the local fire dept is there doing a bike/ATV wash. There's a big creek there and they just put a pump down in it, and wash the bikes off with the fire hose. Scott and I, and a few others in the group, wanted to go and get our bikes washed. Buuuttt the KX was one of the only bikes in the group without a kickstand, so we had to get creative, haha (hard to see but I have it strapped to him)

Got the bikes all cleaned up and we settled in for the evening. A lot of the group left Saturday night, but we stayed another night, as we had the cabin anyways. So we enjoyed the evening cooking some dinner over a campfire and relaxing..... until we both passed out

Sunday morning we just took it easy and get everything packed up, and made our way out

Saw it along the side of the road....... couldn't resist. We're both big kids at heart, hahah

Made it back home...... time to do a little clean up duty on the gear. You know it's been a good weekend when.......... hahaha. And this was after rinsing everything off with the hose already before ever putting it in the washer. I ended up washing the again right after this too

And that's all I've got...... all in all we had a killer time! We thoroughly enjoyed it..... the amount of trails up there is pure insanity. They are literally everywhere. Thee's trailheads along the side of the road where you can just park, unload, and jump straight on the trail from there. It's definitely a whole other world up there. Scott and I are definitely planning on going back again here before too long, and probably get a pass for the Hatfield trails for next year

 

[SRAD97750]

Amazing stuff. Great report. We need more folks doing good stuff like this! Really good stuff!
-BIG DAN

 

[2strokesteve89]

Ditto on what Dan said....but yeah, great report. Love the mud as well.

 

[Trfsrfr]

Awesome!

 

[Mihylo33]

Great report.