I really feel like I've found kindred spirits at Sport-Touring.Net (STN): dedicated motorcycle riders that love long days of twisty two-lane and take skills and safety seriously. I had a great time at the Eastern rally in Vermont last August and was really looking forward to the National rally in Canaan Valley Resort (CVR) as my "big ride" of the year. This was also going to be my first multi-day ride on the "Ninja Bke", my 2005 Kawasaki ZX-6R. I bought it late last fall and have done long days in the twisties with it, but this trip would show me what it's like to SPORT-tour on 600 supersport.

I guess I'm almost a "local" since I only live 150 miles or so from CVR and ride in the area regularly. I decided that since the rally was on Wednesday and Thursday, and I had to take Friday off to ride home anyway, I might as well extend my trip and stay on the road until either Saturday or Sunday. After kicking around several plans, I decided to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway on Friday and work my way home via southern WV on Saturday. That would leave Sunday to unpack, clean the bike and relax. Way too many hours pondering routes with Microsoft Streets and Trips eventually yielded a plan: 1600 miles of riding over four days with less than 100 miles of that on slab.

Several members of the Pittsburgh RAT Pack (Triumph owners group) were also attending the rally. I ended up riding to CVR on Wednesday morning with Rick ("RickG"). Jack ("MaddJack") had his own agenda for the rally and Mark ("BikerDawg") and his girlfriend Lori were spending the week there on vacation. Rick and I arranged to leave the eastern suburbs at 9am Wedsday morning and take the long way to CVR.

The Cortech Sport saddlebags and regular tailbag that I got for Xmas were put to good use along with my tank bag from Luggage Locker (www.luggagelocker.com). I had plenty of room for stuff, even with all the tools, cans of stuff (Fix-A-Flat, chain lube, Plexus) and drinks (Gatorade, Red Bull) I had stuffed in the saddlebags. My rainsuit ate most of the other saddlebag, so all my clothes went in the tailbag. Camera, wallet, glasses, etc went in the tankbag. Here's the Ninja bike ready to go Wednesday morning:

Our plan was to take back roads to route 119, a short bit of four-lane to Uniontown, then more back roads into West Virginia. Once in WV, it would be mostly state highways with some of SWriverstone's "cow paths" thrown in near Lost River State Park. Here's the map of our route in West Virginia. You'll note we were close to CVR at waypoint 13, but added another 150 miles to the day (314 total):

The route to Uniontown was uneventful and Rick showed my Jumonville Rd, a nice twisty way over the mountain to route 40, right at the Summit Inn. Rick had just ridden Wharton Furnace Rd a couple weeks before and suggested we use it to get to Bruceton Mills, WV. Unfortunately we discovered fresh tar and chip. Rick also rides an adventure bike (BMW R1150GS) but was on his Sprint. We decided to go for it and hope it didn't last too long. Ten very slow miles later on what would have been a nice road, we hit the WV border and the tar/chip mess ended.

After a quick gas stop in Bruceton Mills we continued south on the most excellent 26 thru Kingwood and on to route 50. We headed east on 50 with a planned stop at Cool Springs Park and Exxon. That section of 50 is simply outstanding and we had a mostly traffic free run to Cool Springs.

Cool Springs sits at the bottom of a long set of switchbacks and is a popular spot to stop for motorcyclists. I think it's the definative WV general store, plus you get the "park", which is an eclectic collection of old trains and farm machinery left to rust nearby. Plus there are animals wandering around including a couple friendly burros. Here are some Cool Springs pics, included the just renovated and now working water mill:

The store (note the giant plastic cow on the roof):

 

Old trains:

 

The burros:

 

No trip to Cool Springs would be complete without visiting the "Love Deer". It's a local/private joke and the origin of the name should be obvious:

 

 

We left Cool Springs just before noon and continued east on 50, up the horribly beat up pavement on Cheat Mtn, and on to Melanies Family Restaurant in Aurora for lunch:

 

After a fine lunch, we continued east on 50 to Romney. There are some great sections in that stretch of 50 along with some straight/boring sections. The road definately mellows east of 93. We stopped in Romney for gas and headed a bit farther east to route 29.

I had never been on 29 before, but it looked good on the map and it did not disappoint. What a fun section of road. Just miles and miles of scenic sweepers down to route 259. 259 was fairy straight, but at least the scenery was nice. Our goal was Howard Lick Rd, thru Lost River State Park, one of SWriverstone's "northwest passage" roads.

Howard Lick Rd was a treat. As much as I like faster roads, the little curvy country roads are a nice change of pace and can take you to some spectacular places. We worked our way up the mountain and stopped (where everyone probably stops) for a few pictures:

 

 

And a bit further down the road stopped to take this pic. I used to be a very active rock climber and views like these always catch my eye:

 

We eventually made our way down the mountain and popped out on CR-7. If we had more time, I would have liked to ridden that south and explored more of SWriverstone's "northwest passage". But we could see that rain was in the area and we were running a little late, so we took the more direct route to Moorefield and then Petersburg.

It started to rain lightly in Moorefield, so Rick stopped to change gloves and put rain covers on his luggage. I just continued on hoping we would skirt the rain. Things dried out after about 10 minutes, but it started to rain more intensly in Petersburg, so I pulled into a Citgo to put on my raingear. The Triumph rainsuit works well, but is a real PITA to get on correctly. By the time we were rolling again, the rain had stopped. Just to be safe, we opted to change our route to dodge the darker looking clouds to the north, so we took 28 south to Seneca Rocks, then 33 west to Harmon and 32 north to the resort. It was dry the rest of the way, no doubt due to me having my rainsuit on.

We arrived at the resort about 5:30pm. I ditched my gear, checked in, registered and put all my stuff in the room. A quick change of clothes later and it was time to mingle in the lounge with a few cold ones while waiting for dinner. It was nice to see Bil ("Woovis") again after meeting him at a Triumph rally a few years ago. We've traded messages on the Sprint mailing list for years. Soon it was 7pm and time for dinner.

Dinner was great, but since I left my camera in the room, I don't have any pics. No doubt there will be MANY pics in other ride reports. The prize giveaway was good fun and Mister Ed makes a fine M/C. The keg went outside after dinner, so I followed the keg and did my best to ensure our money didn't go to waste. Had a great time BS'ing with people. The keg died, so I wandered upstairs to the lounge to find it locked. Hmmm.... Geez, it's almost midnight. Guess I better hit the sack since I have a long day planned for Thursday.

Click HERE for Day 2 (Thursday)