West Virginia

I had one job and one mission while in Morgantown.  Build a bike, and ride my bike.  Where to ride... I had some options.  I could ride the Hilly Billy route (or part of it) as it left from Morgantown - but having the Glow Worm with me I wasn't too excited about that prospect, especially as I was surfing the google map to check the route and saw too much road for the Glow Worm right off the bat.  How about the Mountain State Dirty Double Roubaix - which actually fit into my (nonexistent) calendar.  Annie wasn't too sure how long it would take to get to Rowlesburg, but we knew the general area it was in - so we asked her dad.

"How do you get to Rowlesburg?" 

"You drive to Kingwood and take a right."

Really?  Yup.  Apparently once you get to Kingwood you either take a right or a left, and that's it.  Small town West Virginia, got to love it!

Saturday was the build a bike day, so I wasn't sure if I would get a ride in or not.  I had made a deal with myself that if I got up early I would go for a ride and then build the bike, but sleeping in was too sweet of a temptress so I built a bike on Saturday and postponed the riding until Sunday.  Annie's father and I tackled the bike while the ladies were out getting their nails did.  It was pretty straight forward, a little fussing to get the front brakes balanced and working well.  I wasn't happy with how they had routed the shifting cable behind the bar, but the grip was on there super tight so I didn't feel like wrestling it off to fix it.  Annie's dad was fine with the way it was so we let it be.  Overall she came out pretty damn sweet!

 

Saturday night we went out for a (pre)Birthday dinner, the food was great and we ended up with some extra wine as Annie's sister had called the restaurant to have two bottles sent to the table.  Thanks Kerri!!  

Sunday the plan was to hit the road back to Charlotte around noon, so I figured driving out to Kingwood and then banking a right would just be too much, with ride time, to get it all in... so I stayed local and hit up White Park.  My buddy Sean had talked about the trails there before, they used to (maybe still do) hold a weekday night summer series there, so I figured they'd give me something.  At first I wasn't too thrilled with the trails.  Sure there were some sweet jumps for those so inclined, but it was meh.  Then I found a section that I had apparently missed the first time and I was all about these trails.  The jumps continued and it seemed like every trail I was on I was headed in the opposite direction of the jump line, but I was having fun.  By the end I kinda got the direction down on some trails, but it seemed like no matter what you would have to climb up a downward designed trail... then again, this wasn't Charlotte and there weren't any directional trails.  

As I was winding up my ride I hit a trail I had been on a couple of times before and this time I decided to try to jump over a log that I had been front wheel tapping in each previous lap...  I was debating whether or not to totally hop it for too long apparently and timed my jump wrong - front wheel didn't clear the log sending me over the handlebars.  Sweet.

I had already been bleeding from a slow speed tumble, so a crash seemed fitting.  I was generally okay; bruised, helmet successfully tested, but good to go.  What's mountain biking without a little blood and dirt?

We hit the road for the long haul after a short but good visit.  I was hungry after riding so we stopped for a quick bite.

mmmmm them fries were good!!  And no, I was not driving at the time.  We were parked at the rest stop enjoying the show of a middle aged couple groping each other a few spots away...