My big plan for the Region 6 campout at Seneca Rocks was to ride the KTM 530 EXC I bought from R Doug back on Labor Day weekend. I figured this would be an awesome chance to ride our "Blackwater 400" route plus do a day of dual-sport riding around Seneca. But I've been very busy lately and don't have the 530 sorted out enough to want to chance a 3-day ride a long ways from home. I have spent almost no time riding it, and still had to install a jet kit. I didn't want to take an unknown quantity on a trip.

So I decided to take my KTM 950 SMR instead and make a street ride out of it. I wanted to hit the great roads on the WV/VA border one more time this year, and it looked like this was going to be the weekend for it. The new plan was to ride lots of back roads down on Friday, hit the usual WV/VA suspects around Seneca, then more back roads on the way home on Sunday. Here's my trusty KTM just before take-off:





The forecast was for rain on Friday morning and the forecast was right. The rain quit about noon and I was on my way by 1pm on wet roads under gray skies. I stopped for gas about 20 miles out to top off my tank and took this photo. My previous high mileage bike was a 2002 Triumph Sprint RS that I put 42,968 miles on. The KTM officially surpassed the Triumph this weekend. I don't what I would replace the KTM with, so I'm just going to keep riding it until something new and shiny grabs my attention.





I headed south toward Ohiopyle, a popular whitewater rafting area in southwest PA. Crossing the Youghiogheny River in Dawson:





The very pretty stream that runs along Furnace Hill Rd between Dunbar and Ohiopyle:





Kentuck Rd on the way to Ohiopyle. Frank Lloyd Wright designed a home here, Kentuck Knob. The famous Fallingwater home is only a few miles away too:





Crossing the Cheat River in Albright via the always fun route 26:





Random stop on "Friend Gap" (WV 50) to let traffic scoot ahead. The purples in the trees caught my eye:





WV 50 doesn't exactly suck either:





More scenic goodness from route 50, this time on the awesome Cheat Mtn section:





Route 50 took me to the mega scenic Stemple Ridge Rd. The views from this road just knock me out, even on a gray day like today:









Getting a bit goat pathy here on Location Rd, part of the back way to Parsons:













Location Rd led to Holly Meadows Rd, another scenic back road:













Another crossing of the Cheat River, this time outside Parsons, still on Holly Meadows Rd:





The back road tour continued on the infamous route 72 between Parsons and WV 32. While not as dirty as in years past, it still is a bit goat pathy in spots:





More route 72 en route to jct 32 (near Canaan Valley):





Made it to the campground about 6pm and quickly set up camp as these guys were hungry:





Had a fine time at dinner, followed by BS'ing and drinking around the camp fire until late. Perhaps a little too late. In an unscientific test (two data points), R Doug claims bourbon makes me snore. Evidently I was in full song on Friday night, but was quiet on the bourbon-less Saturday night...

Saturday dawned fairly cool, but not too bad. Crawled out of the sleeping bag about 8am and was on the road to breakfast at the Gateway with SWriverstone in tow by 9am. We would meet ChrisBandit there and head out on my 280 mile loop about 10am.

Route 33 had an unusual amount of traffic on it, so we really didn't get to enjoy the best part at the WV/VA border like normal. We doubled back to Brandywine and took CR-21 to Sugar Grove (very nice), then continued south on 614, one of the many 6xx roads in Virginia that are a joy to ride.

Scott was enjoying the ride and the morning light so much that he wanted to go back and video it. So he went on to film his own epic while Chris and I headed for the Confederate Breastworks overlook a few very twisty miles away on route 250. My focus was on the road, and when I got to the overlook, there was no one behind me. That's not good. So I retraced my steps a few miles and found Chris gimping around on the side of the road with his Bandit on its side against a dirt/grass bank.

Neither looked terribly worse for wear, but the Bandit was missing a clutch lever and had some broken plastic. I guess a passerby called the EMTs because firemen and an ambulance showed up just as we were preparing to coast the bike down the hill to Headwaters. Chris took the ride in the blinky van to get his ankle looked at in Staunton, the bike would end up in Monterey, and at Chris' suggestion, I continued on my ride.

The next section was 678 south of McDowell which is a wonderful road. There is all kinds of great scenery as the road flows and twists along the valley. There is a very scenic wooded section in the middle that is especially nice. Today I would stop for a photo (that doesn't do it justice):





678 goes on for a long way before it hits route 39 near Millboro Springs. I needed gas, so I went a mile east to a Citgo and filled up. I tried calling Chris to see what was up with his ankle, but no cell signal. Damn. I grabbed a quick BBQ sandwich and a drink, then went a few more miles east to Goshen. Still no cell signal. WTF? At that point I decided I would just head to the hospital in case he needed any help sorting out the logistics of getting home.

That meant that I had to ride through the beautiful and twisty Goshen Pass (route 39) followed by the scenic, and at times very twisty, route 252 which took me north to Staunton. It really broke my heart to have to ride those two roads... Not. I should have stopped for a photo or three along Goshen Pass, but the road was empty and I just enjoyed the ride instead. Here's a nice photo op from 252:





So I hung out with Chris in the ER for about 2 hours, keeping him company and trying to sort out his options for getting home. It was almost 100 miles back to the campground, so I had to leave him there a little after 5pm and race the setting sun back to Seneca Rocks. With sunset at 6:30, it would be dark by 7pm. This meant getting to ride the WV/VA border twisties during an awesome sunset. Literally watched the big orange ball sink out of sight while cresting the summit. With no traffic either. Here's a photo of the farm land off Clover Hill Rd, en route to 33 (VA side of the border).




I pulled into Seneca in the dark. The last 20 miles or so from Franklin to Seneca were kinda sketchy with the crap headlight on my bike, but I managed OK. I went straight to the Front Porch for dinner and found HappyRiding and the CableBandits finishing up dinner. They were nice enough to hang out and keep me company while I ate my pizza. Then it was off to the camp fire for more BS'ing, and less drinking on my part (no bourbon). I was beat from the day and retired early.

It was cold Sunday morning. Damn cold. Ice covered tents. But R Doug is a man's man. He taint bothered by cold. Here he is at Kamp KTM:





Camp STN on Sunday morning:





The frost on my seat was really heavy. I sure was glad I brought my Alaska Leather sheepskin on the trip!





Doug and I packed up Chris' stuff and gave it SWriverstone and Jaimie since they had the only car, then we all headed off to breakfast at the Gateway. Same plan as Saturday: eat breakfast while things warm up (a lot) between 9am and 10am. After breakfast, Doug and I took off for Franklin where he would south on 220 and I would head north to SHR. I stopped at the always pretty Germany Valley overlook on the way to Franklin for a quick photo:





My bike didn't want to downshift coming into Franklin. It felt stuck in gear. It would downshift but only with some real force on the shift lever. Filled up the tank and the bike seemed OK on startup, so I took off for Petersburg, bypassing my plan to hit Smoke Hole Rd on the way home. I figured staying on main roads would be a good idea in the event I had issues.

And it was. My clutch lever went totally soft (that's what she said) a few miles north of Franklin, so I cruised in 5th gear to Petersburg, then jammed a few down shifts to poke through town in third. Even hit the traffic light green. I rolled into the Sheetz and stalled the bike since the clutch was worthless. Sure enough, my clutch fluid was way down and I had sucked air into the line. Bought a quart of ATF and spent an hour of flushing/bleeding the line which brought the clutch back to life. On the road again!


Fresh ATF in the reservoir:





Making an oily mess in the Sheetz parking lot (not all my mess):




So with a working clutch, I continued up 42 from Petersburg, had a traffic free run up Mt Storm, and followed 42 into Maryland. Here's a photo of Randolph Jennings Lake off in the distance along route 42 near the WV/MD line (Elk Garden):




Once in MD, I took 495 north to Grantsville near the MD/PA border. 495 is pretty boring as roads go, but the scenery makes up for it. Topped off the gas tank in Grantsville and continued north to Mt Davis, the highest point in PA. The back way into Mt Davis:





This view never gets old (on the way to Mt Davis):




And one with the bike:





Mt Davis info:





All the leaves were down and brown as peak foliage was weeks ago, but here is a view looking east from the Mt Davis tower:




I left Mt Davis and had a fine ride on back roads through the Laurel Highlands until I hit traffic as I got closer to home. What a pretty day on the bike. I knew my tires didn't have much life left, but figured the rear would last the trip. It made it. Barely. Another one bites the dust (after only 2800 miles)...




So all in all I had a fine weekend despite the parts that didn't exactly go according to plan. I managed to put on 700 scenic, twisty miles and spent three days riding with and hanging out with some great people. Thanks for organizing it Ken! Looking forward to doing it again next year.