Front Royal, VA and other 'undiscovered' towns.

[Baron Blubba]

I moved to Front Royal, Virginia three years ago, from New Jersey, because the idea of living a half mile from Shenandoah National Park and the Skyline Drive (105 uninterrupted miles of low traffic and pristinely paved mountain roads) appealed to me. The cycling, both in the national park and surrounding areas in every direction, is nigh-on sublime. There is world-class mountain biking 10 miles from town, in the George Washington National Forest, which is also a popular place for rock climbing. The Shenandoah River flows right through town with easy access all over the place for kayaking/canoeing/SUP'ing. There's basically an unlimited selection of hiking trails all over the place. The town is 90 minutes from DC, and cost of living is extremely cheap (I rent a 3 bed, 2.5 bath house with property in a prime area for $1400; said house could be purchased for $185k. Cheaper options exist).
Despite being pretty rural, there's a Walmart, Target, a couple of major grocery stores, plenty of restaurants, etc. Basically, you don't want for many or any of the modern plu****ies of life.

Despite this, there are maybe 10 other road cyclists and a small handful of mountain bikers living in Front Royal and the immediately adjacent towns. This was not at all what I expected when I moved here. With all these amenities and the close proximity to DC and the metro Northern VA area, I thought there would be a massive outdoor community here.
Turns out, it's mostly poor and rural folks out here, who see me exercising and aren't *upset* or acrimonious toward me riding my bike...they are just genuinely confused --''why go through all that effort to ride up the side of a mountain for a view when you can just drive up there?'' (actual paraphrased quote).
The area is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly being gentrified, but it'll be another 5 and maybe even 10 years at least until it can support a bike shop.

So I'm curious -- do you live in an 'undiscovered' awesome cycling/play outside town? Have you visited any places and wondered, 'Man, why isn't this place booming with cyclists?'