Front Royal, VA and other 'undiscovered' towns.

[glepore]

Goshen Pass is flat out beautiful-never cycled it, but its awesome in an open car or motorcycle.
Again, no idea when BRP will reopen. Some are saying not until next season if then. I don't know it they'll open the other half where there's much less damage.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by glepore

Goshen Pass is flat out beautiful-never cycled it, but its awesome in an open car or motorcycle.
Again, no idea when BRP will reopen. Some are saying not until next season if then. I don't know it they'll open the other half where there's much less damage.

You can also go through there on the virginia scenic railroad, its neat.

I would imagine the BRP will reopen in virginia pretty quickly. The section north of asheville had a lot of damage that wont be fixed quickly and the rest was mostly blowdowns.

[glepore]

Originally Posted by .RJ

You can also go through there on the virginia scenic railroad, its neat.

I would imagine the BRP will reopen in virginia pretty quickly. The section north of asheville had a lot of damage that wont be fixed quickly and the rest was mostly blowdowns.

Yeah, we chased the 611 along its route last year.
RE the BRP, yes, not much damage on north part, question is do they ship all resources south to work.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by glepore

question is do they ship all resources south to work.

I believe they posted thats why the VA side is closed

[novacyclist]

Didn't read every line but saw a few assumptions based on political lean and locale. Just to state some anecdotes (I would call them facts but that would take much longer). The very liberal leaning parts of NOVA pretty much stop at the Prince William County Line. Once past that (both south and west), the mind set starts to blur. I've ridden out in Prince William, Fauquier Counties and I see both signs and have never felt save (not that I display affiliation on my jersey). People are super nice, generally. Yes, you get the occasional a-hole but I assume that's everywhere.

[unterhausen]

I have ridden my bike on the BRP a lot in the past, and leaf season is not time to be on it IMO. It's okay otherwise.

If I was going to ride my bike in that general direction, it would be on one of the TransVa routes. Although cutting it short before Damascus is imperative given the damage suffered there.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

I have ridden my bike on the BRP a lot in the past, and leaf season is not time to be on it IMO. It's okay otherwise.

If I was going to ride my bike in that general direction, it would be on one of the TransVa routes. Although cutting it short before Damascus is imperative given the damage suffered there.

Yep. The "Valley" route is the probably the best match for this forum generally. The OG mountain route has some chunky ridge trail and unmaintained forest road that is better done on a mountain bike (IMO).

The guy that put together the TransVA, David Landis, has a ton of routes on RideWithGPS. Mostly out of Harrisonburg, but has some all over the VA mountains. There are also two FB groups that might be of interest - one for TransVA and another for bikepacking in VA.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by fa63

We stayed in Luray, VA (just south of Front Royal) for about a week last month. We were in our campervan and our goal was to explore more of Shenandoah.

Overall, I thought it was a very nice area to ride in. It was very foggy in the mornings, and it rained pretty much every day but I still made the best of it. I also ended up riding pretty much all of Skyline Drive over two separate days. I have to say that after having been spoiled by the scenery of the West Coast mountains, it felt a little underwhelming but that is a first-world complaint

I think it would be a lovely area to visit and stay for a week of cycling. The area did seem way too politically charged for a small town, but I am guessing that has to do more with the upcoming election.

If you visited last month, it's just bad luck. Or, bad luck for a tourist who wants to play outside, but good luck for people who live here. This area is known as "the desert of Virginia", and the last few years there have been *months* straight with no rain and subsequent mandatory water conservation rules (I hesitate to call them laws). Then we got splashed with oodles of rain, thank goodness, but I rode my trainer more in the last few weeks than I had all year previously combined.

In my experience, the locals will put up lots of political signs, but if you don't engage then they won't. It's just bravado; outside of a couple of instances of typical snide-aside baiting, I've never had anyone try to engage me in a political conversation here, not since Covid anyway.

Regarding the scenery, yeah, it's not as 'unbroken wilderness' as what I've seen out west. This is more agrirural (is that a word?) scenery --there are very few views that exclude signs of human intervention. But...what it lacks in the grandeur of, say, riding in Alaska or remote areas of CA and CO, it somewhat makes up for in the little details and stories that only really exist where humans have made their mark (for better and for worse).
And the riding itself, as far as road conditions and variety of types of riding (rollers, hills, mountains, gravel, dirt, pavement, steep or not-too-steep) is *excellent*. You might need to know where to look to find some of it, but there's typically something awesome around every corner or never too far away.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

... agrirural ...

It is now. And I'm stealing it.

And your comment about "details and stories" is so true. If you're at all interested in history, the area has so much to offer. Little signs and placards all over mark Civil War and similar sites. Old farm buildings. Little towns and villages all over. Maybe I'm just a giant nerd, but I love to Google a place before I go and get a sense of the history. Sometimes there isn't much to actually see, but sometimes there are neat nuggets of history and a short detour gets you to {something interesting to a nerd}.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by Alistair

Yeah, for sure. Just explaining the large number/density of political signs that exist in that part of VA.

The "no trespass/violent threat" signs are real. And super weird, IMO. Mostly seen on the side of North Mountain and over in WV. :shrug:

I still love riding, hiking, and camping out there.

A lot of those No Trespass/Private Property signs are actually placed on public property by people who just don't want strangers 'intruding' on their dirt roads.
I can cite one example where I kind of get it, as the road with all those signs is across from a popular campground, and I reckon the residents don't want tourists riding/driving/exploring the very narrow, rough, and quiet dirt road they live on.
However, that doesn't change the fact that the road they live on *is* public, so the signs that threaten violence seem very...over-reaching? Over reactive? Illegal?

But, while I've received some surprised looks, I've never been threatened out here, riding pretty much everywhere within a 50 mile radius of Front Royal and beyond.

[Baron Blubba]

PS: Regarding views, here's one from today's ride (Skymass, almost as perfect an 80 mile ride as one can imagine). No matter where you regularly ride and what you see, there's no way this is anything other than at least "not half bad."

[IMG]Untitled by Michael Lock, on Flickr[/IMG]

[novacyclist]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

PS: Regarding views, here's one from today's ride (Skymass, almost as perfect an 80 mile ride as one can imagine). No matter where you regularly ride and what you see, there's no way this is anything other than at least "not half bad."

[IMG]Untitled by Michael Lock, on Flickr[/IMG]

That looks great, Michael! Can you share one of our Strava or RWGPS data? I'd love to see the route and elevation changes, etc.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

A lot of those No Trespass/Private Property signs are actually placed on public property by people who just don't want strangers 'intruding' on their dirt roads.

I have no issue with the normal "No Trespass" signs.

It's the "Don't cross this line or you can deal with my friend Remington" signs that I find super weird.

But, like you, I've never had anybody actually DO anything. The signs are just an oddity.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by novacyclist

That looks great, Michael! Can you share one of our Strava or RWGPS data? I'd love to see the route and elevation changes, etc.

Also worth noting the haze over the mountains (seen clearly in the photo) is what gives the Blue Ridge their name... the trees give off VOCs that reflect (refract?) the light and make them that hazy blue color that you see in most of the good sunset photos. The haze always looks worse in photos than real life.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by novacyclist

That looks great, Michael! Can you share one of our Strava or RWGPS data? I'd love to see the route and elevation changes, etc.

https://www.strava.com/activities/12...25042586385330

It's the area's most famous route, the one that most folks who visit from the NOVA, DC, and MD areas come to do. A nice extension is to take Skyline 10 miles farther up to Skyland Lodge (the highpoint and a good lunch stop if you like lunch stops), then zoooooooooooooom back down and continue the route into Luray. It's one of the fastest 20 mile stretches I know if you do that!
That ride is 100 miles and 10k feet.