Front Royal, VA and other 'undiscovered' towns.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

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.

7,600 feet at almost 20 mph is just bonkers.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

7,600 feet at almost 20 mph is just bonkers.

Also, how come the stats I mapped out look different? I had it starting in Luray. Did you start in Front Royale?

[mass_biker]

Oh I love that ride. And the 10 mile “detour” up to Skyland is totally worth it. Makes it ~ 100ish miles/10k feet of climbing if I recall correctly (with most of the climbing on the back end). And the grades are never horrible! A bucket list ride if you ask me.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

Also, how come the stats I mapped out look different? I had it starting in Luray. Did you start in Front Royale?

Started in Front Royal and rode CW (I think...I started with Skyline and then into Luray, over Massanutten, back home via Fort Valley). Those stats are using Strava elevation calculations, which are usually a little higher than RWGPS.

My little goal is to crack 20 solo on that loop, but I'm not sure I have enough disregard for my health and comfort to do it.

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

7,600 feet at almost 20 mph is just bonkers.

One of (many) nice things about His Baronialness is that even though he is fast he can ride with a much slower rider without that person feeling at all pressed. At least that’s what I've heard…

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by NHAero

One of (many) nice things about His Baronialness is that even though he is fast he can ride with a much slower rider without that person feeling at all pressed. At least that’s what I've heard…

Thank you. As long as any combination of my ears, brain, or mouth are getting a workout, I don't really care what my legs are doing.

[fa63]

As I said in my original post, I still had a great time. I usually don't a little bit of rain stop me from riding, and the views were lovely when the fog would break through Here is a photo I snapped along the way:



Also, to clarify my comment about the political aspect... I never had any trouble with anyone in the 12 hours or so of riding that I did; everyone was very friendly But in two separate instances, there was an attempt to start a conversation about politics at places where I stopped by to grab some food. People would ask where I am from, then start to talk about politics... I have never had this happen in Atlanta where I live, so I found it a bit interesting. That is all.

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

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.

[novacyclist]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

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.

Impressive!

[mass_biker]

I’ve done the fabled Skyline Loop with the Skyland Add-On…103ish miles/10K feet climbing. Only done it with a small group (not solo like The Baron) and even with a fairly motivated group we are in the 18-19 mph range. That solo output is super impressive! The climb is long, steady, and totally manageable up from Luray to Skyland. One of the true climbing gems in the East. I’d rank it up there with Whiteface (which is definitely steeper) in terms of road condition, turns etc.

That said, I recently hosted some pals for a climbing camp in the Alleghenies in PA. I would posit that the road riding in/around the Eastern Continental Divide in Bedford, Somerset, Napier counties in PA is some of the best in the east. Super hard and challenging climbs, little/no traffic at times etc. A zillion years ago there was the Tour de Toona that took in these roads, and having discovered these roads, now I know why!

Post up your hidden gems!

MB

[glepore]

Originally Posted by mass_biker

I’ve done the fabled Skyline Loop with the Skyland Add-On…103ish miles/10K feet climbing. Only done it with a small group (not solo like The Baron) and even with a fairly motivated group we are in the 18-19 mph range. That solo output is super impressive! The climb is long, steady, and totally manageable up from Luray to Skyland. One of the true climbing gems in the East. I’d rank it up there with Whiteface (which is definitely steeper) in terms of road condition, turns etc.

That said, I recently hosted some pals for a climbing camp in the Alleghenies in PA. I would posit that the road riding in/around the Eastern Continental Divide in Bedford, Somerset, Napier counties in PA is some of the best in the east. Super hard and challenging climbs, little/no traffic at times etc. A zillion years ago there was the Tour de Toona that took in these roads, and having discovered these roads, now I know why!

Post up your hidden gems!

MB

Still miss Altoona and the race. Those are some hills...

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by fa63

As I said in my original post, I still had a great time. I usually don't a little bit of rain stop me from riding, and the views were lovely when the fog would break through Here is a photo I snapped along the way:

Wow. I've lived here 5,6 years and have snapped few photos that beautiful. Do you remember where it was taken from?

[fa63]

This was at Hazel Mountain Overlook.

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

Wow. I've lived here 5,6 years and have snapped few photos that beautiful. Do you remember where it was taken from?

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by mass_biker

Post up your hidden gems!

MB

My parents live in this tiny little town called Fleischmanns in the NY Catskills. Two horror movies have been filmed there: The Dead Don't Die (probably the better one, though I haven't seen it) and Werewolves Within (probably worse, definitely won't see it). Went up to visit earlier this summer and was surprised by how spectacular the riding is. Extremely quiet narrow twisty steep hilly roads, loaded with little story telling details telling of pasts that are long gone and perhaps even futures that never were. Behind all that, you sometimes get peeks of the mountain grandeur. It's kind of like riding down in VA, but the roads feel much older, much less planned, like the whole network of backroads was designed before much topographical or cartological technology existed. You can ride for a couple of hours and think 'I must be 25 miles from home!' and then discover that home is 4 miles away, over a couple of hills and around a few corners. There's an annual ride called the Catskill Challenge that incorporates huge swathes of this area into its route, while avoiding the super steep backbackbackroads stuff. But those crazy 'who the fudge designed this road and how could they possibly have thought it was a good idea?' roads are part of what makes riding out there so much fun.

This area is a solid 30 miles or so from the more popular Liberty/Tannersville area of the Catskills, where the annual Tour of the Catskills fondo/race takes place, and which I haven't ridden in. Both areas are summer vacation hotspots for Hasidic Jews, and also possibly werewolves, which makes the riding anthropologically more interesting, too. Or, in the case of werewolves, anthropomorphically more interesting.

Sub 1-1 gearing is recommended if you're going to want to enjoy some of the climbs out here. I brought my gravel bike just in case of gravel. Didn't find much, but was glad to have that 38x42 low gear instead of the usual 48x44 low gear. This coming from a lightweight whose typical morning ride is 5000-6000 feet of climbing over 50 miles.

The hotel below is the stuff of nightmares. Trust me...I'll tell you how I know another time.

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

[echappist]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

My parents live in this tiny little town called Fleischmanns in the NY Catskills. Two horror movies have been filmed there: The Dead Don't Die (probably the better one, though I haven't seen it) and Werewolves Within (probably worse, definitely won't see it). Went up to visit earlier this summer and was surprised by how spectacular the riding is. Extremely quiet narrow twisty steep hilly roads, loaded with little story telling details telling of pasts that are long gone and perhaps even futures that never were. Behind all that, you sometimes get peeks of the mountain grandeur. It's kind of like riding down in VA, but the roads feel much older, much less planned, like the whole network of backroads was designed before much topographical or cartological technology existed. You can ride for a couple of hours and think 'I must be 25 miles from home!' and then discover that home is 4 miles away, over a couple of hills and around a few corners. There's an annual ride called the Catskill Challenge that incorporates huge swathes of this area into its route, while avoiding the super steep backbackbackroads stuff. But those crazy 'who the fudge designed this road and how could they possibly have thought it was a good idea?' roads are part of what makes riding out there so much fun.

This area is a solid 30 miles or so from the more popular Liberty/Tannersville area of the Catskills, where the annual Tour of the Catskills fondo/race takes place, and which I haven't ridden in. Both areas are summer vacation hotspots for Hasidic Jews, and also possibly werewolves, which makes the riding anthropologically more interesting, too. Or, in the case of werewolves, anthropomorphically more interesting.

Sub 1-1 gearing is recommended if you're going to want to enjoy some of the climbs out here. I brought my gravel bike just in case of gravel. Didn't find much, but was glad to have that 38x42 low gear instead of the usual 48x44 low gear. This coming from a lightweight whose typical morning ride is 5000-6000 feet of climbing over 50 miles.

The hotel below is the stuff of nightmares. Trust me...I'll tell you how I know another time.

the Catskills is gorgeous and is generally good for riding, and it's little suprise that the region served as inspiration for the Hudson River School of painters such as Thomas Cole. That said, some of the roads such as the famed Devil's Kitchen are just straight-up ridiculous.

I've climbed that ridge on the road by the Kaaterskills Falls (Rt 23A). A bit more doable with consistent grades that don't exceed 8% and spread out over 3 miles, whereas Devil's Kitchen averages 10%, with extended sections at 15%+. Back when the lowest gear was a 39x23t, some Euro pros had to walk up it during the Tour Dupont.

Kaaterskill Falls on a frigid winter day below. Probably 20F with windchills in the single digits. Most of the water had frozen solid, but there is enough momentum in the creek that water still flows over the falls.



Also, on the topic of Shenandoah and the Piedmonts, another worthy riding locale would be the Catoctins in Maryland. Great riding with charming little towns, but the roads traversing the hills are very much comparable to the gnarly stuff in the Catskills.

[glepore]

BRP in Va reopened today.