WV - Seneca Rocks - Spruce Knob



50:50 paved and good quality gravel,
75 mi, 8000 ft of climbing, steep at times. A little bit of high-traffic road.
Highlights:
- Seneca Rocks
- Spruce Knob
- empty valleys


Spruce Knob Lake camground was full (Memorial Day weekend), so we climbed up to Gatewood campground, which was beautiful and empty. 

There is water pretty much everywhere, apart from the ridgeline between Laurel Fork Campground and Wymer.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Radio Silence Loop

Image
Why “the radio silence” loop?           10 minutes of cell service in 4 days           The radio silence zone around the immense Green Bank telescope           A 3-5 days trip that is long enough to reset from online things   This mostly gravel loop travels deep into rural West Virginia, between farm roads and endless rail trails. There is not too much climbing, at least for WV standards. A couple of rough US-army roads and trails in the radio silence zone next to the telescope. Campsites and water are plentiful (bring some sort of water purification system). Due to some road closures (private properties) we ended up riding over 250 miles in three days. The map above is revised with all legal and open roads.   >50% unpaved, 1% intermediate singletrack Ideal bike: any gravel bike Photo credits: Francesca Lorandi
Read more

PA Wilds - Moshannon State Forest Overnighter

Image
In the matter of half hour I have seen a gang of elk, a gecko, and a brown recluse spider. The loop: I parked at a truck stop and quickly found my way into various state forests--Moshannon, Queanna, Elk, and Sproul. The fall color here is probably one of the best in the world.  60-70% unpaved, 1% singeltrack. A lot of climbing. Busy town! Wake me up when the pavement ends. Free self portrait. Full color. Not 100% sure if this was open for bikes. It got steep, I had to walk my bike a bit. The red bushy grassy is just so cool. Hunter truck. Sandy roads. A gang of elk. That right there was more than 1% the whole elk population in PA. Stevenson Dam. This was the view from my campsite. Leaves traffic. Fun and guns. Some ATV trails. Weird clouds before the rain.
Read more

Raystown Ramble - Overnighter

Image
  This is a loop around Raystown lake... taking a pretty long way! The loop passes through a very wide variety of sceneries, from the Mennonite farms of Woodbury, to plenty of doubletrack, and to the remote singletrack on the Eastern shore of Raystown lake. A good starting point for this route is the parking at the trailhead of the Lower Trail, which is less than 2 h from Pittsburgh.  There are plenty of camping options around the lake, many of which are marked on the map. The best seasons to ride this loop are spring and fall. In winter there will be very often snow on the peaks; in summer the lake gets busy with tourists. This route follows all the rideable parts of the Terrace Mountain Trail (TMT), a 26-mile hiking/biking trail along the eastern shore of Raystown lake. There are 6 miles of rough singletrack along the TMT, all concentrated on the north shore of the lake after the "wooden shelter" (see map). The singletrack can be bypassed by continuing straight on John Bum
Read more