Trip 2007

West Virginia Trip 2007

This year, for a number of reasons, Olivia decided not to accompany me on our annual Ohio and beyond trip. She is getting more involved socially and had other things going on, so I went alone. The target this year was to attend Mid Ohio Vintage Days, spend time with friends while there, then go to West Virginia to ride back roads. I found a website www.bridgehunter.com who’s target is to locate and photograph as many old bridges in all states as possible before they are replaced. I have found that this works well with dual sport as most of the old bridges that are still left are on the low traffic roads. Prior to leaving, I did a major service on the KLR as it would come back with over 50,000 miles on it. Maps were ordered form the West Virginia Department of Transportation for Lincoln, Cabell, and Wayne counties to be sure that I had good information to work with. Three days of routes were put together on the GPS and as a back up, the routes were highlighted on the maps in case the GPS failed, which proved to be a good thing, as the routes (loaded until3:30am the night before leaving) did not load fully for any day.

The rear tire on the KLR was getting thin, but still had a few miles, so I strapped another one on top of the luggage just in case. Left Wednesday 7/25/07 headed for Indianapolis to spend the night with Karen.

Near Paris Illinois at a fuel stop. Ran into others here hauling stuff out to sell

The Weather Channel had showed high likelihood of rain all weekend, but so far, no rain. I reached Indianapolis under sever overcast and rain was starting to fall, but not enough to get on a rain suit before I reached the Hotel. Parking for the hotel was 4 blocks away, but Karen had been able to work an arrangement that allowed me to unload the bike, empty the saddlebags and take the lids and luggage in so that the bike could be left out front along the sidewalk under watch by their staff. Apparently the Roush-Fenway pickup had made the same deal with them, as the bike sat behind it all night. The Brickyard was scheduled for Saturday, though it was ran Monday, due to rain delays.

Roush Truck, KLR and Karen at Indy

After loading the bike Thursday morning in the rain, rain suit was donned and I said my goodbyes to Karen, then headed out of town for Mid Ohio in heavy rain. Approx 15 miles east of town, the rain stopped and though it was overcast at times, no more rain until Thursday night.

At the exit off I-71 I stopped at Wendy’s to eat as a last stop before reaching the Mid Ohio facility. An older fellow walks over as I am dismounting and asks where I am headed? Turns out that he is planning to attend both the Honda Homecoming (at the Marysville, OH assembly plant) and Vintage days. So the motorcycle vacation begins and I am not even there yet!

Thursday night at Mid Ohio and here comes the rain!

I went to bed in my tent (top visible in photo) and Mark and Fat Jimmy went to sleep on the ground in sleeping bags, while Tom slept in the van. During the night the tarp that was over our Campsite started to hold and leak water onto Mark in his sleeping bag, so he climbed in the van with Tom. Fat Jimmy toughed it out and stayed outside, but both him and his sleeping bag were soaked! I had the tent set up with the door facing the wind and rain, then forgot to zip the bottom zipper on the door, so I woke up in water, despite having a tent! The rest of the weekend was rain free, though cloudy at times.

Friday night I had noticed that a guy who had brought out a Russian motorcycle last year, had it again this year. I started discussion with him in effort to buy it Friday night. Negotiations continued all weekend, with the purchase coming together Sunday afternoon around 1:00pm. Problem was, the Allied truck had left at 12:00pm. I took Fat Jimmy’s brand new BMW HP around the facility trying to locate people that I knew in hopes of finding transport. John Gott was in the vintage motocross pits, but I was unable to locate him. Upon return to our vendor spot, I realized that the guy across from us who was selling Rupp mini bike parts had Missouri tags, so I approached him. He didn’t have room, but turned me onto some Hodaka guys from St Louis who had a trailer. Discussion with them resulted in their hauling the bike to St Louis and offering that since their son was going to SMS in Springfield, that they might eventually even get it to the shop for me, saving a trip to St Louis. What a deal!

Photo taken of the Russian bike last year. It is an IZH Jupiter 5. IZH is the largest maker of motorcycles in Russia, and also makes the famous Kalasnikov firearms.

I left Sunday 7/29/07 around 2:30pm with the IZH sitting beside their trailer and me headed for eastern Ohio to get photo’s of a bridge. I intended to see the Zoarville Bridge, which I had located prior on a website regarding the canal period in Ohio. This bridge was originally installed in the city of Dover, OH over the canal, then later moved north to Zoarville, OH over the old canal, which is now called Conotton Creek.

Zoarville Bridge, Zoarville, OH

When I arrive at this bridge, there are some construction people at the road entrance. I ask permission to photograph the old bridge and they reply to “go ahead”. As I am leaving, I stop to talk to them again, as it is clear that the bridge has fresh paint and is in process of being reassembled after painting. The more senior fellow asks why I am there from Missouri and I explain. He advises that the bridge had been completely removed this summer and had just been set back into place the prior Friday, so I almost missed it completely! I now hit the highway and head for Charleston, WV. I pulled into the Motel 6 around 8:00pm and park between two Harley’s, a BMW and a Gold Wing. The BMW/Gold Wing guys were traveling together and judging by their accent, they were foreigners. They got a kick out of the tire strapped on the back!

7/30/07 I awake to a cool and bright day, eat breakfast at Bob Evans, fill with fuel, then hit the planned route. I ran 119 south/west out of Charleston until Little Coal River Road (CR8) and take a photo.

And so the “adventure begins!”

I ride approx ½ mile and coming around a corner, I see the neatest old suspension/walk bridge! I had no prior idea that it was there, I was just following the river as things tend to be more interesting on this type of road.

Little Coal River Suspension Bridge, Kanawha County, WV. Built 1920.

I took some photo’s, then continued on. Upon reaching Lincoln county, the first steel bridge that I had hoped to photo had been replaced, with a local telling me that the new one had been completed just 2 months prior. It immediately hit me, “what if most of these have been replaced?” Then I realized, it is the ride that matters, the bridges are secondary. In the end I recorded 18 bridges. Three that I hoped to find had been replaced with new ones recently (grass still in planted stage), but I found three that we didn’t know existed, so it evened out.

Continuing down Lincoln county Route 32/Trace Creek Branch RD, the beauty was so impressive that I stopped for another photo.

Words not needed

Same spot, looking back

This is a dirt road at the end of 32/Trace Creek Branch Rd. Very rural and neat!

Mudd Creek Thru Truss

Then I came out at Hwy 7 and got a photo of the Mudd Creek Thru Truss and the old (closed) Black Bros General Merchandise Store

Black Bros General Merchandise-closed

Found a bridge on the very next cut across road that is probably being removed, as the new one appears to have just been done. Then, thanks to the GPS, was able to find Lincoln CR22, what a road! It started as a narrow driveway with water running down it. For the record, CR22 is an unmaintained county road and the fence row on the right had No Trespassing signs around the perimeter, the road, I believe, is legal.

Lincoln County- Note:Under no circumstances do I advise Trespassing. I do not believe that this road is posted due to the fact that I held a WV Department of Transportation map (purchased a week prior to leaving on this trip) in my hand with this road on it, due to the fact that the latest Garmin mapping program shows the road, due to the fact that after passing back and forth across the opening of this road these signs were posted along the perimeter (fences) of the properties on both sides of the road. This seems further supported by the fact that there were no further signs after the entrance, that there is a pipe gate at the exit of this road that is open, and there are no signs at that end regarding Trespassing. I firmly believe that these signs should be respected and think that I did.

Passed an old log cabin that had the grass mowed and appears to be a summer getaway. It appeared that no one was home, but man, this was neat!

Then through a field and two creek crossings.

Neat!

The second creek crossing was beside an old house (guessing, maybe 80-100 years old) that was falling down. What a splendid place to live! This is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere now, I can’t imagine how far it was out 80 years ago.

Then the uphill. It was a long, maybe ½ mile distance hill, fairly steep, rocky, with rain wash ruts. I managed to hit a rock, the bike kicked sideways, and I fell hard! The right pannier grabbed my boot and pushed my knee up under the handlebars so that the right handle switch could smack the right leg just above the knee cap. I crawled out from under and sat there for a short time. Should have taken a photo of the bike down, but to be honest, didn’t even think about it, was only thinking about getting up and keeping going. This road was GREAT!

After a short time, I was able to walk, I found that the bike was so top heavy that I very nearly could not pick it up. It took everything that I had to get it picked up. I was able to take off and make it to the top without having to go back down. I then walked back down and attempted to photo it forward, and backwards, though the photo’s don’t do the steepness of it justice.

1^st stage. Rocks are where I fell

2^nd stage Starting above rocks

Looking back down from the top

This road lead through a series of roads that eventually became pavement. My next turn would be on an unimproved dirt road that paralleled the railroad tracks down to the next bridge on my map.

At any rate, you should have a feel by now for how the roads were. It was great and I will probably go back next year.

Even though it wouldn’t seem that it could, things got a little better when I stopped for lunch at this store.

In this area, one store does everything, groceries, fuel, sandwiches, etc… Old store has stained wood floors. Notice the Harley out front. I had caught him out of the corner of my eye cruising down the road as I entered the store. He turned around and came back when he saw my bike. He had a story about planning to go to Sturgis, but his buddy had crashed his bike so now he didn’t have anyone to go with. I ate my sandwich while he asked questions, but didn’t offer much information about himself. He found it odd that I had come to photograph old bridges, but he decided that he would ride along with me, as he was looking for someone to ride with. As the day wore on and we would stop and talk, it turned out that he works for a construction company that both tears down old bridges and builds new ones. He works third shift and was off until Wednesday night. I advised him that I intended to ride as much dirt road and unimproved dirt road as I could find. He decided that he would follow me on the smooth roads and that if he turned around, just keep going and don’t worry about it. Approx 2 miles down the road I turned left onto dirt and he followed. About then, the GPS track stopped so I was on my own with maps, but had not developed a perspective on scale for using them, as I had not been using them, only relying on the GPS. I intended to drop around the south end of a State Park/Lake that the paved road that we had been on ran north of. Since it is an old strip mine area, there are roads everywhere, but none are marked. According to the map, I was searching for the second road to the right. In reality, it wasn’t that easy. At a left turn in the road, we stopped to try and read the map and determine where this right turn would be. After I returned home, the road that I had chosen on my Delorme program, isn’t even on the Garmin program. It was an umimproved, probably old strip mine road.

Stopped at the left turn trying to figure out where I am. Crazy Harley Guy-Kevin Dotson from Huntington, WV

So now that I have proof of this crazy Harley guy, here comes the rest of the story. I cannot read the map accurately enough to tell where we are. There are no road signs once we leave pavement. Kevin decides that he may know where we are. He sends me right, he heads south down the smoother gravel road, as he thinks that the road that I am headed down is too rough for the Harley.

So here I go

The road is an unimproved dirt road. I head north on it. I ride maybe 1 or 2 miles while keeping an eye on the GPS. As I go north I can see that I am still on the east side of the lake, when I intended to go around the south end, so I turn around and head back. To the “smooth” dirt road and head south as the Kevin had done.

After a half mile or so, there is a dirt road to the right, no sign of course. This agrees with my sense of direction, so I turn and follow it over a mountain. The road was maintained, but was severely washed from heavy rains. Going up hill included ruts washed across the road and stutter bumps. Over the mountain and down the other side, signs announce that the land alongside the road is private property of a mining company and that no trespassing is allowed. Eventually I pass what appears to be an electric plant that a sign states is also owned by this mining company. The very next right hand turn is blind and I meet an 18 wheeled coal truck in the center. The road would be narrow regardless, but he allows no extra room for me. Any closer, and the KLR would have been in the ditch. The good news, is that surely I am nearing pavement of some form, since the big trucks wouldn’t be running dirt roads any farther than they have to. Another mile or so and I come to a major dirt road intersection. As I enter the intersection the signs clearly state “Private Property, Property of this (I cannot remember the name) mining company, No trespassing, No ATV’s, turn back now. What? I sit near the intersection and watch mining trucks and articulating loaders pass back and forth, playing with the GPS that indicates that I am ON a county road, not mining property. Finally, I decide to ride back the way that I had come, back to pavement and start over. Heading back down the hill from the intersection, I look to the left and catch a bent over sign that states “County Road” and an arrow pointing under this bridge. The road looks like a driveway, but here we go. It passes under the bridge, past the mining intersection, and then joins back to the main road. I later learn that the bridge is portable and that the mining company has the right to change the roads as they need to, as long as they provide a path for the locals. Apparently, this is where the 18 wheeler originated from.

Up over another mountain on a rough maintained road, down the other side and I hit a section of pavement and meet a car with Kevin following behind on his Harley! What’s the chance of that? I wave, he stops in the road, so I pull over in a driveway. He joins me and we both agree that we have no idea whatsoever where we are. Then a guy comes along on a Kawasaki Mule, he stops at the mailboxes and we wave him over. He used to drive a coal truck and makes us guess where we are. Turns out that we were 5 miles south of the Wayne county line, with me thinking that I was still in Wayne County. He gives us directions to get out. He states that we will have to pass over two mountain tops and that he doesn’t think that the Harley can make it. After reviewing directions with the guy, Kevin asks which way I am going. I told him that I am taking the rough roads, he decides to try and follow. I travel up the mountain. If it takes a couple of minutes to lose sight of him in my mirrors, I ride another couple before I stop to wait. He keeps telling me that if he is holding me up, to go on without him, but he really isn’t holding me up much, and it is fun riding with someone else. The road up the first mountain was maintained, but rain washed and rough. At the top, we had this view.

A few feet after this, things began to get worse, as the mountain road turned into an old logging road, was very steep, with sharp switchbacks, long drops off the sides, soft road surface, and large rolling rocks on top. I could not stop the KLR, only slow it to maintain some control. I have ridden large street bikes off roads for kicks, but it is no fun, I cannot imagine how Kevin was able to ride down this, but he did. I never had to wait long. Usually by the time I turned the motor off I could hear him coming, by the time I had it started and back in gear he was there. It gets better, unfortunately, I did not get photo’s, so you will have to accept my version. It has been 9 days since this happened, and my memory is starting to forget specifics, so I cannot remember if this was the first hill or the second, but both had the steep downhill switchbacks, one ran down a creek bed for maybe 100 yards. Prior to the creek bed was a creek crossing, then up over a short hill, then a very muddy section that slanted steeply from high on the right to low on the left. The KLR could not stay at the top and drifted down. The bigger problem was that right off the left was a mud hole with likely no bottom, judging by how soft the road bed itself was. Now, if enough speed was carried, you might get past this and then there was a berm on the left to slide into and catch yourself. I made it, but stopped the KLR and began to wonder what kind of crane might be required to get this Harley out of the mud hole. Did I mention that the only 2 places that my cell had a single for two days was Huntington and Charleston? Nowhere else, which ruled out calling for help, not to mention that I still had no idea where we were. Planning strategy for getting the Harley out proved to be a waste of time, as Kevin hit it on the high side and carried speed, all the while with the right floorboard dragging the high side, and he made it to the berm. He was smiling form ear to ear. He couldn’t believe that he was riding his Harley on this type of roads, but he was having so much fun that it was hard to argue different. The directions that included two rights at two intersections turned out to be three rights at three intersections, but we came out exactly where the Coal truck driver said we would. Back on pavement, we traveled to a local store for water and headed south for the next bridge.

Turkey Creek 41/1 Bridge-Wayne County WV

I planned to ride this pavement out until it turned into an unimproved dirt road and follow that over the next mountain to get to the next bridge. Reading the map, I show Kevin, but remind him that some of the dirt roads have actually been paved and so had some of the unimproved roads. He decides to follow and see. After a mile or so pavement ended in a creek bed, GPS confirms that this is the road. Kevin heads through the weeds on the left side of the creek, staying on the bank while I go down the creek. Maybe 100yds later the road turns 90 degrees to the right, I can’t see Kevin, but hear him. Suddenly he pops out of the weeds, down the creek bank to join me. The road up was steep, unmaintained, rocky, and rain washed. When I got to the top I waited, and before long, here Kevin came. No doubt, he is a very good rider. We talked at the top and he told of riding his ATV one day over 150 miles. While this is probably not legal, doesn’t that sound like a dream? Low population bases provide opportunities like that. Heading down the other side was more of the steep, switchback, soft dirt surface with drop offs on the side, and rolling rocks. This didn’t faze Kevin. With each mountain that we crossed, his smile only got bigger!

We got photo’s of a few more bridges, then I decided to head back north, as we were approx 90 miles south of Huntington, where I intended to stay the night and still had a few to hit on the way back, and it was approx 7:00pm. I found a new bridge on the left (old one, but we hadn’t expected it as it wasn’t on the list) and decided to take the Old N&W railroad road back, as it parallels Hwy 152 and had another bridge ahead near the other end that I wanted to get. This road starts on pavement, turns to gravel, turns into grass in a field, and then disappears over a drop. We park and walk ahead to see what we might be getting into, then realize that there is a train tunnel ahead. The GPS and the map shows the road going through, but there are trees fallen across the entrance, tunnel had water in it, and no light could be seen on the other side, so we turned back.

Old N&W Railroad Rd Tunnel

Kevin asks if I would be willing to stop for a beer, and I agree, so we hit the main road and stopped just south of Huntington, then headed on to Huntington afterwards. Turns out that he only lives approx 2 miles from the hotel that I stayed at, so we part at the traffic light in front of the Days Inn, with me thanking him and him telling me to call tomorrow and he would ride with me again.

7/31/07 I have a little time in the morning to kill, then need to start for home. My intention was to work my way from East to West through Kentucky without riding on a major east/west highway. One look at a map and it becomes clear that this isn’t the fast way through Kentucky. I wasn’t going to call Kevin, but after breakfast, I thought what the heck, it had been fun, so I called. It seemed that I might have woke him up, but he said that he would be there in 15 minutes. I filled with fuel and waited. He took me over to Barboursville to see a bridge that had recently been bypassed with a new one that he had a hand in building. We then went south and caught 3 bridges, then I decided that I had best get into Kentucky to start home. He showed me the way to Fort Gay/Louisa. I must say that while I could certainly lead him on the dirt (one would hope), even get slightly away from him on pavement corners, Kevin is the king of the open straightaway!

At Louisa I took the lead and followed the GPS route. It took us over a couple of mountain tops, through some valleys, endless beautiful scenery, excellent pavement, and little traffic. The GPS route stopped abruptly (getting used to it), and I generally just headed east. I ended up riding on a highway that wound back and forth under the Daniel Boone Expressway, eventually stopping for fuel.

Kevin and I headed for Fort Gay, WV/Louisa, KY

Kevin decided that he should head back. There was a Sporster rider in the drive and he thought that he could get Kevin back to I-64 so that he could head home. While we were talking, a guy rode in on a Gold Wing Trike and he advised us that a log truck was overturned on the road ahead, but that one lane at a time could still pass. I said goodbye and headed that way, except by the time that I arrived, the wrecker was trying to get the log truck back on it’s wheels. The wrecker had the road blocked, and jockeyed back and forth several times trying to get proper leverage. Cars had been there so long that the drivers had gotten out to watch, so I turned back to the gas station intersection. I met Kevin and the Sporster guy and waved, leaving them to manage their time in their own way. At the gas station, I headed south hoping to find an alternate road to the west. Natural Bridge State park seemed to go on forever, with no roads to the west. After what seemed like 40 miles of heading south/east (wanting to go South/west), There was finally a gravel road to the West that the GPS showed going through in a series of links. Following the path that the GPS indicated lead me to this old maintenance road built into a cliff.

The road was washed out in places on the left side of the photo (right side of bike) and there were ATV wheel tracks, but I didn’t see anyone and am sure that cars have not been here for a long time. I ride this out until it reaches a series of mud holes. There is some piping across the mud holes, which seems out of place. I decide that getting the KLR buried in one of the mud holes is stupid, and get off to walk past them to see if it is even worth the effort to try. A bit farther along I see this old oil well pump

Now I knew what the piping was for. Studying the GPS while trying to make a decision, I realize that this fork dead ends after the mud holes, so head back to the fork, ride up the other path and pass the old oil holding tanks on the hillside. I would assume that there are a few more oil pumps around here and that service trucks once drove down this road to haul oil out. That seems adventuresome, even when the road was maintained! If the GPS is correct, the road that I need to follow goes up a steep, rock strewn uphill that has been grooved out by ATV’s. Getting up this hill would be a challenge. I don’t know that there isn’t a fence at the top, or more uphills after this one, so I return to the last road and head further south. Shortly I am able to follow gravel to the west and eventually reach pavement. Making it to Bowling Green, KY for the night, I arrive around 8:00pm.

8/1/07 Another beautiful day! I head east for Columbus, KY, traveling through the Land Between the lakes area prior to reaching Columbus. My map program has indicated that there would be a ferry at Columbus. Turning toward the river at Columbus I see the sign that says “Ferry Closed”

Sight of closed ferry in Columbus, KY, can see road on the other side. Anyone got a ramp?

From here it is maybe 100 miles north to Cairo for bridge crossing, or go south to I-55. I decide that riding home through Arkansas, while longer, is probably the most interesting, so head south for Memphis. I follow the Great River Road and arrive at Hickson, KY where signs announce that there is a ferry. Riding through town to reach the ferry, I am coming down a hill and realize that I am seeing a flood wall. I don’t think that I have seen one before, so here is a photo of it.

Reaching the ferry, it was gone to the other side, so I occupied time by snapping some photo’s on the Kentucky side.

Leaving Kentucky

Missouri side ahead.

Ferry goes between 5mph and 5.4 mph against the current, the GPS says. From the landing, I took the side roads to I-55, then rode Hwy 60 home. It was the first time that I have traveled the new section between Cape Girardeau and roughly Van Buren. The last time that I had traveled it, it was two lane with limited passing opportunities. Now it is divided four lane and you can fly. The section between Van Buren and West Plains is under construction and when done, will make traveling between Cape Girardeau and West Plains a breeze. Ran through one heavy, but short rain storm on the way home and was sitting on my couch by 7:30pm. Now I just need to find the IZH………..