West Virginia Routes

Completely new to posting GPS routes, so hope this goes well. Since I lived a large part of my life in West Virginia, I know a few roads with great twisties, beautiful scenery. I don't have any pictures but will give a little information about the route that I will be posting. All will be in GPX format, and they can easily be converted to other formats via the internet. Just Google what format you want to convert to. I am sure most poeple already know this. It is really neat to convert and view them in Google Earth.

The first GPX file will be an approximately 131 mile ride using mostly back roads from Marlinton, West Virginia. It has very little two lane and is mostly one lane blacktop with some gravel. As stated earlier the first one starts in Marlinton, WV and ends in the community where I lived as a child until adulthood. My roots run deep in those parts, and if you see somebody around Dawson, chances are we are related or they know me. Everybody from West Virginia are related, lol

A couple things to look for and do on the route. First be very careful, especially on the one lane blacktop road from Alderson over Bennett Mountain. People fly on that road, and there are many blind corners and it could get nasty. On the way to Lewisburg, considering you leave from Marlinton and not reverse from Dawson to Marlinton, you will go close by Blue Bend State Park on Anthony Creek, a tributary of the Greenbrier River. You will cross the Greenbrier a few times also. Lewisburg is a nice town to visit, and the route takes you through there. Many historical markers and such to read, and old buildings are there also. If you are there in mid to late August the State fair will be going on near Lewisburg in Fairlea. As you are going through Blue Sulpher Springs, you will see the remains of an old Spring House with huge columns just sitting in a field. There once was a hotel which was the equivalent to the Greenbrier Hotel, in White Sulpher Springs, WV, but was burned down after changing hands numerous time during the Civil War. There is a campsite and restaurant/gas station, as well as a small inn at Dawon next to I-64.

Ok for the second GPX route, we will leave Dawson, WV head over little sewell mountain to Rainelle, this is almost entirely one lane blacktop, and some gravel. From Rainelle we go to Babcock State Park. This place is very scenic, and has what is probably the most photographed Grist Mill in the World. Stop in you won’t be let down. Next you will be taken round about to Hawks Nest State Park. Two lane highways, with lots of curves, and one lane roads. You will also go through Summerville, and Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park before you get to Hawks Nest. The route ends at Rays Campground, I will always try to end you at a campground. The whole route is only 109 miles, but slow going due to curving roadways, and you stopping to take pictures every 5 minutes

Keep 'em coming! WV is one of my favorite places to ride, will definitely put these in the list for next year!

Glad somebody can use the files being uploaded. Will be posting more soon, well in a couple weeks or so. Moving back to Colorado in the next couple weeks. Can't stand all the sandy riding down here in Florida.

thanks for the route

Subscribed - Im planning a trip to WV for me and my dad in July. This should be useful. Thanks!

Can you recommend any campsites?

I recently discovered WVa County road maps online:

http://www.transportation.wv.gov/highways/programplanning/gti/GIS/MAPS/Pages/WVCountyMaps.aspx

These maps are free & suprisingly useful for DS riding. Prior to finding these maps much of my WVa off road riding resulted in dead ends - even with a Garmin GPS. The problem with Garmin street mapping (in WVa & elsewhere) is that I can't tell what's actually routable vs. a hiking trail or private road closed to motor vehicles.

These WVa county maps changed that. The WVa County maps correlate pretty well w/ Garmin's City Navigator. Using these maps & a Garmin GPS, a friend & I recently navigated across WVa (from Va to Ohio) w/ 85% of the route off road. I only got off route a couple times & had to turn around. Without the aid of the County maps, I probably would have had to turn around 100 times.

The WVa maps differentiate 6 different qualities of dirt roads (from "impassable" to "gravel or stone". Unlike county gravel roads in Virginia, some of the hills on lower quality WVa "primitive" or "unimproved" roads would require knobbys to navigate in the wet. The maps also indicate USFS and private roads. Good Stuff.