Saturday, May 12, 2007

Bike Blogging #2

Welcome to another Saturday and another Bike Blogging. Today I took a slightly shorter ride (27 miles) than last week. I went through downtown Charleston and rode east up to Dry Branch near Campbell's Creek.


Below is a railroad trestle over Dry Branch.



Below are a couple of shots of Walnut Gap Road, which goes right up the mountain from Dry Branch. It's exactly a mile to the top of the hill... which rises about three hundred feet (give or take, not sure). The pavement is new since the last time I've been here and that is new guardrail too. It's welcome because that's almost straight down on the left side.



At the top of Walnut Gap is a loooong downhill run to Valley Grove. I turn left off of Valley Grove Road onto Rutledge Road. This little bridge across Twomile Creek is on Rutledge Road.


I stopped at the Coonskin Go-Mart to suck down a Gatorade.


When I passed the recycling center on Barlow Drive, I noticed what looked like a large pile of gravel but it was sparkling. There were several huge piles of the stuff. Closer inspection revealed that it was broken glass. Huh.


Through town and up Louden Heights Road to Newton Road. This so-called "private drive" is what an old friend of mine called "the Beverly Hills of Charleston". Beautiful stately homes set in impeccable park-like gardens. (Click the photo for a larger view. This panorama is put together from 3 photos. UPDATE, I just replaced this photo with a much larger one.)

It's a nice route to take to get back up on the hill. From there it's an easy ride back to Hunters Ridge.

5 comments:

Grumpy Old Man said...

I'll be flying back there with my Bike Friday any day now.

I hope they don't make a habbit of running over Yankees

Rick Lee said...

Get a couple of cyclists together and it won't take long for the conversation to turn to dogs and jerks-in-cars. We have our share of bicycle hating idiots, but I mostly ride in very low traffic areas. One thing you'll find about West Virginians. If you act friendly, people will be friendly. I always have a nod and a wave for everybody I see. It's really great to see people's expressions change from "here comes another one of those nancy-boys on his skinny bike" to "oh, hi there friend!".

I got chased by a dog which appeared to be a pit-bull mixed with something dark. Man that thing could run. I was on a slight downhill grade so I wasn't too concerned about him but he kept right with me at 25mph for about 10 seconds. I've never seen a dog run that fast before.

Roberta said...

Funny. I used to live out Campbell's Creek. Didn't look that good at the time!

Rick Lee said...

Hehe... I guess it still doesn't. I didn't take any photos on Dry Branch Road for similar reasons. It's not especially photogenic. But Walnut Gap Road really does look like that, because nobody lives on it.

Ryan said...

That's a nice early 90s Cannondale. Only the logo script and the cantilever dropouts give away its age.