PA, MD, VA, WV Routes (Dirt Roads)

I road these routes down to the BMW Xplor (tracks and routes from that event are not included) event in Charlottelsville, VA from Princeton, NJ (I stared the routes at X3Start waypoint).

The routes actually start in Frenchtown, NJ.

The routes include some great dirt roads, twisites and backroads. All routes worked flawlessly (off-road navigation).

Here's a summary:
PA: great rural dirt roads through Michaux, the mountains and beyond. Ridge road is long and great! All legal, no gates, all fun.

MD: farm land dirt roads, some nice hills, some local forest to check out, near to Greenridge a worth while jaunt. Route to Greenridge included.

VA: nice twisties, farm roads and deep gravel with a bunch of houses. Roads flowed nicely, no traffic. Skyline drive is great but speed limit sucks, road down from Skyline into Charlottesville is really nice.

WV loop: includes roads around Seneca Rocks, Spruce Knob. Great roads, a few nice gravel roads and mountain roads where you have to open and close cattle gates! Can't go wrong with any road in that area.

Green flag wayponts are dirt roads that may or may not be along the route.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20883724/GPS Routes.zip

ok, 400 plus views and 115 downloads on a proven route with tracks and no replies?

I guess folks are too busy drooling and dreaming over the possibillity of riding these routes or better yet maybe they are out riding them! I am taking off right now for the WVA Border and will use some of the points around Seneca.Will let you know how it goes upon my return. Thanks for putting all this great info out here!

sorry, i would have replied sooner had i found it earlier.

now to covert this to a roll chart....


actually, i do have a question (if you are still checking on this thread)

how much of the route through PA is dirt? it looks like it's all pavement until you get to MD/VA area.
ridge rd looks fun.

When I try to open it, it says "invalid mapsource file" :huh

I have 6.14.1 so maybe thats the problem. I tried going back to the older version but then I can't open MS at all.

i just used an online viewer that's based off of google maps. it's not the best, but it works just to get an overview.

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

I tried that and I get this "No valid GPS data detected"

send me your email and I can send you a Garmin gdb file

Actually, the most remote and best sections of dirt start at Ridge Rd in PA. It's mostly dirt from Ridge Rd all the way to MD.

Dirt roads in MD and VA have a lot of houses along them compared to PA.

To get more dirt in MD I suggest going up to Greenridge Forest, MD. See optional route.

Pressed for time I cut a lot of dirt out in VA but the route we took down to Skyline Dr was nice.

i had no issues uploading it. sorry

i did X3, X4 and most of X5 friday and yesterday.

the route through Michaux (ridge rd) was pretty cool, just VERY rough in the beginning. i couldn't keep anything strapped down it seems. i'm still mourning the loss of my water bottle and gas can.

the MD part i wasn't so crazy about. there were some awesome dirt roads, but it seems like in order to connect the dirt roads you had to loop back over and over and over. a few of the dirt roads were pretty washboarded and there were all kinds of potholes. it would have been ok if i didn't have all my gear with me. the roads are also very narrow and 2 way. i came upon several vehicles coming the other direction and had to squeeze into the ditch or against the embankment on the side to get around them.

i LOVED the VA route. once again, it seems to go out of it's way to get dirt roads in, but the dirt in VA was the best. I even took a few side trips just to run down more roads. i actually caught myself having a blast back there too. had i not been alone i would have been backing it in a lot more and worrying less.

i wish i would have made it into WV, but i was tired and didn't feel like running pavement all the way out there when i had about 300 miles to get back home already. if the route was as convoluted as it is in MD and VA. i'm thinking that if i wasn't alone and therefore preoccupied with "how long will it take for someone to find my body" should something go wrong i would have enjoyed it more.

overall a good route though. i think i'll go back to michaux a few times (and with less crap strapped to the bike)

Thanks for the notes, can you provide some tracks and waypoints so I can improve the routes?


Thanks,


Rob

i didn't really add any waypoints, and because i've only had it a few days i did a dumb and deleted all my tracks on tuesday while trying to reset my trip data.
I'll check again when I get home to see if i actually saved it all, but i'm not hopefull right now.

i'll try and match it up against a better map than the base one and find the water, gas, and supply stops i made.
i did take note of a winery along the way. it was located on a pretty nice dirt road named axeline rd. (i think it's already a waypoint on the list, but you bypass it to follow the route)

Any idea where i can get a better map thant hebase map for cheaper than garmin wants to sell it to me? (yes i'm a cheap bastard)

Tracks are the most important! d'oh! Don't delete that good info!

I guess you'll just have to go ride it again in order to record more data !

I can make a base map provided we get some good tracks. That way instead of downloading the route, you can just use the AT base map. Need to proof the routes first though.

In the mean time don't be so cheap and buy a US Topo Base Map from Garmin.

i'm torn between a street map and a topo map. it would be great to have one that had streets and topo information, but for me i think the streets are a bit more important. i can tell how steep the hill is by eyeing it up, and i have an altimeter now too. i never really needed that info before (then again i have been on the street mostly anyways)

also, i'm scottish, i can't help being cheap.


actually, i would love to ride it again, but with a riding partner, and not have to ride all the way out burning knobbies. I think i can remember where the spots are that I stopped at for the most part. I just need to find a way to add a waypoint to the .gpx file you created. i might just switch to google earth plus for that.

if you do it and you find my gas can and water bottle please let me know. the crappy bungee cords that were holding them in place can be left to rot, they won't be missed.

I didn't screw up as much as i thought i did. I saved the tracks, but without your waypoints. i also somehow deleted the tracks from home to almost all the way through the state park.

i only added a few waypoints to mark places i stopped while on the trail. i didn't really stop for much along the way or even to take pics. here's a couple that i did take though.

on ridge rd


they even tell you that it is going to be rough


somewhere in MD


random winery along my fav VA dirt rd (that's not on the ride) Axeline Rd.
it was just a pretty area


and the .gpx file of most of the trip.

I am having trouble downloading the waypoints. Can you cross the ridge from Tott's Gap on the DWG side to the Portland side? I'm sure it's possible, just not sure how and don't want to do it solo if I don't know the way. Old maps show that it's still connected somehow. Thanks.