Ride Report: Solo Ride through Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Did a test run for some of my gears as I'm planning a cross country in August (fingers crossed). Attended t he Fox Run from Friday - Sunday. It's an all women moto camping event near Lancaster, PA. I don't have much pictures of the event. Rained pretty much the whole time and the 1mi road leading into the campground was all muddy. I can see those on cruisers and sport bikes struggling. A few girls dropped their bikes in those muddy conditions. The Scrambler, with full luggage, performed great. Stock tires too.
Sunday
Leaving camp at 9am. Rain stopped temporarily as I was packing up. Thank goodness. As you can see my luggage situation is not ideal. Decided to bring the Redverz tent as I knew I was gonna be spending a lot of time in the rain but it proved to be too big for this bike. Not much difference in ride quality, just tying everything down was a pain.
I was planning to be at Seneca Rocks, WV by the end of the day. Only made it half way. My right waterproof boot decided to leak and became a water bucket. My old cellphone GPS is not waterproof and I kept missing turns. 6hrs of rain riding later I was only halfway there. Then I slipped (boots had no traction), dropped my bike, broke the clutch lever and bent the shifter. Holy smokes. Why am I even on this trip. I just wanted to go home. Checked into the next inn I came across (holiday inn) and spent the night blasting heater and drying everything.
My bike is so small parked next to the big GS's.
Monday
The original plan was to head down to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN but yesterday in the rain, and more forecast of rain Thursday/Friday made me decide against it. I will just spend 3 days riding the area instead and head back before it rains again. My rain gear is not working. Why push it?
Made a stop to Triumph Harrisonburg to see if they can help me with my clutch. Robert, the guy running the shop and Jeff, the mechanic was super friendly. Jeff banged my half a lever back straight and adjusted my shifter and they did not charge me a dime coz they knew I was solo traveling. Super sweet folks!
They suggested I take Route 33 saying a lot of motorcyclists travel here to take that route and so I did. Route goes from Virginia to West Virginia cutting through George Washington National Forest and the mountains.
Finally. Seneca Rocks.
After some time at the rocks, I saw a looming rain cloud over the horizon. No!! Threw on all my gear in a flash and spent the next two hours racing the rain cloud. I was able to stay ahead of it in the sun until the end where another rain cloud formed in front of me and started drizzling. Well played, mother nature. Well played.
Stopped for gas and lunch and the big rain cloud caught up. Luckily it only rained for about half an hour and the cloud passed and I was able to continue on while staying dry.
Route 39 back to Virginia. Another beautiful road following a winding river.
