Getting up and over and getting up and over again were obvious before start – that and the no turning back feature that has its own potency manifested in the positive by eliminating any creeping bail out notions. We were riding bikes from Front Royal to RTR and if you did want to go back your gear was still in the support vehicle headed to the Barn. Not that anyone showed hesitation. The group was strong and solid and the stakes had already been established prior to depart.
Most of the pieces already exist. New ones are open to investigation and interpretation. The sequence, an assemblence of tracks, stretches, lanes and corridors; surfaces and textures visited but not yet connected.
South Branch Mountain. Shenandoah Mountain.  Elkhorn Mountain. Spring Mountain. Foremost Mountain. Flattop Mountain.  Wolfpen Hollow. Reynolds Knob.  Stump Knob. Peru Gap….
Something distinct leaves an imprint. If it’s long, vast, sprawling AND distinct it leaves a full and winding imprint. One that returns in slow subtle ways. A bike race, a bike ride, a sporting event, a backwoods adventure. Anything really – it could be a long night of metropolitan clubbing strung together in sparks and stops. The shades and colors between a beginning and an end. The activity and then the recollections are what define us. We piece together what has transpired.  Sometimes a vague shadow fades to a small memory but if it’s distinct the grooves are drawn sharp. They keep coming. They prompt and inform us.
Or…….., so you don’t have to, or
you have the option to, or
maybe I am a glutton for punishment and just can’t help myself.Â
The reality is somewhere between, above, below and beyond. Recently I did a RTR recon ride. One I’m glad I did solo. It is not that the roads didn’t check out but the conditions and the lack of certainty made for some tense moments.  Â
Training riding, riding training, riding for pleasure, riding for pain, talking about training talking about racing – lifting pushing, pressing resting, calculating valuing coordinating scheduling and monitoring. The weather, the ways, the body the days – the things around you that prompt movement. Riding the damn bike - still, again.
INTERNET PEER PRESSURE
It is not that pressure is being directly applied and one can stay on their chosen course and ignore other doings. There have always been many ways to get to the same place. On the other hand comparing notes and being motivated and inspired by the exploits of others is the humanity that pushes our humanity, for better or worse, forward. The interwebs brings it all the more closer.  This is another way of saying the damn Winter Bike League made me do it!
It’s not that we’re tough or gluttons for punishment even though we are.  And it’s not about having something to prove even though proof now exists. It is more about something presenting itself and us wanting to be in it. The word adventure maybe comes to mind. Motivations and outcomes are peripheral. At the heart some effort and some unknown are required to ultimately and often only vaguely get to the quote-unquote, fun, but with completion the details that are acquired and the terrain that is now embedded more that settle that tab.
River Road Loop:Â http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52324136
The roads remain but the scenery changes. Routes change, surfaces change, conditions change and we change.
Garmin data:
Note: Garmin mapped version goes to a vaguely marked but rideable dirt road and an unopened interstate.  Good terrain but maybe hard to find. This is in the early section coming from Moorefield on Walnut Ridge Road heading west.  If you continue on Walnut to Patterson Creek Road the ride maps out similar and maybe more logically.
The Apple Orchard Loop comes off the back side of the barn and heads west crossing the next ridge beyond Moorefield and landing in a lightly traveled valley on Patterson Creek Road .
Heading north on the state road it’s a smooth riverside glide. Scenic stuff: old schools, barns and mills. There is usually a prevailing tail wind. This section follows the ridge that will be traversed back to the Apple Orchards and Twin Mountain Road . A bonus is that once up top and heading back or south the wind isn’t as big or noticeable. What forms a current in the lower valley seems to skip across the ridge top, especially since, in what is a unique feature, the mountain road is actually in a valley. It resembles a bowl on top of the mountain, thus ‘ Twin Mountain Road. ‘. Not something I’ve seen before.
