West Virginia and also other Virginias... minus the sadness (mostly): Part One

If you came here to read all about how Bill Nye and mine own second adventure to West Virginia and also other Virginias went all sideways like a rear wheel missing nineteen spokes, you will be let down muchly.

We hemmed and hawed all day Thursday looking at the weather hoping that things would look better in WV and that we wouldn't regret not changing our plan towards Tennessee.  It wasn't looking all that great, but Bill Nye's last text was something like:

"Fuck it.  We go to West Virginia one more time, and if it rains the whole time, we shall never speak of it again."

We roll into Big Bike Mike's driveway in Snowshoe around 1:00AM, and he and Hubbs are sitting on a tailgate waiting for us and looking at the big ass moon (and also bears).  We all stroll around in the moonlight to shake out our legs for a bit, on over towards the slopes and then retire for the night in the back of Bill Nye's #vanlife.

We awake to bluebird skies (and no bears).

Pick up our lift passes, join up with Kronic, and immediately head down Ninja Bob > Missing Link > Powerline.

Jeebus.

I tell myself on the lift ride back up that I'm gonna go rent a real bike at the bike shop.  This rigid shit on lift accessed trails is nuts.

I get up, the others head down Skyline, I go to the shop... look at the prices... right close to $100 with taxes and out the door for a bike.  Meh.  I like my beer money in my pocket too much to give it up and hate myself just enough to just ride a rigid fork all day long.

I get a run on Skyline, Skip from Roanoke finds us, Bill Nye rides with him and Kronic for a bit while I head over with Hubbs and Big Bike Mike to the Basin Side to ride Easy Street and Dreamweaver... before somehow I'm back with my ding dong Endurbros while Hubbs and Mike take a break. 

Now I'm in a group of I don't know how many, I'm trying to follow along to an unmarked trail called "P," lose Bill Nye's wheel and end up riding Dreamweaver again with the woman who was following me.  We do drop out on the gnarly "bailout trail," so there was that.

Back to the Western Territory...

Kronic doing that Kronic does.

Ball N Jac, Big Ash, Pro DH (yeth, that did suck on a rigid thank you very much), Lincoln Log, more Skyline, some Ten Gallon... back over to the Basin.

We were running outta time, but I wanted to max out my lift ticket and sunshine.  The lines on the lifts had thinned out to just us and very few others, so we got another run on Dreamweaver and M and O... and Raging Bull?

It's all a blur.  We rode other stuff, but when you're busy trying to keep your eyeballs and fillings in place, you kinda blank out on the small details.

Back to Big Bike Mike's...

commune with nature, shower, head up to the top of the mountain for some pizza before jumping into a bar to find Skip and Mo... miss the last chance for a shuttle home... start walking back down the mountain.

Fortunately, we caught the last shuttle driver on his way home, and he happily took us back to the van so we could sleep off the IPA induced haze for tomorrow and whatever may come of all that.