Day THIRTY-ONE, day ride out of lexington va
It pretty much poured all night so the day started a bit misty and grey. There was a bit of gravel scheduled for today’s ride so the girls had a day off to go shopping!!!!!!!!, we removed the panniers and headed out just after 0900 hrs.
This was a top ride, out of state riders, save this one as a must do if visiting this part of the country, on a dual purpose machine.
We started off heading south from Lexington on SR 251, Collierstown road, which is a little beauty with plenty of tight twists and turns all the way to Collierstown.
At Collierstown we turned left on Turnpike road, Route 770 which starts off as seal but soon turns to a gravel road over the summit of North Mountain, the Mountain that dominates the Skyline outside Lexington. The higher we got the rougher the road which clearly gets very little use, evidenced by the grass down the middle of the road.
Over the summit and down the other side was just as cool a ride. We rode down through the cloud cover and we hit tarseal again about Longdale Furnace.
Red and Horse headed off to do a bdr route heading north toward Goshen, while Mark and I carried on doing a very cool seal route on minor back roads. This is a must do ride for dual purpose and Harley riders alike as it is all Twisties but not so tight as to annoy a bagger.
We followed Route 269 to Clifton Forge where we had coffee and a bite to eat. Just south of town off the Bus 40, we hung a left on 696 to Low Moor then a bit later left again on the 616, Rich Patch Road. This is a wee hidden treasure, but the riding gets even better when you turn left again on the 621, Roaring Run Road. Roaring Run is narrower, so narrow it has no center line, boxed in on both side by the Jefferson National Forest and a motorcycling treasure.
Later at the tee we turned left on 615, Craig Creek Road all the way down to Eagle Rock, a wee village sitting there minding its own business. Exiting Eagle Rock on the 43, a bloke is greeted by a big sign “ watch out for motorcyclists “ so clearly a popular road for the two wheeled machines.
The 43 runs all the way to Buchanan, and instead of returning to Lexington on the Interstate, we followed the 43 up the range and popped back on the Blue Ridge Parkway to complete another 70 kms on the parkway back to Lexington. This section as the triple peaks so you climb steeply from the Buchanan end to close to 4000’ then drop like a stone to the first highway crossover before climbing up again over another gap and down to Humphrey’s gap again and down into Lexington. About 220 kms all up.
All in all a great days motorcycling on superb roads. This is our last day in Virginia. I have to say, the roads in Southern rural Virginia west of the Blue Ridge are made for motorcycling. If you are riding in this area, don,t get sucked in to staying on the BR Parkway, get out and do some loop rides as described over the last couple days, there is some great country , deserted of traffic, made for motorcycling and very close to the main centers.
First couple pics below are the dual purpose ride up and over North Mountain and the one with the down hill twists is typical of the riding on Roaring Run Road, Route 621, Virginia. That street name caught my attention, someone had a bit of license when naming streets in these parts eh?
