Fall Colors 2016

[wardie]

Last year all day on and off on Saturday it rained. Nate and I decided to ride the entire day rain or not and we made the New River Gorge Bridge and some other stops in route to a couple hundred mile adventure ride. I too am looking forward to cooler weather. I thought I'd never say that ever but the 90 degrees at 8pm on Saturday night at the Fly By was well.....hot.

[HawkGTRider]

Last year all day on and off on Saturday it rained. Nate and I decided to ride the entire day rain or not and we made the New River Gorge Bridge and some other stops in route to a couple hundred mile adventure ride. I too am looking forward to cooler weather. I thought I'd never say that ever but the 90 degrees at 8pm on Saturday night at the Fly By was well.....hot.

I had a bit different agenda this year for my trip to the MPFB. I've been collecting National Park Service site stamps in my NPS passport, and I visited National Park Service sites much of the weekend. On the way up to Marietta Friday, I got an early start from home around 5:30 a.m. and went by the William Howard Taft Education Center and Home in Cincinnati, up to Dayton where I visited and collected the stamps for all five locations of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park, over by the Charles Young Buffalo Soldier National Monument in Wilberforce (near Xenia), then to near Chillcothe to the Mound City Group-Hopewell Culture National Historic Park, and finally arrived in Marietta.
Saturday I hit the slab around 6:00 a.m. to Mentor (east of Cleveland) to visit the James A. Garfield National Historic Site, headed south by several NPS sites associated with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and then to Canton to visit the First Ladies National Historic Site.
I had a commitment Sunday evening at church, so I needed to get home promptly. I hit the road around 6:15 a.m. from Marietta, and boogied down the big road to Beckley where I picked up SR16 (at last...a curvy road!). I stayed with that all the way to Marion, VA, and then slabbed it home. I got there in plenty of time to shower and such before heading to handbell practice at church.

I'd never been to any of these locations, so it was a treat to visit them on the weekend the NPS was celebrating their 100th anniversary.

To finally get to the point, Wardie is absolutely correct. The high temperatures that weekend made it tough going. That's why I left before daylight each day of the weekend, and I had 3-4 hours of riding in comfortable temperatures. Some areas were a bit foggy, and riding through that I actually got a little coolish wearing mesh gear.

I'm really looking forward to autumn riding this year.

[stevegrab]

I've not been able to attend a FCR for a few years, but I remember leaving early one year when the forecast showed a strong possibility of white frozen stuff falling from the sky. It was pretty darned chilly when I left, but turned out to be a really pleasant day once I got 50-100 miles south of the site. Now located at a different site and a little earlier in the autumn season, I think that particular scenario is much less likely to happen.
I'm scheduled to work on Friday, but I'd sure like to buzz on up that way for the rest of the weekend. We'll see.

Sounds like one of the years at Snowshoe when it was ugly on Saturday and many went home. We stayed until Sunday, they had 4 inches of snow up on the mountain, the ski lodge was on the weather channel that morning as we were getting dressed to go to breakfast. They had used cinders on US219 heading north towards Elkins. It was a very cold and wet ride home. I think it was about 35 when we left that morning.

A few years later at Lewisburg I had frost on my bike that morning, and temps were again well below 40 when we left for home. This may also have been before it got moved up one week.
I can handle wet, I can even handle some cold. I cannot handle both together, especially when I have a nearly 400 mile ride home.

All that being said, weather will be fantastic so don't even worry about it. Summer ends now, need to treat it like a fall event, long pants not shorts, long sleeve shirts, warmer gloves, etc. Oh and that bottle of adult beverage to warm up on a cool night. Like Syd said we try not to talk about or jinx it. We all need to ask the man for a favor that weekend 
Goeffrey.

Just buzz on up, its only about 300 miles

[stevegrab]

Last year all day on and off on Saturday it rained. Nate and I decided to ride the entire day rain or not and we made the New River Gorge Bridge and some other stops in route to a couple hundred mile adventure ride. I too am looking forward to cooler weather. I thought I'd never say that ever but the 90 degrees at 8pm on Saturday night at the Fly By was well.....hot.

One lesson I've learned attending events, if the weather is bad at the event site, get out of there for the day. At Snowshoe the year it snowed we didn't leave on Saturday, did sightseeing and such around Cass, GreenBank etc. Those who left and went for a ride got away from the system that sat on the mountain (not being at Snowshoe has alleviated some of that).

The second half of that is what direction do you go, and finding the area where the storm is likely to not be is tricky. Rich and I did that at FCR on Friday last year, mostly north towards Snowshoe, and hit about 40 minutes of rain (and got soaked) at the end. But on Friday night we decided that wasn't prudent for Saturday, then possibly an all day ride home in the rain. So we left Saturday morning, headed west on US60 about an hour or so in some light mist. After that we were mostly out of the rain and linked up with always fun WV16 near Gauley Bridge and had a good ride home (don't recall half day of rain like Rich said).

Geoffrey,
Wow that was some ride you did to hit those parks, didn't realize you went all the way to Cleveland area and back and through my backyard (Cuyahoga Valley NP). You ran a great stretch of WV/VA 16 from Beckley to Marion, including the Back Of The Dragon mountain passes by Hungry Mother State Park

Autumn riding is some of the best, our skills are their best from a full riding season, the temps are comfy, the leaves are changing or gone (making site lines better).

[HawkGTRider]

I'm scheduled to work on Friday, but I'd sure like to buzz on up that way for the rest of the weekend. We'll see.

I can handle wet, I can even handle some cold. I cannot handle both together, especially when I have a nearly 400 mile ride home.

Goeffrey.
Just buzz on up, its only about 300 miles

Heck yeah, I won't even have to get up early to cover that amount of mileage. That is, unless I decide to make it a dual sport ride. (NOT!)

[stevegrab]

I'm scheduled to work on Friday, but I'd sure like to buzz on up that way for the rest of the weekend. We'll see.

I can handle wet, I can even handle some cold. I cannot handle both together, especially when I have a nearly 400 mile ride home.

Goeffrey.
Just buzz on up, its only about 300 miles

Heck yeah, I won't even have to get up early to cover that amount of mileage. That is, unless I decide to make it a dual sport ride. (NOT!)

Take I-81 to Roanoke then come up VA 311 (Paint Bank). That only adds about 20 miles and some great twisties near the end of the day, before the last bit of slab on 64

[HawkGTRider]

I'm scheduled to work on Friday, but I'd sure like to buzz on up that way for the rest of the weekend. We'll see.

I can handle wet, I can even handle some cold. I cannot handle both together, especially when I have a nearly 400 mile ride home.

Goeffrey.
Just buzz on up, its only about 300 miles

Heck yeah, I won't even have to get up early to cover that amount of mileage. That is, unless I decide to make it a dual sport ride. (NOT!)

Take I-81 to Roanoke then come up VA 311 (Paint Bank). That only adds about 20 miles and some great twisties near the end of the day, before the last bit of slab on 64

That's one of the routes I've considered. I'm thinking about getting there in the most expedient manner on Saturday, doing some riding in the area on Sunday, and then coming home on Monday via a more meandering route.

[wardie]

it's amazing how many people are on the Intelligent weather reports. They really can aid in staying out or away from severe weather. Good suggestions Steve. Looking forward to riding this Friday. I managed about 350 miles running down to Mid Ohio and moseying back the long way. Funny temps are in the low 70's now but when the sun goes down so do the temps!!

[stevegrab]

Had a partially rainy 375 mile mostly back road ride here. It poured later and we have some forecast rain Friday, but Saturday and Sunday look better.

[Patmo]

Hope you guys have good weather, everyone stays safe, and all have a great time.

[wardie]

Patmo we killed it man.

Great ride down plenty of twists and tumbles on Friday on Rt. 60/16.

Saturday ride led by Steve Grabowski was awesome. Met some new friends did 220 or so curvy miles plenty of fun and a great dinner after.

Kudos to Steve Grabowski for having us along for the ride Saturday.

A true 1,000 mile weekend!

[RichGrab]

Hope you guys have good weather, everyone stays safe, and all have a great time.

Yeah Pat, when we gonna see you at FCR?? We missed you. It was a great time, lots of fun riding, Saturday's lunch stop was especially nice and tucked away in the forest of Douthat State Park. Friday's trip under the New River Gorge Bridge followed by lunch at the "Secret Sandwich Society" in Fayetteville also fun (second time I'd ridden that old road -wow twisty ain't the word for it). Sunday ride back to Ohio stupendous. All told, just short of 1600 mile from MI-OH-WV-VA-OH-MI. Lets do it again!!!!

[stevegrab]

Patmo we killed it man.

Great ride down plenty of twists and tumbles on Friday on Rt. 60/16.

Saturday ride led by Steve Grabowski was awesome. Met some new friends did 220 or so curvy miles plenty of fun and a great dinner after.

Kudos to Steve Grabowski for having us along for the ride Saturday.

A true 1,000 mile weekend!

Glad you enjoyed yourselves, the route masters laid out a good one (route 4 I think with 311 to Paint Bank) and my brother and I found a nice way to short cut it into a shorter ride that worked well for our group and the nice lunch stop. And the weather, was just perfect that day.