Vernal Equinox 2010: Ride On!

At 5:32p.m. Saturday the sun was directly aligned with Earth's Equator and I had just left McDowell, Va to return to the twisties of George Washington National Forest.

e·qui·nox
either of the equinoctial points.
–noun
1. the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21 (vernal equinox or spring equinox) and September 22 (autumnal equinox).

2. either of the equinoctial points.

U.S. 250 West of Staunton is a great place to ride and the Maple Festival in Monterey, Va was just the excuse needed to head out there. You may have seen on this very site a notice about a ride planned for Saturday. That did not work out quite the way I had expected so I struck out on my own. While waiting at the Burger King on the corner of Spotswood and Seminole Trails an SOB riding an older 1300 Goldwing from Richmond reminded me of the festival in Monterey. Deciding to ditch the group ride the Magna and I struck out west. Getting from Stanardsville to Monterey is indirect at best. I past Massanutten and took the interstate down to Staunton where I hopped on the route to Monterey, U.S. 250.

Central Virginian riders like to hold up Routes 33 and 211 as the favored roads in the area for riding the twisties. I have ridden these roads and they pale in comparison to U.S. 250. The GW Forest section features a variety of different style turns: switchbacks with large elevation changes, cambered twisties, blind hairpins, and a handful of high-speed curves. These can also be very technical beyond picking the appropriate line.

This ride is NOT recommended for beginners.

Beyond the twisties, the road itself is in rough shape. Several places on the forest mountain road are patched with loose gravel. Blaze orange signs warn of this hazard before entering those areas. My encounter with those spots were not that bad but definitely add to the pucker factor of flying around blind curves. Cagers also present an enormous challenge, mainly to your patience. There are very few places to legally pass a lumbering car. You can expect this road to be heavily traveled as well, especially on weekends.

Once the road levels out you are only a few miles from McDowell, Va. McDowell is a sleepy little valley town that is very friendly and welcoming. Of note, it is not Monterey which is about 9 miles further down the road. I did not know this as I blew past the sign that said McDowell Maple Festival. I pulled off the road into the parking lot of the Stonewall Ruritan Club where several vendors had setup within sight of U.S. 250. I was really hungry and was looking forward to eating a variety of local prepared festival foods. There was very little in the way of edible offerings.  Outside there were vendors selling jars of honey, bars of soap, crafts, t-shirts, but no maple syrup. "This is the worst Maple Festival I have ever been to", I thought to myself, still not realizing I was not at the main festival in Monterey. Yes, I know, not the smartest bulb in the box. The highlight of my visit to McDowell was picking up a bag of freshly cooked barbecue pork craklin.

Backing up a bit, when I originally left my Charlottesville abode I never planned to travel to Monterey. A group of riders where going to meet up to ride Rt. 33 and then head up to Rt. 211. This is certainly a fun ride but much shorter than what I wound up riding. Since it was the first day of Spring I decided to grab my Summer mesh jacket that offers little in the way of warmth and zero wind protection. Not the best jacket to be zipping around the mountains with once the sun sets. I finally figured out that Monterey is still further down the road. It was almost a coin flip decision to continue west. Riding down the road it was noticeably chillier than when I arrived in McDowell, especially when I slipped into the shadows cast by the mountains. I got maybe two miles closer to Monterey before I decided to turn tail. Usually when I set a destination I am dogged about reaching that goal. It was already 5:30 in the afternoon with the sun setting rapidly and I was already almost 2 hours from home before leaving McDowell. I pulled off to the side of the road and turned around.

Riding U.S. 250 through the GW Forest at night is not a fun prospect.