Shenandoah Fall Foliage Bike Festival

I found out about the Shenandoah Fall Foliage Bike Festival last week when I saw someone wearing a T-shirt from a previous year's ride. The individual wearing the T-shirt wasn't sure of the schedule for this year's ride, but I looked it up online when I got home and immediately registered when I saw that it was going to be the upcoming weekend.

The event is set up as a two-day event, but I could only participate today. From Oakton it's a 2-1/2 hour drive to Staunton, VA, so I left here at 4:30 am. It was barely getting light when I pulled into the parking lot of the middle school. The drive to Staunton is very scenic--we have done it many times before. I was obviously missing all that scenery on the morning drive, but knew I would get to enjoy it on the afternoon trip back to Oakton.

I was prepared for a lot of hill climbing on the ride and had decided ahead of time that I would settle for the 50-mile loop option. It turned out to be just the right amount to give me a good workout, see lots of beautiful countryside, and still have energy enough to make it back home.

The 50-mile route:

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It was quite chilly early in the morning but no rain was in the forecast. I had bundled up and it didn't take long to get warm pedaling up the hills. There was a rest stop about 13 miles from the start, a lunch was served about half way and then an afternoon rest stop about 12 miles from the end. The food was excellent--lots of home baked goodies and healthy choices, too.

The Shenandoah Valley is gorgeous country and I think this weekend was probably peak time for fall colors. The few pictures that I got don't do justice to the day, but at least give a sense of what a good ride it was.






First rest stop was set up at a church.




Interstate 81 is the route that travels down the Shenandoah Valley and is the route that I used to get to Staunton. The ride crossed over and back twice at two different points. I made a point on the drive home of looking up to see the two places where we had ridden across the interstate.




The Middle River meanders through the Shenandoah Valley around Staunton and there were 4 different times on the route that we crossed the river. Going down to the river always meant a steep climb to get back up.

Biking in Maryland and Pennslyvania

After several days of rain, we wanted to take advantage of the predicted sunshine for today by getting out somewhere on our bikes to look at the fall colors. We decided to drive into Maryland and ride a stretch of the North Central Rail Trail that continues into Pennsylvania as the York County Heritage Trail.

The North Central Rail Trail starts north of Baltimore in the small town of Ashland, Maryland. It's 20 miles from there to the Mason-Dixon Line, which is what the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania is called. Several years ago we had pedaled that 20-mile stretch. But today we decided to start further north at Parkton, Maryland, giving us time to then pedal further into Pennsylvania for a stretch of the trail we hadn't yet seen.

Most of the Maryland section is next to the Gunpowder Falls River. This is next to the parking lot where we started in Parkton.

Resting along the trail

One mile after crossing the Mason-Dixon Line you enter the town of New Freedom, Pennsylvania. This was a nice rest stop at the museum/train station.


Our turnaround point in Pennsylvania was the quaint little town of Glen Rock.


All in all, a very enjoyable day of bike riding.

Camping at Rocky Gap State Park

We've driven by Rocky Gap State Park many times on our travels through Western Maryland but had never stopped there. When Kelly suggested it as possible place for them to meet up with us on a weekend camping trip we were all for the idea. Since September weather had been so rainy and gloomy this year we kept our options open for a change of plans if the Columbus Day weekend weather decided not to cooperate.

As it turned out, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather or for a better spot to enjoy the beauties of the Western Maryland mountains. The campground accomodations were impressive, with campsites nestled in the trees on the west side of Lake Habeeb.

Our campsite:


Within a short walk there was a nice beach area with playground equipment, a nature center and a marina with canoes for rent.

On Sunday, kelly and Mort took the boys out on a 2-hour canoe excursion around the lake.

Lee and I walked the Lakeside Loop trail, which circles the lake, a distance of 5 miles.

One of the sections of the Lakeside Loop Trail:



The roads through the campground were paved and everyone had brought their bikes to take advantage of that. I think, boys being boys, their favorite activity was roasting marshmallows and playing around the campfire.

For those who don't like roughing it in the campground, there is a beautiful lodge on the east side of the lake. We enjoyed strolling the grounds and then having lunch at the lodge's Golf Resort grill.