Exploring the TAT & Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

prharper

GOLD Star
Joined
May 23, 2009
Threads
18
Messages
713
Location
Leesburg, VA
Got a little spontaneous early last week and with the 3 day long weekend decided to check out the above. Spent 3 entire days off the beaten path in the 200 scouting out new places, at least new for me.


Left early Friday AM and returned home late yesterday afternoon.

Fri AM - Started in Moorefield, WV and made it to Warm Springs, VA and stayed at the Inn.
Sat - Departed Warm Springs and made it to Mountain Lake Lodge with some detours.
Sun - Headed to Damascus, VA to complete the trip. Long day and more detours. From there, jumped on I-81 (a real bummer) and stayed the night in Blacksburg.

Weather was really windy Friday and got some sleet in WV. Sat-Sun weather was perfect for this time of year. I did encounter fallen trees (most likely from Friday high winds) blocking the trails and forest roads on several occasions. I was able to remove several with a chainsaw but others were too big to tackle. Resulted in having to turn around and backtrack on some trails. Also ran into 2-3 locked gates which was a bummer.

I ran into only 1 motorbike doing the route. Came across a few locals and that was it. I'm sure any other time of the year, I would have encountered a lot more traffic and backups.

In Tazewell - I hopped on Route 16 and missed my off road exit at the early part of it. Decided to ride 16 out and see what this Back of the Dragon is all about. After clearing one pass and several choice words, I thought I was done but nope - there would be another set of tight switchbacks that our lifted trucks just don't care to appreciate like motorcycles or exotics. However, I was very impressed with some of the local farm trucks and flatbed trailers that I saw on it. Glad it was light traffic this time of year.

I'll post up some pics later and some notes on the highlights.

Overall, it was a fun trip. Saw some really interesting hollows, towns, locals, farms, parks and scenery. Truck did well and look forward to returning to sections I missed and doing some sections again while camping.


IMG_2148.jpeg
IMG_2149.jpeg
IMG_2163.jpeg
 
Your videos are awesome. I see you went to the UP last year. We were up there in late July. Did Tahquamenon Falls and drove up to the ship wreck museum on Superior. It's a different world up there. Good times!
We attempted the “UPAT” upper peninsula adventure trail, but we got unlucky with the roads being freshly graded. Lots of sand that would get deep without warning. Maybe not an issue if we would have been on 4 wheels. I was running stock mostly road tires. That didn’t help.

The other thing I didn’t know, the northern lights can be visible from the UP. We had a full moon in the middle of the trip, so we didn’t see them. If I make it back up there, I will plan around the moon cycles.
 
Ive done the COBDR UTBDR and half of the MABDR on a WR250R. halfway through the MABDR I hit a deer and broke a bunch of bones. Its the reason I now own a land cruiser instead of a motorcycle.. :)

I would love to finish the mid Atlantic in the LC someday. Glad you had fun @prharper looks like a fun trip.
 
@prharper sounds like a great trip... id love to do it and camp as well... you can tell me more about it at Relic!!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom