We’ve had the desire to head back east for quite some time. A & A’s wedding celebration in Wisconsin made for a nice anchor point for the entire road trip. In addition to the wedding celebration, we had a list of places to visit. We also discovered others along the way.
South Dakota
On the way to Wisconsin, our first stop was Custer State Park in South Dakota. In and around the state park is one of my all-time favorite road rides. The ride is a loop that includes the Iron Mountain Highway, the Needles Highway and passes through Mount Rushmore. Each of these 3 are worth the trip on their own, when you can link all 3 together in a single ride, you are in for a great day! We were joined on this first leg of the trip by J & K.
Custer also offers plenty of dirt roads for gravel riding and a pretty spectacular trail system called Sundance for mountain biking.
Wisconsin
After the week in Custer State Park, we made our way to Beloit, Wisconsin for the wedding celebration and a visit with family and friends. We did get a ride in on the local roads but neither the roads nor the drivers make it worth mentioning. There are some nice trail systems in the area, such as Blue Mounds and Camrock but the weather did not cooperate while we were there and the trails were too muddy to ride.
Michigan
Our next destination was the upper peninsula of Michigan. We visited the UP (AKA Yoopee) last year and thoroughly enjoyed the mountain biking. We were stymied by the weather and could not view the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore from the water by kayak or charter ferry.
Once again, the weather did not allow us to get on the water to properly view Pictured Rocks, maybe next time. We did however, still get in some nice mountain biking at Copper Harbor and Marquette North. There were a few other trail systems that we rode as well, but these two, along with Marquette South are the ones to hit up for sure.
Ohio
Ohio is the home to Cuyahoga Valley National Park which has the towpath along the Ohio & Erie canals. Most notably for us is that the park is also home to a couple sweet mountain bike trails. The US national park system is generally anti-bicycle, especially on dirt trails. This one is different in that the towpath, the mountain bike trails and the local paved bike paths offer many miles of riding with a variety of surface types.
Our ride plan was to cover all the surface types in the area, so we chose our gravel bikes for the day. This worked out well for the ride, considering most of the MTB trail was smooth and flowy. However the mountain bikes would have made the mountain bike trails more fun as there were some technical bits on those trails that were a little beyond the capabilities of the gravel bikes.
New York
When we lived on the east coast, we would visit New York State to go camping. In all the time we lived in the area, we had never visited some notable places in NY. Our route on this trip gives us the opportunity to visit some of these places.
Since we were traveling west to east, our first stop was Niagara Falls. We enjoyed the Maid of the Mist boat tour, walked around town a bit and then took off. The falls were very cool to see, the town is basically a giant tourist trap, it felt good to leave.
Just east of Niagara & Buffalo is a not-so-hidden gem that we found in Letchworth State Park. The state park touts itself as the number one rated state park in the US. We were off-season during our visit, so it was pretty quiet. This gave us a nice opportunity for a ride out and back on the main road through the park. There was plenty of natural beauty to be seen with the river, waterfalls and forest. Additionally, there are some interesting human made structures. The riding route offered some good rolling hills and leg burning steeps to make it even more interesting.
As we headed further east, we visited the Finger Lakes region of NY which is also new to us. We managed to get a nearly traffic-free road ride. This got us up close and personal to the water and vineyards. One remarkable thing is how some of the vineyards actually smelled like grape juice as we rode by.
We were headed for a stretch of windy, wet weather for the next few days and we were a little ahead of schedule, so it seemed that a great way to enjoy the Finger Lakes would be to stay in a bed & breakfast. The one we chose, called the Varick Inn also happened to be an historic orchard and vineyard right on Cayuga Lake. We were quite impressed with the hosts, hospitality and accommodations at the inn.
Massachusetts
Our first stop in Mass was to visit Ron & Diana, long-time friends. They recently moved to a new house on the edge of Robinson State Park. They have a great trail system with access from their backyard.
Martha’s Vineyard
Next up was a stay on Martha’s Vineyard with Jim and Kim. Jim was planning to celebrate his 65th birthday with a 65 mile bike ride around the island. This type of birthday celebration should not be a surprise as they are lifetime cyclists with one of their adventures being a ride across the entirety of the North American continent by bike.
We’ve never been to Martha’s Vineyard before and we couldn’t think of a better way to see the island than by bike. During the ride, we were blown away by the difference between our misconceptions of that the island would be like and what it actually is. Edgartown is what lines up with what we thought we knew about the island. However, there are several other distinct towns on the island with very different topologies and cultures. These include farms, forests and ranches.
One morning, Jim & I went out on a photo excursion to capture the sunrise from the beach and a marina. Jim is an accomplished photographer and was able to help me out with some tips.
Later on, we enjoyed a more traditional birthday celebration with the Martha’s Vineyard crew.
New Jersey
This is our first road trip to NJ since we moved to CO. We’ve visited a few times via air travel, but this is the first time we have our bikes with us since we left. The drive from Mass was exciting as it has been quite a while since we’ve driven the I-95 corridor, can’t say we miss it. Our plan was to visit with friends and family. We would also get some riding in for a few days before beginning our trip west. We ended up staying about 10 days.
As usual, we don’t take enough pictures at our family gatherings. Anyway, here are some pics from our rides at the Jersey Shore.
Pennsylvania
One of the highlights we were hoping to get to was Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia. This is essentially where we learned to mountain bike. It is a technical, rocky, rooty trail system with plenty of short steep climbs. We’d donated plenty of skin and blood over the years riding there. It would have been interesting to see how well we would have been able to ride it with our experience riding in the west at altitude on serious mountains. However, it was not to be as weather and schedule did not allow it.
A mountain biking destination in PA that we did make it to is the Allegrippis trail system. This is the first purpose-built mountain bike trail system that we had ridden back in the early 2000’s. Back then, it was wonderful, we had never experienced flow like that on a mountain bike. Some 15 or so years later, the flow is still intact and it is a nice trail system that I would recommend to anyone that lives in the area.
West Virginia
Our next major destination before returning home is Northwest Arkansas. We plan to make several stops along the way to ride some more locations that we’ve heard about over the years.
West Virginia is known to have a good selection of mountain biking areas in various parts of the state. We selected Mountwood Park since the trails system is highly rated with decent mileage and was along our planned route.
North Carolina
The Pisgah National Forest is well known for its mountain biking trails. Unfortunately, the weather limited us to only one ride and a storm system was moving into the area as we arrived. We chose to ride in the Bent Creek area just outside of Asheville. Sue went off for a gravel ride, exploring the unpaved roads and Ross went for the Bent Creek Epicito v2 route as defined on MTB Project .
The beginning of the MTB ride was a bit confusing as there were quite a few overlapping trails that were not on the map. I met up with another confused fellow at a trail junction and started to have more success together. The trails are very well made and the terrain offered some of the nicest climbs and flowy descents we’ve ridden since we were in Michigan upper peninsula.
My newfound riding buddy and I clicked well. Fortunately for me, he was on a borrowed old beater mountain bike which held him back to my speed. Maybe it made up for the 20 year advantage he had on me. Peculiarly, he has the same first name as me. It is unusual to have two people named Ross in any one location. We had a good bit in common besides our names, which added to the enjoyment of the fantastic trails.
The forecasted wet weather moved in toward the end of the ride. We bid farewell to my new friend and then Sue and I got a meal in Asheville before heading west through the weather system for our next destination.
Kentucky
As we headed west toward Arkansas, we made a couple stops in Kentucky. First was Mammoth Cave National Park where we toured some of the caves and then on to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area to stay the night. We scored a waterfront campsite, which was actually pretty easy since there were very few folks around with it being out of prime season in this area.
Missouri
While on the drive to our next destination, we broke up this stretch of road with a hike in the Ozarks to Blue Spring.
Arkansas
Bentonville, Arkansas has been on our radar for quite some time with all the press they receive regarding the massive trail building efforts going on in the area. Additionally, there are some world class cultural attractions as well. This would be our last extended stop for the trip.
Upon our arrival, we could see that this is a progressive, bicycle friendly area. There are road signs everywhere marking bike routes and trail heads. The options for riding both road and MTB are abundant and growing. Just in the rides we were able to get in, we saw professional trail building crews at work extending the trail options pretty much anywhere we went.
Once again, we were trying to work our riding in between rain storms. When we arrived, the forecast had 2 clear days and then several stormy days after that. As it happened, the town was also just ramping up for the Outerbike event the following weekend. We were watching the weather to decide whether we would stay for Outerbike. The town began to look a bit like Moab with all the out-of-state Sprinter vans that had descended on the area, us included.
With so many riding opportunities in the Northwest AR area, we decided that since we had limited time before the rain set in, we would stay closer to Bentonville itself.
Our first ride would be a combination of the Slaughter Pen and Blowing Spring areas. The trails were built very well and they did the best that could be done with the terrain in the area. What the terrain lacks, the trails make up for with various trail “furniture” and art installations.
Our next ride was the Back 40 trail. This is a nice tour of the area that takes you through a number of neighborhoods and parks near Bella Vista.
The camping was pretty good, just outside of Bentonville, in Rogers is Prairie Creek. The reviews for the campground don’t do it justice.
As the forecast promised, the rain set in the next day. This was a good opportunity to take in the indoor offerings. These included the Crystal Bridges Museum, C21 and the Walmart Museum.
Recently, Bentonville declared itself the mountain biking capital of the world. I don’t know what world they are referring to, but if the rest of the US is included in that world, they are overstating how good it really is. That is not to say that it isn’t really good, it is just that there are plenty of places in the US that I would rank higher in terms of overall fun and scenic riding. In terms of money being spent, Bentonville likely has the most generous benefactor in the Walton family and the deepest pockets that are spending the money well.
The rainy weather settled in and we decided to call it a trip. We would have like to stay for Outerbike, but it was going to be a mud-fest with all the rain. It was a great trip, time to go home.
