Prince Paw Paw
I rode a majority of the Prince Paw Paw route, with occasional detours to scout new routing options. The week-long trip covered about 650 miles and 60,000ft of climbing across some of West Virginia’s most remote and rugged terrain. Interested in a similar trip? Don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or to let me know if you ride the route.
Day 0 — Clear the Tracks
I set off late Sunday morning on the Amtrak Cardinal from DC to Prince, WV. After delays due to a train ahead of us hitting a fallen tree, we arrived in Prince just after dark. Fortunately, the Prince station is in the heart of the New River Gorge with easy access to various gravel roads and primitive campgrounds.
After retrieving my bike from Amtrak staff, I rode a few easy miles to Army Camp Campground to set up my tent for the night. This free campground was nice enough, but is accessible by RVs and can be noisy; the nearby Grandview Sandbar Campground is a better choice similarly close to the train station.
Near the Prince, WV train station, from a prior trip when the train was on time and arrived before sunset
I set out at sunrise to scout a prologue for the main route. This southern loop visits overlooks on the southern rim of the gorge and a gas station resupply in Grandview. The fog blocked any sweeping views, but provided nice scenery on the doubletrack Little Laurel Trail climb. After breakfast at Grandview Country Store, I descended back into the gorge on the Glade Creek Trail. This was beautiful, but more rugged and desolate than I expected; I didn’t see a single other person, and occasionally hiked washouts and technical singletrack sections on what was primarily a gravel/doubletrack descent.
Rejoining the main route, I began the gentle climb to the ghost town of Thayer before descending, crossing the river twice more, and reaching Thurmond. Thurmond, another ghost town, is well worth a visit with great views from the bridge into town, a preserved railway depot (still a flag stop on the Amtrak Cardinal!), and various historic structures.
While Thurmond is a dead-end for most drivers, a not-so-rugged (by WV standards) forest road allows riders to pass through town and up a big climb to Beury Mountain WMA to connect to Babcock State Park. I didn’t see another person for several hours until I popped out of the forest next to the historic Glade Creek Grist Mill in Babcock SP.
From Babcock SP, I did a couple out-and-back rides to search for the ghost town of Sewell (nicely maintained trail within the state park, but I turned around at the NPS border where the trail was abandoned and posted no bikes) and to eat a full gas station pizza at the Sunoco north of the park (well worth the 7 mile, 700ft elevation detour!) before settling in at the popular, well-maintained state park campground.
Rain started as I packed up my tent, and a wet morning followed. After some bushwhacking and backtracking (road closed through July for logging), I made my way to a newly opened section of the partially completed Meadow River Trail. It’s a nice trail, and I hope to use more of it on the route once additional sections open.
Leaving the trail at Nallen, I pedaled and intermittently hiked some of the most rugged terrain of the route, with plenty of rocks and several stream crossings. Some of these county roads are largely abandoned, but occasionally used for offroading and therefore most major obstructions are cleared. Regardless, I would not drive any type of motor vehicle on them!
I followed a longer alternate route along Beech Ridge that had great views and got up close with both the past and future of energy production: After passing dozens of windmills, the public road became shared with enormous coal mining vehicles that had torn the gravel road to shreds, resulting in a very muddy stretch after all the morning rain.
As I rolled into Richwood, the friendly folks at Mountaineer Mart took one look at me and asked if they could bring out their hose (“not that you look dirty, or anything”). After fueling up, it was a treat to finish along the Cranberry River on FS 76 with a clean(ish) bike. This scenic forest road is a dead end for cars, but open to through traffic for bicycles and pedestrians. I ended the day with a huge roadside adirondack shelter to myself to stay dry and warm through a big overnight storm.
With such a luxurious trail shelter and another rainy day in the forecast, I lounged around well past sunrise before taking a slightly easier day filled with PUDS (pointless ups and downs) and a fair amount of hike-a-bike.
To avoid highway miles, I used the doubletrack Frosty Gap road and singletrack Pocahontas and Eagle Camp trails. These trails would be great if they were well maintained, but it was slow going with intermittent blowdowns. It’s a tough call whether to route on the trails or highway here, but for now I’ve decided to minimize vehicle traffic by using the trails and include a warning POI in case some riders prefer the longer (but faster and busier) Highland Scenic Highway.
After pitchy gravel climbs up Briery Knob (briefly an active coal mining area, but it’s a public road and they waved me through) and Droop Mountain, the long, smooth descent to the Greenbrier River Trail was welcome, as was a huge eggplant parmesan with spaghetti at Alfredo’s in Marlinton. Another trail shelter promised a cozy, dry night.
Finally, a dry day! I started at sunrise and used the great weather to cover big miles today.
From Thorny Mountain, I briefly joined the GRUSK route through the Green Bank Observatory. The radio telescopes are incredible, and this alternative routing was a vast improvement over the original Prince Paw Paw draft route through Snowshoe (requiring either a long highway climb or extreme bushwhacking).
After descending from Green Bank and crossing the Hosterman swinging bridge, I met a rider on 25mm tires who was attempted to ride from Snowshoe to DC. Quite ambitious! Rather than follow the boring paved Back Mountain Rd north, I veered slightly south to take a scenic route on 50 consecutive miles of well groomed national forest roads.
At the heart of this spectacular section is Mower Tract, a long stretch over 4,000ft elevation that was formerly destroyed by logging and strip mining but is now open to the public and in the middle of restoration.
Upon exiting the forest, I made a quick detour to Sheetz on the outskirts of Elkins before enjoying a hot shower and setting up my tent at Stuart Recreation Area just minutes before the sunny day ran out and a torrential downpour began.
This was a tough day with relentless cold rain. After cruising down Shaver’s Fork and taking a beautiful but rocky detour through Fernow Experimental Forest, I was shivering up the gentle Blackwater Canyon Trail at about 8mph before I stopped to put on several extra layers. In contrast to warm rain earlier in the week, today it fell into the 40s as I ascended.
The extra layers plus a pizza stop at Mt Top Convenience in Thomas did the trick, and while I remained plenty slow I was never cold again despite getting repeatedly soaked in the streams and puddles on Canaan Loop Rd.
Climbing FS 19 toward Dolly Sods, I finally felt (somewhat) strong and was enjoying the light cold rain. Minutes after crossing the Eastern Continental Divide (and only 8 hours after I started riding!), I was literally surrounded by sunshine and rainbows. It’s impressive how much even these mountains affect the weather.
I removed all my layers, basked in the sunshine, and enjoyed the scenic paved road into Smoke Hole Canyon. Almost four days after first entering Monongahela National Forest, I was finally completing my traverse of the forest.
If you’re looking for the world’s hottest shower, I recommend Big Bend Campground. Thankfully, the temperature is adjustable (I can’t even stand the heat at the halfway setting between cold and hot).
After last night’s sunset light show and loud rendition of John Denver’s “Country Roads” courtesy of my camp neighbor (a campground tradition for over 40 years), today’s route featured many ultra-low-traffic country roads to connect from Monongahela NF to George Washington NF.
The section around Peru (pronounced “Pea Roo”) is a highlight with beautiful riding up Peru Hollow and a friendly chat with the owner of the South Fork General Store (open weekends and whenever they’re home; ring the bell for service).
After a short detour into VA to route around a section of the original route that is now off limits due to private land, I stocked up in Mathias to prepare for Squirrel Gap (yet another candidate for one of the best forest roads you’ll find anywhere).
Fittingly for this trip, it started raining buckets shortly after I reached the ridge. A soggy final 10 miles and descent into Wardensville delivered me to the smallest, cheapest, and last available room at the Firefly Inn and a life of luxury with several restaurants within walking distance.
I quickly entered GW NF out of Wardensville as pavement turned to gravel, gated forest road, and eventually abandoned jeep track. The forest here is scarred by a recent wildfire, and it was fascinating to see areas where the road acted as a firebreak with vegetation on one side of the road largely untouched (e.g., first photo below).
Having ridden most of the official Prince Paw Paw route between Wardensville and Paw Paw last fall, I turned toward home to follow the TransViriginia route back to DC. I detoured up Morgans Mill to Mt Weather (possibly the best gravel climb a day’s ride of DC) to avoid Highway 7 (by far the worst section of the entire 500+ mile TransVA route).
After a long and memorable trip, it’s wonderful to be home.
