A group of CAMBC members, Josh Wall, Greg Bruen, David Stackhouse and Drew Duke met up with other riders from the greater Shenandoah area on Feb 1st for the annual Superbowl Sunday Ride. The ride started at the Briery Branch Community Center not far from Stokesville, VA. We had been watching the weather all week, and the forecast changed from an unpleasant freezing rain to a clear sunny day good for a ride. The temperature was around 32 degrees when we headed out at 9:45.
The first 11 miles is all SR 257 carving up into the snow covered mountains. It’s starts off as a slow incline becoming steeper as the road serpentines higher and higher. After 11 miles of road riding, you finally arrive at the forest service road that leads to Flagpole Knob, the highest point in Rockingham County. The service road was completely snow covered several inches. The views here were great and made up for the road riding. The service road was another 3 miles for a total of 14 miles and 2800 feet of climbing to Flagpole Knob.
Once on top, there were 42 other riders, two guys trying to build a fire and one properly inflated football. Everyone mingled, re-evaluated their layers, ate a lunch, snapped some pictures, got a group shot and then everyone got back on their bikes for the descent. The CAMBC crew returned to the service road and headed to Meadow Knob . This was a fun section where you could get up speed in the slippery snow, riding right on the threshold of losing control.
At Meadow knob we searched around and found the single track decent that veered off the open plateau into the deep woods. Not sure of the trail name here; Stackhouse thought it was Pine knob. Whatever the name, it was a blast in the snow, so I can’t wait to ride it when it is dry. It’s a quick steep straight descent, but lots of fun with plenty of obstacles to launch off. Other than a couple of large trees across the trail, it’s all fast fast fast, then braking really hard to make a sharp turn once you get to the bottom. From there we headed back on a service road, making our way to the asphalt and then finally back to the community center for a total of 25 miles and 3000 feet.
Writeup Courtesy of Drew Duke
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