Virginia Mountain Bike Trail - day 1

If you can see the hot line, you HAVE to come ride this route with us!

From Virginia Mountain Bike Trail - Day 1 (of 14)

You have to be able to handle about 1 hour of this a day.

From Virginia Mountain Bike Trail - Day 1 (of 14)

If you can handle the hike a bikes - you will be rewarded! Adventure awaits!

From Virginia Mountain Bike Trail - Day 1 (of 14)

Its an amazing experience riding the length of this amazing state of Virginia. Thanks to those public servants and private citizens who had the forsight to protect this land and make it available to us to experiece as we travel under our own power using bicycles. Freedom!

Virginia Mountain Bike Trail - it is THE adventure!

Virginia Mountain Bike Trail produced by Scott Wootten on Vimeo. Trail video by Chris Scott. Pictures by Matt Smith, Chris Scott, and Mike Boyes.

In the fall of 2011 Cyclists pioneered The Virginia Mountain Bike Trail, an off-road connector route spanning the length of Virginia's Allegheny & Blue Ridge Mountain Ranges. These riders returned to the commonwealth's early american frontier, in search of recreational resources. Their purpose was to connect public lands in Virginia's mountainous border region. The group embarked on a mission with the intent to establish a permanent long distance backcountry trail that rivals the infamous Arizona or Colorado trails. What they discovered was a world class back-country expedition; as they linked 8 major trail systems in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Their route, consisting of primarily single track trails, covered 480 miles and climbed 65,000 feet over the course of 12 days. Beginning just west of Strasburg, the explorers began their journey on the County Line Trail. They rolled southward along rocky ridge lines, challenging climbs and fast descents and after two full weeks, the riders finished their final descent down the Iron Mountain Trail to Damascus.

Its been years of research, riding, rinse and repeat.... getting the vision complete. A decade of exploring and preparing the best sections of trail to link together. Thanks to the great motivation from IMBA's Dan Hudson and Rich Edwards we kept pushing forward with the idea.

Darrell "Dirty D" Prillamen invited us down in 2009 for the Trans Iron that ends in Damascus. He had it dialed in with his henchmen from Boone, NC. The Trans Iron starts on the New River Trail before heading up into the mountains on the Highlands Horse Trail. After a long day on the HHT it shares the Iron Mountain Trail for a bit before it takes the full pull of the Iron Mountain Trail concluding the final sector of the Virginia Mountain Bike trail ending in Damacus. It is good! His boys Drew, YT, J Grimes, and Kelly T. have this hooked up!

We got Jeremiah Bishop, Andy Johnston and Cory Rimmer out on a few days bike packing on the northernmost section in 2010. We had such a great time, we knew we had to roll the full monty in 2011.

In the summer of 2011 Chris Scott made the last few reconnaissance trips south of Covington. We finally had enough beta to give it a try. After loading up the Shenandoah Mountain Touring gear, Dan Oates took the helm as captain support for the first half and Tyler Spurlock taking the reigns for the second half. A great group of folks joined in for sections of the ride including, Jason Mattis, Kurt Rosenberger, Mike Boyes, Jennifer Wolfson, Nate Shearer, Misty Tilson, Jake Brown, Lucas Brown, Scott Dwyer, Kirby Walke, Graham Snyder, Katy Smith, and Sam Lindblom.

The vision of the Virginia Mountain Bike Trail, complete with a hut to hut system running it's full length, accessible by singletack riders, dirt road explorers and those touring the paved roads will take some time and dedicated volunteers. After doing the entire route the vision is so clear it seems like it could be completed overnight. If you are interested in lending a hand, get in touch and email us!

Small sections have huge dedicated heros already. Mike Capraro and Susan Musante have been keeping open County Line Trail, Mill Mountain Trail, Long Mountain Trail, and most of the Lee Districts North Mountain Trail for the past few years (along with many other great trails on the Lee District) Huge efforts have been done on the Carr Mountain Trail (another gallery HERE) by SVBC, SMT, PATC and the Back Country Horseman, and we still have a long way to go for the trail to be finished to USFS specifications. We (SMT) have been keeping open Shenandoah Mountain Trail. The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition has kept the momentum moving by fostering the Recreational Trails Grant recieved from Virginia's Department of Conservation and Recreation. This grant funded the restoration of Chestnut Ridge from Little Bald Knob.  

As of the inaugural ride, Fore Mountain Trail into Covington needs a heck of a lot of work to be free from huge blow downs, the brush needs to be cut back and some tread needs to be rehabilitated from being used while it has been in bad shape. Broad Run and Patterson Mountain Trails north of New Castle are in dire need of clearing too.

We started small with super cool backcountry loops like Stokesville Douthat Stokesville. The experience we have gained from this has been carried forward. We know given the expanse of the terrain and the challenge to access the remote trails, maintenance of the route seems to be an insurmountable task. It took us five of the eight years riding SDS to get "some" control of the 150 mile route. A surprise can always be expected on some portion of the route. An example would be the massive gypsy moth devastation on Little Mare Mountain Trail leaving the trail with towering tinker toys that fall in every gust and underbrush bursting towards they sky and choking out the trail and then itself. This leaves a decade long task clearing the trail as the canopy rebuilds. The USFS is so shackled by budget cuts they can do little more then encourage and support our passion. Now we are trying to take a leading roll in maintaining this 480 mile route. Sign your club up to be involved in your Virginia Mountain Bike Trail! It needs your help to be a reality!

October SMT Friday Hookie Tour!!!

Russ and Liz had a great time with Matt on the Southern Traverse hookie ride! What an amazing excuse to dip out from the routine and escape deep into the George Washington National Forest for a singletrack bicycle ride. Shenandoah Mountain Touring is always here to take you deep into the backcountry for some much needed FREEDOM!


 

10-25-11 Trail Work on the Southern Traverse - Tour Friday!

Matt and Tyler spent the day chainsawing and clearing the Southern Traverse section of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail.  This trail is so smooth to begin with but now with no trees down it has returned to its DREAM CONDITION!!  We are leading a Friday Hookie Tour of the Southern Traverse this friday and you don't want to miss out, it will be as IMBA proclaims, "EPIC!"

click here to sign up!

Matt Smith saves his back by loading up our BoB Trailer with all of the gear!  A great way to get supplies into the woods!

Pictures updated from the VA MTB Trail!

Here are some pictures from day 11 of the Virginia Mountain Bike Trail tour in Pandapas Pond park near Blacksburg VA.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.166405016782949.39596.100002403544367&type=1&l=a814d01688

 

VMBT - day 12 - Crossing New River, onto Bike Route 76 and New River Trail. Rollin'!

Next and last 2 days to follow are on Highlands Horse Trail and Iron Mountain Trail. What a journey bicycling along, across, over and around the length of Virginia on a backcountry Singletrack based route on National Forest trails.

VAMT Day 6 - it is peak color on Little Mare Mountain Trail.

Virginia Mountain Bike Trail - day 6 - Matt Smith stretches it out rolling through Blue Grass Hollow on lead into Little Mare.

Lunch stop ahead at Trappers  Lodge. Shenandoah Mountain Trail was amazing yesterday on day 5.

Day #2 on the Virginia Mountain Bike Trail. Feeling good and lovin the trail!

Can't wait to see everyone as you join us over the next few days!

Shenandoah Mountain Touring

Virginia Mountain Bike Trail, day 2 on North Mountain is sooooo nice!

What a great back country bicycling experience!

The Virginia Mountain Bike Trail Tour is under way!!

Chris, Matt, and Jason said goodbye to the real world yesterday, and set out on the first sector of the Virginia Mountain Bike Trail.  Make sure to check out our webpage for the tour and maybe you can join up with us along the way!! Here are a few pictures of the start, stay tuned for more updates soon!

SMT October Newsletter

From Massanutten Full Pull

Dear Friends of Shenandoah Mountain Touring,

We hope you are having a great start to the fall season and would like to give
you an update as to what's happening the world of SMT!

This coming weekend is the Shenandoah Mountain Bike Festival put on by the Shenandoah
Valley Bicycle Coalition. Your chance to come back to Stokesville and ride
some of the super fun trails from the Shenandoah Mountain 100 and a whole lot
more. REGISTER!!!!

The HEAT was on this year at the Shenandoah Mountain 100! While most were sweating
it out on course ALL DAY, cool Christian Tanguy was getting his 2nd SM100 win
and first NUE Series win!! It was a battle up front between Jeff and Christian.
We hope you had a great time on your ride! Cyclingnews.com has provided an in-depth
story on the event and can be found here: SM100 Story In case you haven't seen any pictures from the event, our photographers shots are here: Bob Popovich , and our pictures can be found here: SMT photos . Make sure you are friends with us at our facebook page in order to stay up-to-date with all of our events and press!

We also wanted to mention a local Harrisonburg Cyclocross event coming up on
Oct. 16th put on by Ken Bell of Gripped Films.

On October 16th, Harrisonburg will host the first Rocktown Cyclocross Festival.
With $1500 in cash as well as prizes up for grabs, The Rocktown Cyclocross Festival
will feature a full day of racing for beginners to pros. Bring your friends
and family to enjoy the many free side events including a corn hole tournament
with $100 cash prize, kids races, bicycle maintenance, kids helmet giveaway
and more.
- You can register online here (and save on late fees): REGISTER

We have just headed out on our Virginia Mountain Bike Trail ride and we are super psyched!!

we will be sending out updates to the SMT blog almost daily
-- here are some videos of last years ride that Jeremiah Bishop did on a section
of the route, make plans for next year:
-Shenandoah Mountain Sector -Big Schloss Sector

We had to reschedule our Spruce Knob North Fork IMBA Epic tour for Sat Sun Oct 29th-30th weekend. West Virginiawas hit with a super cold blast that brought snowshoe mountain 9 inchces of
snow! That will make it an amazing 3 day weekend if you are able to combine
the weekend ride with our Friday hookie ride on the Southern Traverse

GET HERE, GET ON YOUR BIKE, and ENJOY WHAT THIS AWESOME FALL SEASON HAS TO
OFFER!!!!!

Thanks so much,

Chris, Matt, Tyler, and the rest of the SMT Family

2011 Harvest Moon Festival Century & Metric Rides

The Harvest Moon Festival held in Bath County, VA was host to a Century and Metric ride put on by Shenandoah Mountain Touring.  The rides were also and the riding in Bath County couldn't have been better!! Big thanks to the Bath County Department of Tourism and all the great volunteers that made this event possible!  Check out some photos of the rides and of beautiful Bath County:

Harvest Moon Festival Century is looking GREAT!

Come out on Saturday September 24th, 2011 for the first annual Bath County Harvest Moon Festival Century and Metric Century bicycle ride. It will be an amazing experience bicycling along beautiful roads in and around scenic western Virginia mountains. You can sign up on Bikereg,.com or onsite Friday evening from 6-8 pm in the Holstein Room of the Dairy Barn. Or bright and early at the Bath County High School in Hot Springs, Virginia where the start and finish is located from 6:30 to 8:00 am.

From Harvest Moon Festival Century & Metric Ride

Bicycling in the George Washington National Forest

What better way to go deep into the backwoods and explore the wonders
of Virginia's George Washington National Forest then by bicycle.

Whether it is gliding along on singletrack, riding the dirt road
overtop the scenic mountain or ascending a paved road climb to your
favorite mountain top sunset picnic spot. Waterfalls are always a
treasure.

Visiting Bear Draft Trail - it is looking very good.
Caught up with some friends for the SVBC friday meeting at Flag Pole
Had a chance to ride with our IMBA guys, Rich Edwards AND Frank
Maguire, that was pretty cool!

IMBA is pushing forward a great plan to improve the Blue Ridge Parkway
Roanoke connection. Alternative "C" Check www.imba.com if you 4
minutes to comment and make a difference for everyone. Alternatve C
will keep the Roanoke Greenway from being blocked!! This trail has
vastly improved the quality of life for those in Roanoke. Residents
and visitors now have a safe place to walk, ride, and run. This
connection has become a great commuter route too giving residents a
GREAT opportunity to live a healthier lifestyle.
- tangent!!

Great day in the woods it was!
A dip in that waterfall brings back some AMAZING memories of simpler times!

Cheers

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

2011 Shenandoah Mountain 100 results are HERE!!

Check out the results from this year's Shenandoah Mountain 100! 

RESULTS




Open Men's Podium: 1st- Christian Tanguy (Team CF) 2nd- Jeff Schalk (Trek) 3rd- Sam Koerber (Trek 29er Crew)



Shenandoah Mountain 100 - 2011 - A tiny bit of the post event goodness!

WOW, super FUN! Thanks everyone! Volunteers, Sponsors, and PARTICIPANTS!
HERE is a link to an .xls preliminary result file. We hope your system is able to allow it to be opened!
Please EMAIL us if you see any corrections that should be made.

For those of you that are super pumped to improve your time in the ride next year Coach Chris Eatough has a special for participants from the 2011 Shenandoah Mountain 100. We can't publish the deal here for others to see, but you can EMAIL us to inquire about the special on either or both of the -  20 week Winter Training plan or the Shenandoah Mountain 100 training plan.

Shenandoah Mountain 100 brief photo set HERE or below

From Shenandoah Mountain 100 - 2011

Rich Edwards - getting it done on Shenandoah Mountain 100 course, thanks IMBA!

Huge thanks to Brock Lowery, Rich Edwards, Marshall Hammond, Thomas Jenkins,  SVBC, IMBA, USFS, Bridgewater College and SMT for all the contributions to the Shenandoah Mountain 100 trails!!

SM 100 course is getting dialed in. Thanks Ironwood Outdoors, IMBA, SVBC and USFS!

Shaffer Hollow trail is looking sooo much better for the SHENANDOAH MOUNTAIN 100. BOB trailer is the best way to get to the work site to do finish work!

Shenandoah Mountain 100 - Soooo close! Schalk and Tanguy battle to the end for the NUE Series - Schalk to retire after event!

Its going to be amazing. Jeff Schalks last race before he retires. Will he win the NUE Series again.

It all comes down to the final event in Virginia at the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in the George Washington National Forest.

This could be Christian Tanguy last NUE event as well as he prepares to take a job over seas.

SOOOO EXCITING!! 

--
Shenandoah Mountain Touring, LLC.
P.O. Box 1423
Harrisonburg, VA 22803

(540) 434-2087
www.mountaintouring.com
http://shenandoahmountaintouring.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/ShenMtnTouring

http://www.facebook.com/ShenandoahMountainTouring

Stokesville Campground grounds the white whale with a double pinch flat. Longer day ahead!

The 4 bee stings to the neck and face are a bit inconsequential now!

Shenandoah Mountain 100 Trail Work Mission - Chestnut Ridge

Yesterday, Tyler and Matt headed up to Little Bald Knob then cruised down Chestnut Ridge while clearing loose sketchy rocks, lopping thorny face-slappers, and weedeating the hay-quality grass.  What was once a test to get through now is a dream to descend!  Check out some pictures from the day:

Super-wide corridors!!



Shenandoah Mountain 100 Trail Work Mission- Wolf Ridge/ Lynn Trail

Yesterday, Matt and Tyler went out to Wolf Ridge and Lynn Trail to clear some trees, cut grass, and throw loose rocks off the trail.  This trail is now super clear and smooth, some may be getting the sonic BOOM during the race.  Here are some pictures from the mission:

Big thanks to the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition for getting volunteers to come out and fix a nasty spring that popped up on Wolf.

Our BoB trailer helped get the chainsaw, chainsaw tools, and the weed eater up and down the mountain on this mission.