I visited Braxton County for Christmas, and ended up doing more than just riding while down there.
First off, what’s up with the weather? All week, it’s been in the 40’s and 50’s, when last year, we had 18 inches of snow!
December 20th, 2010
December 20th, 2010
Heck, Yukon Charlie can even tell you that I bought a pair of snowshoes this year, thinking that there was going to be a time where it no longer made sense to ride in the snow…
Well, in Braxton, there’s not a speck of snow, unless you count the morning frost on the grass and your car’s windshield. This weather just invites you to go out and do something, anything that makes you appreciate and thankful that it isn’t snowing.
First day, the girlfriend and I went on a dirty-road ride to some general store-esque shop that provides goods for the local residents, since the closest Kroger or something of that sort is 15-20 miles away. If you’ve ever been to Duck, West Virginia (Yes, Duck.)… I’m sure you’re familiar with Nottingham’s store, off of Route 4.
I took a ton of photos of Llamas, self-made town signs, and rope bridges to get to their home. Most of these pictures were taken with a disposable camera that I got from an Amgen Tour advertiser and decided to use it while I could still get it developed.
This footage shows the lovely scenery that exists in WV:
Here’s a few of the pictures I took:
The new bridge in Strange Creek
A rope bridge to cross to someone's house. This was behind the Strange Creek Baptist Church
The next day, we took the dogs out to the meeting point of the Elk River and Birch River, hiking around on the girlfriends cattle trails and tractor paths. Her dog was very excited, ran around in one of the really shallow areas, and we climbed a small waterfall and decided to take some pictures.
Waterfall!
She was ready to roam the whole farm!
I wanted to take some *film* photographs from the ledge!
While hiking isn’t my forte, and I don’t think I could do it on a day-to-day basis… It was fun romping around and exploring land that I’ve never ventured on before.
The refreshing part of this non-cycling excursion was just enjoying this weather!
WV Cycling 