Crossing West Virginia

The C & O canal follows along West Virgina until you get to
Cumberland,Maryland. Then there is a Rails To Trails from
Meyersdale to Pittsburgh which somewhat connects back to
West Virginia around Weirton.

Tom "200a" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Anyone have suggested west to east route across West
Virginia?

"mary" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

The C & O canal follows along West Virgina until you get
to Cumberland,Maryland. Then there is a Rails To Trails
from Meyersdale to Pittsburgh which somewhat connects back
to West Virginia around Weirton.

Tom "200a" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone have suggested west to east route across West
Virginia?

The off-road connection between Meyersdale and Cumberland
will not be completed for a while. (Last I heard it was late
2004 for a tunnel between Meyesdale and the Mason-Dixon
Line. The Cumberland to Mason-Dixon Line path is still in
teh planning stage.) The ATATRAIL.org ebsite gives on-road
work arounds to bridge the gap.

Further south is a rail trail that goes about 1/3rd of the
way across the center of the state from Parkersburg.

Good luck.

I have taken US 50 and the North Bend Rail Trail (2002) and
recommend neither.

I took the C&O from DC to Cumberland, MD, then south to
Keyser, WV and US
50.

Keyser to Clarksburg is very remote, unpopulated territory
in the Potomac Highlands. Very pretty and low traffic. Few
services as the towns died out after coal mining stopped. It
is also exceedingly mountainous, with lots of steep climbs,
some at 9%. The first climb was ~2000 ft at 6-9%. Up, down,
and repeat. I was only able to do about half of my normal
miles per day in this section. I'm glad the temperature
wasn't too hot (50-65F) when I did this section.You have to
be in very good shape, and have low gears.

The North Bend Rail Trail goes from outside Clarksburg to
Parkersburg. It is definately under construction, with many
sections loose rock & gravel. I had difficulties on my
touring bile (700x37 tires), and would only recommend this
for a mountain bike with suspension. At times I could only
go 6mph downhill. The section around the State Park and
Cairo was OK. Instead, you can take the paralleling US 50
(busy, 4 lane divided, with shoulder), and old US 50 through
the small towns.

From Parkersburg to Huntington, I took the road on the Ohio
side of the river (OH-7) , based on recommendations of
friends in Huntington - better road with a shoulder and
less traffic.

I actually haven't heard of any good routes across WV. They
are all quite challenging as you cross the Appalachian
Mountains; then again, maybe that is what you are looking
for. If I were to do it again, I'd probably go into PA
(Pittsburgh) and then go down the Ohio River.

"200a" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyone have suggested west to east route across West
Virginia?

RG said:

I have taken US 50 and the North Bend Rail Trail (2002) and
recommend neither

... I actually haven't heard of any good routes across WV.
They are all quite challenging as you cross the
Appalachian Mountains; then again, maybe that is what you
are looking for. If I were to do it again, I'd probably go
into PA (Pittsburgh) and then go down the Ohio River.

First, thanks for posting your report on the road conditions
and extreme hilly parts.

I've been reading this with some interest, and I am planning
a trip from Memphis to Washington DC early this summer. I
don't really want to avoid WV, since it is one of three
states I'm still missing (the other two are KY and IN, so I
should finish as 50 US states with this trip...).

I let TopoUSA help pick a route West to East and it brought
me via US 33 to Elkins, US 219 to US 50 and Eastbound to
Winchester. It sounds like I should at minimum expect some
steep climbs/descents and challenging terrain from Elkins
and over via US 50, and anticipate shorter days as I cross
the Appalachians.

Other than the terrain, how is US 50 otherwise in terms
of shoulders, rumble strips, traffic, locals you
encountered, etc?

--mev, Mike Vermeulen