It doesn’t have to be Perfect! (But it’s pretty Effin close).

[Cav47]

At some point on Friday night I wandered over to the banquet area to pick up my lanyard and shirt. I scored a hat as well that I definitely could use covering up my way overdue haircut.



The next morning had the bikes in the same places, but revealed some great views as the sun started to break over the mountains.


Pants and I picked up a couple of other riders. Kornbread on the blue beauty and Joey on some KTM Monster. The sound of that bike was intoxicating. Through the Sena or direct, that thing roared like a beast.


We stopped for a navigational review and conveniently atop a basic bridge.


Pants was free-styling the route. No real destination in mind, just find a squiggly road and see what’s out there.


There may be some video out there of the KTM riding wheelies over the bridge. But that’s not allowed.



My wife’s family has the same last name as this town. I peeled off and took a quick picture for them.


Went inside and got a stamp for the wife. Might be worth some brownie points when I get home.


More in a bit.


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[Cav47]

We made our way over to the Hawks Nest Lodge after finding a grocery store for a picnic lunch.



The plan was to find a spot and make a sandwich. Enjoy the view and contemplate how lucky we are.


It’s a tough job, but someone has to slog away at this.


The crowds were terrible and social distancing was barely achievable.


When at a grocery store, snag a few extra paper bags, they make great plates, cutting boards, and serving platters.


We went to head over to a cool mill. There are always paces to explore and rocks to hop around. (I love getting unique perspective for pictures and if that means a little rock scramble, all the better. This comes back to bite me later).


Popular destination, understandable given the scenery.


On the way up to the Mill, I spotted a natural spring. I wanted to go back and check it out. I have no idea what the green pipe is, but the water coming out of the white plastic was pure mountain agua.

I filled up the water bottle. Happy to report, no explosive diarrhea. Maybe this cures CoVid too. Who knows, it was all good. We set our sights on another little bridge and found some good roads to get there.

More in a bit.


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[Cav47]

After a few detours due to closed road, we found a little spot to see the bridge. I had been here before many years ago with TominPA on one of the first EOM. We didn’t stay long and didn’t get the full views we did on this trip.



Pants and I walked down to the observation deck. Kornbread and the other Joey were here yesterday and decided to stay up top.

No adventure is complete without some ice cream. The visitor center had a vendor that had a nice selection. The others may have taken pictures of their treat, but mine didn’t last long enough for more than one.


We rode down a switchback road to get this shot.



Down along the river, we crossed an old wooden deck bridge.


It gives great views of the magnificent structure that is so hard to fathom.


We lingered here to read the historical story boards. We may have held up traffic a bit, but I think everyone knows how special this place is to outsiders.


On the other side we took our time marveling at the ironwork. It’s ridiculous how many rivets are on just one tower.

We got the Highway after climbing out of the canyon to hightail it to the banquet.


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[Cav47]

The event was nothing but top notch. Wayne, Annette, Andy, and others. If you haven’t been to an EOM, figure it out. It’s pretty special.



The meal was good and fellowship even better.


The night drew long into the wee hours. Some bushes were trampled, some bears were accosted, and pizza was pilfered. Names have been withheld to protect the guilty. There are pictures out there about these shenanigans, apparently I need to have the talk with them about never documenting their crimes like I do to my students. Lol. Just like the kids at school, no harm, no foul means no detentions.

Bucks/Patriots game is coming on, might be delayed for awhile.


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[Festus]

This is exactly why so many of us wouldn’t let up on the comments about late/non ride reports from you Cav. You capture rides great and we love reading them, seeing your photos, and hearing your stories from the road. So glad you have broken the cycle and you are sharing this one.

It’s fantastic!

[escapefjrtist]

Enjoying the RR immensely Cav! Thanks for taking us along!

~G

[D-Eagle]

Great job Josh. I also like the camping photos and discussion. Nothing I'm going to do, but it certainly does look peaceful and inviting and I get a kick seeing how others enjoy it.

[gixxerjasen]

We sat and enjoyed the lake views while our coffee and tea got started.

I see you two have been attending Redfish's school of enjoyment.

As you can see the weather is perfect.

Oh, you almost nailed the theme here, but screwed it up.

Bucks/Patriots game is coming on, might be delayed for awhile.

Geez man, I understand this RR is about going to Ohio, but they aren't the Buckeyes!

[Cav47]

Alright, I gotta finish this thing up so we can concentrate on the other better reports.

Appreciate all the likes and positive comments. Tapatalk makes the reports way easier now. If I can get all of Spawns pictures from our trip, I might be able to throw something together over the winter. Maybe. Just maybe.


Anyway, back to the report.

Tyler and Julie had a hand in our plans. They don’t waste their precious time and following their suggestions is a no brainer. If Tyler and Julie say it’s worth a trip, ya better just find out where it was and go there. Tyler said there was a swimming hole. Wasn’t planning on taking a swim, but gravity and the coefficient of friction had other plans.

Pants had plenty of time left to wander and invited me to drift south with him and man, did I ever want to. However, I had taken 3 days off of work and Tuesday was gonna be ridiculously busy if I didn’t get home on Sunday. I had a home cross county meet with 5 teams and almost 100 runners planned to attend. I needed to get to some things done on Monday in preparation.

With that said, I remembered some wise words from Pops, Redfish’s dad, “They put lights on the front of these things for a reason!” I have great aux lights, so yeah. I will wander with Pants and let the rest play out. We tried to let the fog and deer clear out before we set out.

We headed to Holly River State Park. We stopped by the visitor center for specific directions. Pants had never seen this weather device. It is rare that I can “one up” him with my knowledge. For those of you that don’t know, it is a weather rock.


It goes a little like this

If the rock is dry, it’s not raining.
If the rock is wet, it’s raining
If the rock is swinging, it’s windy
If the rock is spinning, watch for tornados. Lol

We walked into the visitor center and planned to ask for a hike recommendation. We saw some artwork inside and it became easy

Pants: Where is that and how do we get there?

She game us a map and some directions.
There will be plenty of waterfall pics. They are all good.

We headed down a small road that led to an empty parking lot. After we grabbed some water and snacks from the top case a short walk produces one of the many picture worthy waterfalls.


We found a flat rock near the pool and sat for a bit and enjoyed everything.

I wanted to get another perspective and there were plenty of rocks to scramble on.

We got out our snacks and let the cool water drop the air temp around us. It doesn’t get much better than this!


Or does it? We moved back up the path and took the Potato Knob trail. It led to another water feature. A chute that has cut a deep channel in the rock.


The water all but disappeared before cascading over the less eroded shelf.

I hopped around upstream and got to the other side.

Pants ditched his shoes and started down toward the water.


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[Redfish]

Thanks for quoting Pop. That statement, "They put lights on the front of these things" is one he uses when he knows that I am stressing for keeping him on the road for too many hours. It lets me know that even though he is tired, he isn't Done.

Not Perfect... maybe not. But dammit, I am Jealous and wished I could have been with y'all. Of course I would have just slowed you down in those twisty and curvy mountains

You know it doesn't have to be Perfect but it would be really nice if if could be Finished. Just sayin', Nuff said.

[Cav47]

Pants says he has the softest feet known to man. He said he puts shoes on to go to the bathroom at night. Lol. Might explain the 4 wheel drive he is employing here.


I am still on the upside of the chute.


Pants will have some better pics of the near perfect circle the water carved at the bottom of the channel. Nature is amazing.


Not to be left out of the fun, I ditched my shoes.


Albeit much closer to the water, I don’t walk around without shoes much either. My feet are tender.


This is the shot I was looking for.


Pants making his way back to the chute to investigate from above after he saw it from below.


Pants reminds me of Andy Dufresne here. While not in the prison yard, he just sat and stared at the feature, he appeared to have not a care in the world.


I may have to deviate from the title here; it was perfect. Can’t think of a better scenario. Well, maybe skinny dipping with the wife pushes this to #2. Now there is a thought, but I digress.


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[Cav47]

We found the last of the 3 major falls after a decent walk both on the bank of the creek and down in it at times.


We went off to different spots to explore.


Neither of us is afraid of heights, but neither of us can see how far back the rock has undercut beneath us.


Yeah, I think I am clever.


We switched spots to see how felt, smelled, and tasted.


Joey was trying to drink it all in.


Earlier I was sitting where Pants was. See that rock by my left knee, it’s slippery. See that ledge under the water by my right foot. See that hole between the two. More on that later.


Be right back.


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[Cav47]

I climbed down below the falls to get another look and found these stacked cairns.


As I got closer, I had an idea.

Pants gave me the ULL for the University of Lousiana Lafayette. I was looking for something else.


*****Remember that dark space between my feet here from where I was sitting before…….Hang on a sec.

I just needed to get in position from below. (Before anyone worries, I didn’t fall from above.) Gravity and traction, or rather the lack there of, had other ideas as I dropped instantly into the abyss


Well, I can assure you it is deep. As in, I didn’t feel the bottom with my feet DEEP. As in, I was NIPPLE DEEP before I knew it. I can also assure you that the IPhone 11 is water proof if in your shorts pocket.


After I climbed out, I shook the phone off, sucked the water out of the ports, tried to dry it off with my hat(only thing that was not drenched) and got the perfect pic we all needed.



We laughed the whole way back after my swim. I had clean & dry underwear and socks in the side case. The parking lot was empty when we got back. I left my shirt on and the cooling effect was great.

We hopped on the bikes to find some lunch.


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[Cav47]

We rode up Highway 20 into Buckhannon and looked for a place to grab a quick bite before I headed home.

We employed the “Drive to the middle of town and see where all the cars are” method. They were outside a coffeehouse/ brewery/restaurant. On the way in we asked the outside tables what was the thing to get. More than one immediately answered “Street Tacos”. Done


Just the right amount of food. And it was tasty!

The town had some good history. The waitress was working her way through college to be a nurse. She had a solid plan for her future and got a good tip from both of us to help her out.

It was here we said our “See you laters”. Not “Goodbyes” that’s not how we roll.



I almost changed my mind as I knew Pants was going to continue an awesome adventure. It was so hard to bring it to an end.

I had almost 500 miles home going the quickest way. I did my best to avoid big roads and was rewarded with about 3.5 hours of great twisting roads up to Somerset. I rode 48 to 119 to 47 to some of 555 before I became fatigued and the deer started moving. I got flashed by both a West Virginia State boy and an Ohio county car. I deserved both, but it’s hard to get a radar lock when the bends are constant. It slowed me for at least 10 curves and then I got back to it. Dusk settled in as I exited Columbus and it was dark in Dayton. I changed my shield, stopped for fuel, and called home to let mama know I was heading for the barn. I left at 3:00 eastern, 2:00 central and rolled in about 10:50. Yeah, I let the reins off Halle on the interstate for sure. Mama left the garage door up, I grabbed my toiletries off the bike, and fell asleep immediately.


The day and whole trip for that matter wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty effin close.

Thanks for coming along. And thanks to everyone who made EOM great, essentially my Louisiana brother!


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[BkerChuck]

Great seeing you guys at EOM. Ride report is close enough to perfect.

I'm hoping we all head back to Flatwoods next year for a repeat.

[wheatonFJR]

Perfect!

[Redfish]

Perfect!

+1

[Hppants]

When you fell in the creek, I didn't have any time to worry. It was like you had springs under your feet and they sprung you out of the water. Then i got a tickle in my gut and I couldn't stop laughing. My apologies - that wasn't very nice.

I had a great time with you, Josh. We are making lifetime memories for sure. I can't wait to do it again. Truly, it was perfect. It was effortless, educational, entertaining, adventurous, and perhaps most importantly, a BLAST!!

Well done, my friend. Well done, indeed.

[spklbuk]

[bigjohnsd]

When you fell in the creek, I didn't have any time to worry. It was like you had springs under your feet and they sprung you out of the water. Then i got a tickle in my gut and I couldn't stop laughing. My apologies - that wasn't very nice.

I had a great time with you, Josh. We are making lifetime memories for sure. I can't wait to do it again. Truly, it was perfect. It was effortless, educational, entertaining, adventurous, and perhaps most importantly, a BLAST almost perfect!!

Well done, my friend. Well done, indeed.

FIFY