Treasure Mountain Weekend

Full face, just in case!

Last weekend, January 26 2018, Vanessa, Bob and I drove down to Treasure Mountain Lodge and Bike Park located in West Virginia and owned by Kent Baake.

• Here is a link:  https://treasuremountainwv.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treasuremountainwv/

We were there because Bob (and encouraged to bring friends) was invited by Harlan Price, owner of Take Aim Cycling . Take Aim is a "driving school for bikes" and rather than me repeat what Harlan has already written check out:

• https://www.takeaimcycling.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TakeaimCycling/

And here is an article on Pinkbike about Harlan:

http://www.pinkbike.com/u/briceshirbach/blog/the-harlan-price-interview.html

Kent and Harlan have formed an alliance to turn Treasure Mountain into a mountain biking destination resort. The weekend was an open house event by invitation to folks that would enjoy riding the new trails.

We arrived just before 4pm on Friday. The lodge truly is on top (or very close to the top) of a mountain. Kent said the elevation was 3300 ft.

Is there a catapult in the cupula?

The lodge was huge and the jumps looked awesome. Kent met us as we pulled in and gave us a quick tour of the facilities. Since we were the first ones to arrive the bedroom closest to the bathroom seemed the best choice. We quickly dressed into our cycling garb and hit the trails. All I can say is the trails were fantastic. We wandered about and made our way to the ridge trail above the lodge. The grade and a few well placed rocks made the trail just technical enough that I had to put my foot down a few times. My second time through I did clean the entire section. We then rode Raspberry Trail  into the jumps and around the jumps at least 4 times before darkness arrived. Here is a video of Raspberry that I shot on Saturday:
https://youtu.be/RvFDgRy9uTY

We ate dinner in Franklin that night at the Korner Shop Cafe. They were serving surf and turf that night and the place was packed. The hotel restaurant down the street was closed so there wasn't much competition. When we arrived back at the lodge Kent finished the tour by showing us the garage bike shop area in the barn. Very cool. We then relaxed for the evening with Bob and I reading, Vanessa drawing, and Kent played his banjo.

I am pretty sure that the heat in the lodge is provided by the wood stove.

Heat is important

Saturday morning, folks started to arrive. Three of the first were Madison, Tim and Cam.

Cam says "Leave us alone!"

Cam is actually Tim's dog. Tim didn't sit around as much as Madison did. M & T are both engineers and very good cyclists. I know Tim competes in down hill events and I am pretty sure that Madison does too.

The core group of riders were Kent and his significant other Laurie. Tim and Madison, Harlan and his girlfriend Phoebe, Colin and Michael (cycling team mates of Kent's), Elizabeth and Lindsey, Bob, Vanessa and myself, Anne and her son Cameron and also Matt. And we can't forget Marco!
Here is a group photo:

The Open house gang

We spent the morning riding around the property. Riding the trails down and back up over a dozen times is tiring! Here are a few photos of folks having fun:

Happy Kent

Airborne Ranger

Send it Tim

After lunch we put most of the bikes on Kent's trailer and headed over to a trail near Seneca Rocks. The plan was to do 14 miles.

Only one bike belongs to me.

We arrived around 2:30 pm and started a long climb up a road to the trail head. Cameron's back started to seize so he and Ann rode back to the cars. Laurie stated that we were running out of daylight and perhaps 14 miles was a little optimistic. We all agreed that shorter was better. We opted for the 7 mile loop. The shortest way to the top was certainly not the easiest. I walked most of this section because of the grade and the rocks.

The view from the top was spectacular and the descent (for me -- not the others) was very difficult. My choice of shoes was poor. I had hard plastic bottoms that made walking on rocks almost impossible. Everyone else was having a great time as Harlan demonstrated various lines through some of the most difficult sections.

The final mile and a half were back in the loamy forest. Marco and I were ahead of the others and I had a great time trying to keep up and happy that I was riding instead of walking.

Saturday evening we ate pizza, told stories and celebrated Harlan's birthday.

After the dishes were done we spent some time in the hot tub telling more stories and enjoying the camaraderie of a very active day.

Sunday morning Bob, Vanessa and I packed up the van in the rain and headed back to Ithaca. On the way home we made plans for more adventures to come. Hope some you reading this will join us on the next event.