Anybody been up around Bluefield or Bluewell? My father in law owns a house in Anawalt...there are "strip roads" all over them mountains up there, you can disappear fer a week at a time...I've been in there on a dirt bike and an ATV, can't wait to get the beast(X) in there...

Pretty much all of WV is like that eh?

dunno, I've only been in the Anawalt area and Beckley...it gets flatter as you go north, but man, I'm tellin ya, somebody oughtta open a park up there, they could make a mint...you have steep rocky climbs which open up into nice grassy table tops with incredible views, and many of the table tops have mud holes carved in 'em...it floored me - when they first invited me up I thought "oh good, drunken hillbillies"...then was amazed to see the drunken hillbillies have GPS systems and topo maps, aerial photos w/grids marked out, etc...these guys are pretty dang serious about it...we rode 48 miles one day and never got outside a 10 mile radius from the house. Incredible...I've been to a couple of parks where the "trails" were like 30 feet wide, portajohns all around, biggest bump was like 6 inches, you had to elbow Buffy and her poodle back into their Land Rover to get down the trail...this is infinitely more interesting

[ 10-04-2001: Message edited by: hux ]

Sounds interesting. I did a little quick research on the web and found out there are quite a few ghost towns in that area too - Thurmond, Sewell, Putney, Goodwill. Kooky stuff.

Shoot me an email @ philosopher@angelfire.com if you would.

Been there many moons ago and probably couldn't find my way back it's been so long. The "strip roads" are fun, but after a day or so get kinda old. I wouldn't mind checking out the abandoned towns there sometime though. I love that stuff, but every time I go on an adventure like that I run into cops or some wild man with a shotgun. WVA has pretty unsympathetic hill people living in those areas.

can anyone recommend any good trails in northern west va near the md and va? i have a delorme but dont know which 4wd trail to take because there are so many. any advice?

yeah, i've noticed alot of no tresspassing signs. i guess i was just hoping to stumble upon some great undiscovered trail but have been unsuccessful so far. harrisonburg area has many trails but most are fireroads.

T, actually Thurmond is not that much of a ghost town. There are still residents living there. Untill a few years ago, it still had a bank, motel etc. Now this may not seem like much but the town sits right on the New River and up against the hillside. They also have a nice vistor center in the old trainstation. If anyone is familiar with John Sayles work, the movie Matewan was filmed there several years ago about the coal mine wars in the 20's with the union and Pinkerton guards.

Plenty of good trails in NW Virginia. Your best bet is to join a club and tap them for info or tag along for a trail ride. There are tons of trails within 2-3 hours of Wash D.C.

Ag_Xterra, you post says Northern WEST VA. Is that what you mean or do you mean Northern VA. I think there's some confusion here.

well north western virginia and also northern westvirginia (the state). i'm familiar with most of the trails in virginia, well the northern portion anyway. just dont know too many in west va.

Yep, from a website:

"REMAINS: Depot, bank, saloon, hotel, about 20 homes, and a church. Great remains ... all fairly well in tact. A completely abandoned downtown strip still standing, and in VERY VERY good condition. Lots of empty homes and railroad infrastructure."

I think we've hit most of them ... shoot me an email so we can trade trail info? Thanks.