Riding the Seasons - Summer Ramblings

By Jeffry L’H. Tank

If there was any doubt that the seasons are once more turning, the morning temperatures during the last few weeks have surely put that doubt to rest! Summer’s come and gone and once more the seasons have come full circle, Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Each year completing the cycle, the same seasons in the same order as always, yet each unique, each with it’s own special qualities. A series of constantly repeating, yet ever changing patterns, as it is with all aspects of nature, diverse, yet unmistakably belonging to the same group, be it season, plant, animal, human race, rock or mineral, a “similar dissimilarity”. Each pattern clearly identifiable yet different, as any two leaves from the same tree are unique yet recognizable as coming from the same genre, oak from oak, birch from birch, beech from beech. This is one of the aspects of Nature that has always fascinated me.

Now that we find ourselves in the Fall season I thought it an appropriate time to reflect on the past Summer and in so doing complete the cycle of Riding the Seasons. Looking back I have to say that even with the rainy start we had, this summer was one of the best for bikers in Virginia and surrounding environs in several years. Plenty of warm sunny days, not too much rain, (during the height of summer at least!), nor too dry, not too hot or too cool, and as always plenty of excellent roads and some great events.

Having not gotten in nearly as much riding last summer as I would have liked, I took the opportunity this year to make up for the ”lost” rides during the warmer seasons of 2002. And I think I succeeded rather nicely. I totaled up a good 8-10K+ miles on one or the other of my two old machines, with a nice combination of distance, weekend and day rides, and that’s not including commuting miles. Late May found me taking the first nice non-rainy day as a “mental health” day from work one Friday and winding my way though upper West Virginia to find the headwaters of the Northern Branch of the Potomac River out near Black Water Falls. Along the way I discovered an almost completely deserted wetland plateau of scrub trees and marsh grasses that sits at a little over 3000 feet in West Virginia near the southwestern tip of Md. I found such wonderfully named roads as Fried Meat Ridge Rd. and Frog Eye Sirbaugh Rd. off of Rt. 50 as I worked my way home. I saw the “Lost” River where it sinks into a mountain just off Rt. 55 and then flows out the other side to become the Cacapon.

Five weekends in a row during June-July found me on the road again to such places as Seneca Rocks for a small MC gathering of folks who ride old Beemer’s, and another for the BMW national in Charleston W.V. Both events provided an opportunity to meet folks I’ve corresponded with for several years yet never met face to face. Yet another weekend found me heading down south to the Willville MC campground that I wrote about elsewhere on VA Wind, after which I spent two days riding some 250 miles back home along the Blue Ridge. Some weekends I spent riding with a newly formed vintage motorcycle group to participate in rides with other vintage bikes of various makes, some dating back as early as 1928. And at all of these events I had the chance to make new friends, rekindle old friendships, talk bikes and trade stories of the open road. I spent whole days riding many new (for me) roads. I crossed over, and then under, the worlds second longest Steel Arch Bridge in Fayetteville, WV that spans the New River Gorge. I rode a section of Rt.33 between Seneca Rocks and Harrisonburg, VA. and a 100 or so miles of Rt. 39 west out of Goshen, both sections of which I’d never ridden before. I rode up the back side of the mountain to Woodstock Tower on a gravel road consisting of nothing but switch-backs all the way up, a good ten in all. After riding a gravel switch-back the well paved one to the top of Grandfather Mt. in North Carolina seems tame!

In early fall I rode through the Great Dismal Swamp on my way to the Outer Banks for a weeks vacation, a great ride but I found the amount of destruction from Isabel rather overwhelming at times. There were still areas without power 2 weeks after she hit, many trees still lying along the road and in parts of the Intercoastal Waterway as it passes the edge of the swamp. Along the Outer Banks it was evident that much of the beach was gone and in places some homes had simply been washed away, and the property on which they had stood was now part of the ocean.

The other ride that probably made the greatest impression on me this summer was a morning spent in some of the densest fog I have ridden through while traveling part of Skyline Drive. The sense of complete isolation was extremely intense; it was as if the small section of road that I could see in front and behind me was all that existed of the world besides my machine and myself. A journey through a dimly perceived ethereal world of clouds and haze, punctuated only by the occasional ghostly appearance of some gnarled, ancient creature waving me on and encouraging me ever forward. At times it seemed as if the same section of road surface was moving along with me rather than my actually traveling forward along the surface. A rather mystical and bizarre experience!

Other weekends found me just traveling for the day to nowhere in particular, which, when all is said and done, has always been my favorite type of ride, no destination other than the next rise, the next bend or sleepy town and arriving back home, well… whenever :).

So what is it about summer that is unique to that season, just as I have written about each of the three other seasons in past articles? Well, I think the previous several paragraphs pretty much say it all, its the numerous opportunities Summer affords to wonder the road and meet new folks, explore all the great natural and man made wonders we have here and gather with fellow riders. Its about the opportunity to leave thousands of miles of rubber behind us in our quest to find what’s just beyond the next bend, quench our soul with one more moment of solitude on some lost road through the hills and valleys, or to discover some new hidden place to rest at day’s end or just for a moment of reflection. Then again, maybe its about riding with a group, sharing the road together, all the good rides and the rainy ones, meeting and swapping road stories till the moon is long gone and the sun is peeking up over the hill and reminding us it’s almost time to ride again.

No doubt its many different things to different people, but in the end it all boils down to one thing, its all about THE RIDE.

So now we’ve come full circle, and a new cycle starts with fresh promises for the coming years and I hope you all had as great a riding summer as I was lucky enough to have this year. In keeping with that theme, I’ll close with this little offering about the circular nature of Nature.

A Summers Ride

A summer’s ride.
The sun baked breeze.
Of chasing shadows,
Through the trees.

A summer’s ride.
The rain swept fields.
Of riding rainbows,
Thus revealed.

A summer’s ride.
The warming sun.
Of sun drenched visions,
Thus begun.

A summer’s ride.
The pastures green.
Of passing moments,
So serene.

A summer’s ride.
The twilight stream.
Of visions caught, on
Bright moonbeams.

A summer’s ride.
The mountain maze.
Of hidden pathways,
Wrapped in haze.

A summer’s ride.
That now is done.
Of fall approaching,
Fading sun.

A summer’s ride.
The memories.
Of pleasant moments,
‘Mongst the trees.

A summer’s ride.
I’ll soon renew.
Of flowers dancing,
“Neath the blue.

A summer’s ride.
From year to year.
Of each connected,
Always near.

A summer’s ride.
Tis natures gift.
Of all it’s splendors,
Clear and swift.

A summer ride’s
Soon round the bend.
Of which I’ll write
Without an end.

For more pictures from some of my rides here’s a link
http://www.pbase.com/dertankmann

© Jeffry L’H. Tank

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