A Trip to WV MountainFest 2005

By Jeffry L’H. Tank

During the last weekend of July Jeanne and I headed up to Morgantown WV for the first annual West Virginia MountainFest, an all brand motorcycle event and the first in our area. The event ran for three days from Friday to Sunday and was comprised of three separate venues scattered in and around town. While it rained a bit on us heading up and over the Allegany Plateau, by the time Jeanne and I arrived in town the weather had once more cleared and the heat wave we have had this past summer actually took a bit of a break for the weekend.

When we arrived at the Radisson Hotel where we staying things were already in full swing and the parking area and driveway were chock full of machines. I’d say well over half the guests were motorcyclists who had come for the event, to enjoy the camaraderie of their follow bikers and the cooler weather found in this area of the state. The Radisson was also hosting the vintage motorcycle display that featured over a hundred machines dating from 1911 to 1980. Quite an impressive collection, most of which were from owners living within the 5 surrounding states, but more on that in a moment.

Morgantown sits in the northwestern part of West Virginia and is home to the West Virginia State University, the campus of which comprises a good quarter of the town proper. Sitting at around 970 feet the town enjoys a generally cooler climate than most parts of northern Va. and lies along the banks of the Monongahela River. The town was first settled in 1772, first known as Morgan’s Town, after its founder, Zaquill Morgan. The river on which Morgantown is situated comprises part the 4000 plus miles of navigatable waterways that feed into the Mississippi River and is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, the lock system managed by them allows river barge traffic to travel all the way from Morgantown to New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, thru a series of locks and dams that control the water level forming a series of “elevation pools” along the entire length of the waterway. In this picture taken from the 11th floor of the hotel you can see one of the locks, this one being lock number 2 on the Monongahela.

The downtown section of Morgantown hosts a number of shops and restaurants and there is a lovely river walk along the banks of the river through town. This was where the Main Street MountainFest events took place, consisting of an almost constant array of music and food vendors along the river walk, while a few blocks away all the shops, bars and eateries along the main street of town were busy serving up the typical West Virginia hospitality. Main street was also host to the parade that took place on Saturday.

The other two venues were Camp MountainFest, a 21 and over camping event located about a 30 minute ride out of town where there was more music, food and entertainment. The third venue was Market MountainFest, located about 15 minutes on the other side of town, where still more music, food and entertainment was scheduled along with numerous venders. Unfortunately, Jeanne and I never made it out to either of the other venues, the Main Street MountainFest events keeping us occupied the entire time. Since the organizers had done such a great job of getting sponsorship for many of the events, most were free of charge, excepting, of course, refreshments and food, but all concerts and much of the other entertainment was provided at no cost.

On Saturday we headed out to watch the start of the vintage ride, where some 40 or so machines participated in a leisurely 60-mile run though the hills surrounding the town. Then we headed down to Main Street to watch the parade in which I’d estimate a good 1000 machines made their way past the crowd gathered to watch the event.

The parade was lead by the Budweiser Clydesdales, followed by wave after wave of machines and rounded up this curious fellow on a scooter with his blow-up doll passenger! What a hoot!

After the parade we headed back to the Radisson so I could wander around the vintage bike display. I have to say it was one of the best I have seen, even rivaling the Art of The Motorcycle show that has been touring the country the past several years. Of note were a Honda 6 cylinder, man that’s a wide load, a Hercules Wankel powered machine with a motor that looks like the business end of a jet engine, and this Munch Mammoth which featured an NSU car engine, brother talk about Big, wouldn’t want that to fall over on me! I I wish I could include all 103 bikes in the display, but there simply isn’t enough room here for them all. I am working on getting all the pictures I took up on my web site but arranging and labeling 280 pictures takes quite some time to accomplish so it may be a while! It truly was an excellent display of machines.

Besides the display inside there were some rather unique custom machines mixed in with the constant flow of machines in and out of the parking area around the hotel, as well as all over town.

Saturday evening Jeanne and I headed down along the River Walk were we enjoyed one of the many bands, this particular one featuring a young gentlemen of around 10 who I must say could really belt out a tune. In fact, several times he got so involved with his singing he forgot to continue strumming his guitar! People obviously were enjoying themselves, both children and adults alike.

My only regret was that there wasn’t more time to wander around the campus or visit either of the other two venues, but there is always next year, and given the turn out just based on what I saw in town I’d say it’s a good bet it will return next year. I’d estimate there were around 4000 machines in town with who knows how many others at the camping area that never made it to the Main Street events.

The town really turned out for this event, nowhere did I see any evidence of any trouble; the town’s folk were warm and friendly and the traffic control well planned. In fact during the three days of the event, most of Main Street was reserved for motorcycle only parking. Jeanne and I enjoyed meeting and talking to many of our fellow riders and everyone seemed to be having a good time and a relaxing weekend among friends and fellow motorcyclists. I commend the organizers of the event and fully intend to return next year and hope many more folks will come out and enjoy the weather, the West Virginia hospitality and wonderful roads that can be found in that part of the state. You can view pictures from this year’s event taken by the official photography studio at http://www.wvmountainfest.com/

© Jeffry L’H. Tank

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