May 14th 2010
Women’s weekend on Spruce by Cheryl Recchia Sornson
Riding a bike has afforded me many opportunities for
excellent adventures in beautiful places.
All too often those adventures lack the comradeship of other
females. Where are you ladies? Well during the weekend of May 14th
I found them.
Eighteen women from VA and this lone PA girl pulled together
for a wonderful weekend in Spruce Knob, WV.
Yes, eighteen women. The best
part was that every one of us brought a mountain bike, a road bike, hiking
shoes or all these implements of adventure to this magnificent location. We were looking for an escape from the norm
and the experience of serenity in the wild.
However, we would not just be sitting on the porch.
My weekend started by meeting my traveling ladies in Harrisonburg, Va. Some drove the supplies, stuff and bikes from
H-burg to Spruce Knob. Some including me
decided to ride our road bikes to our remote cabin. Three of us road the whole 75 mile 10,000
feet of climbing and two split the ride with the other driving the van with
ours and others’ mountain bikes, food and stuff. Fortunately for us we were able to evade all
the rain and storms that swirled to our left, right, back and front. To our added pleasure were the views. Riding into West Virginia and on to Spruce Knob one is
never without scenery. Whether it be
sprawling farmland, beautiful countryside dubbed little Switzerland, magnificent mountain
ranges or the wonders of a creek side shanty town. We even visited the mountain institute with
its amazing yurts and vistas.
I was unsure of what our accommodations would be other than
the comment “We are going to the middle of nowhere.” Ok, I’m up for that. Yes, it was in the middle of nowhere, but this
nowhere is beautiful and the cabin is perfect.
No electric, an outhouse, water only if you pump it and wilderness
everywhere you look. However our
roughing it for the weekend was tempered with an after ride treat of cheese,
crackers, olives and a side toast of Champagne.
Wow this is going to be fun!
Later in the evening (there was a gas stove), we had a
wonderful meal of curried rice and veggies.
As we filled our bellies, more women began to arrive to begin their
adventure. The energy picked up and all
were amped to share in this adventure together.
After lots of chat and laughter we crawled in our sleeping bags or tents
and slept easily.
We awoke to a beautiful morning with birds chirping and the
smell of percolated coffee in the air.
It was my job to get the coffee going each morning. It was an important job, well at least for me
since I do not do much prior to my cup of coffee each day. With our coffee there was a full spread on
the table of fresh baked goods, bagels, cream cheese, eggs, homemade salsa, and
so much more.
After b-fast we took to the woods. We were on the hunt for Morels and
Ramps. Unfortunately it was a bit late
in the season for Morels, but there were Ramps and Brook Lettuce a plenty. It was exciting to forage for food in the
forest. We were also treated with
beautiful wild flowers. After our hike
it was back to the cabin to meet up with other arrivals, fuel up, gear up and
take to the mountain bike.
Twelve of us lovely ladies headed out of the cabin road on
our bikes. It was a unique moment to see
us all on our bikes together in a group.
Others felt the same. One car
passed us and stopped ahead of us and then jumped out to take pictures of our
group. He was working for a magazine who
recently stated that they needed to get more pictures of women. He couldn’t believe his luck.
Our group of twelve split in two and took different routes
depending on what type of ride was desired.
Some of us traveled up to the highest point in W.VA then finished on the
Seneca Creek trail. We rolled back to
the cabin prior to our come find us time 33 miles later.
Dinner was an array of grilled meat, various sides and of
course stir fried Ramps. Another evening
of food, laughter and spirits but this time punctuated with a bonfire and
nutella smores. After much needed rest
we repeated the prior morning for our nourishment, however or prep for the day
ahead took a different twist. We needed
to re-coordinate our resources to get all of us and our gear back to Harrisonburg taking into
account the different activities all had planned for the day. Some stayed to hike and clean up, others
stayed to again venture on mtn. bikes, and others were riding part way on road
bikes home or braving the whole trip back.
It did not take much time to figure out and in the mean time we had fun
posing our bikes for pictures.
All in all this was one for the memory books. It was a much needed break from the norm, a
joyous time of companionship and something that I hope we repeat in the years
to come.
