A Northern Southern Traverse Ride?

!!!This ride is now on the MTBProject. Check it out as Titled the Northern Traverse!!!

Owen's first time on the ridge and riding strong. Just get a better rear tire next time...

Thanks to the International Mountain Bicycling Association's "Epic Ride" designation, the "Southern Traverse" section of the Shenandoah Mountain Trail (From Benson Run south to Scotchtown Draft) many riders travel to our area to ride this southern gem and we are often asked about it in the bike shop. While the ride has a little bit of everything and is a superb example of hand-built Virginia ridge top riding, anyone who rides around here regularly knows just how many other amazing rides are out there for us to enjoy. The Southern Traverse provide an amazing back-country experience but a trail like that deserves another and another such experience.

Kurt and his Little Grill Bagel sandwhich

On Tuesday, I made it out to the mountains with former SBCer Kurt Rosenberger now of Gray Fox Design Works to celebrate 30 trips around the son for one of our mountain bike buddies. This particular buddy just happens to have twice "won" the Shenandoah Mountain 100 on a tandem with Kurt. You can read Kurt and Ryan's account of the Shenandoah Mountain 100 on Blue Ridge Outdoors. Since Ryan now resides in the deepest depths of Northern Virginia, he doesn't typically escape to ride in the mountains these days. But for his thirtieth birthday (and veterans day) he made an exception and brought his buddy Owen along. So we decided to meet at Tomahawk Pond just north of Brocks Gap in the Lee District of the George Washington National Forest and ride a piece of a Virginia Endurance Series ride that I helped put together last year.

Look at that elevation profile! The ridge is FLAT or at least mostly downhill

Other than a trip to Big Schloss once in awhile, not many Harrisonburg mountain bikers seem to venture up to the western side of the Lee District of the National Forest. For this loop we parked at Tomahawk Pond off of state route 610 and cruised up pavement through Basye and then over to Crooked Run Road. After traversing along the eastern base of Great North Mountain, we finally made it through some recent timber sales and over to Laurel Run trail and climbed up to the North Mountain Ridge trail. Once on the ridge, it is as easy as cruising ridgetop singletrack for 14 more miles all the way to the Hunkerson Gap Trail. We dropped down Hunkerson Gap just as the sun was dipping below the mountains and ended a route that starts with a lot of climbing but then cruises a ridge top trail that is "mostly flat."

Where do you keep your trail food? On top of your Ibis Ripley of course.

The ridge trail along the top of Great North Mountain is part of the Vriginia Mountain Bike Trail and the Great Eastern Trail. With some rocks, plenty of amazing views, open meadows and noticeably "flatter" than most Virginia ridge top trails, Great North Mountain is a treat to ride. Once you turn onto a dirt road at mile 7 the tires never touch pavement again until the car. That is an epic ride that I can get behind. Feel free to checkout the route on Strava and stay tuned for SBC to update the MTB Project and other mapping sites this winter with some of our personal favorite rides in the valley. Especially those that are a little bit different from what we all typically ride. Any questions about the ride? Feel free to email me: Kyle@shenandoahbicycle.com

OK so it isn't totally flat. A little bit of walking here and there BUT very little walking

The birthday boy rolling into one of the open meadows

One of the best overlooks on the ridge. This one is up north near Devils Hole Mountain Road