Camp Creek to Matewan/Gilbert 2010

Birthdays, anniverseries, valentines day and Christmas come but once a year, and that's damn well plenty, but a ride like this should happen 12 times a year! Amorillo6oh, aka Kenny, Simoniz and myself had been waiting for over a year for this ride to Matewan and Gilbert and back to Camp Creek. We planned for 3 rzrs', 3 days and about 200 miles. Last year (Oct 09) Kenny and I did a similar trip, if you missed that ride report, check it out.

Kenny, myself and Simoniz savoring the sites and moment as we watched the 1st snow shower of the season move in and the free range horses grazin' in the distance. Pic courtesy of Christy, Kennys' wifey, she was the lone lady on the trip, delivering a little Pennsylvania flavor and levity.


This is just north of the Tug Fork River and the Ky. state line. It's one of those reclaimed mining areas that provides bald mountain tops and great 360 degree views.


We left my place in Camp Creek later than planned because of the rain, 11:20 am, headed over Bluff Mtn, down Gooney Otter branch to Herndon. Crossed Hwy 10 and made our way up Jug Hollow and back down to Tinys'. At this point we made the decision, because of the late start,to bypass the Pinnacle Creek section of the Hatfield-McCoy trails and take the haul roads past the trailhead in Pineville. I said last year that we'd do this section of HM but bypassing it saved us an hour or two we figured.
By now it was lunch time and this crew'll eat, so we hit the station on Hwy 16 with a grill.





Open face roast beef, taters and gravy, serious fuel for fatboys.


This wasn't a dusty ride by any means, Thursday was soggy from CC all the way to Matewan. I had just picked up a full windshield for this trip, best idea I had in a while!





More to come!

Mke you have some of the coolest reports for places you have been .

WHAT A TRIP ----- THANKS FOR SHARING

Tbone21 wrote:

Thanks. Christy and I took quite a few pics, there's a mix of both of ours, as always we should have taken more.

punder wrote:

Mke you have some of the coolest reports for places you have been .

Thanks Punder, I enjoy sharing the pics and feel like a little story is warrented to make it mean something. Trying to do a RR reminds me why we all hated book reports in school though. Thanks again. Have you seen any of my dual sport reports?

Also I feel a responsiblity to WVSXS and BobbyD, were it not for this site the 3 of us inmates would have never hooked up and these 2 long distance rides would have never happened so easy.

shawn wrote:

WHAT A TRIP ----- THANKS FOR SHARING

Thanks Shawn.

Amazing adventures!!! That's what life if all about. One trail exploration at a time! Always like to hear and see your great trips and reports on those adventures!

What can I say... heck of a ride! To cover the amount of trails and sites in 3 days! This was well planned out. We had some unpredictable weather and came across a few locked gates lol... but it all turned out just fine.

In the first picture, what was really awesome, we saw the snow storm coming over the mountains. Just minutes after that picture was taken it was snowing!! YAH HOO!!

Like Mike mentioned, we left Camp Creek around 11:20 Thurdsday morning and we were in Freeburn Kentucky at 7:20. We were MOVING!!! Then to the Matwan house for a excellents nights stay with a provided lumber jack breakfast the next morning!!! Fat boy has to eat and the eating was good!!

More to come later!

After that hot and hearty fill up, we backtracked a couple of miles to the ballpark and hit some sweet trails, looping southwest back to Hwy. 16 at Nancy Fork. Now the horses were gettin' low on 93 octane oats and it was time for a fillup at Sunoco on 16.




After toppin' off and makin' note of the Fox's Pizza oven, we turned west toward Little Huff.

There were a few sloppy sections from logging sites but they didn't last too long.

This picture, the snow showers were coming over the mountain!!

What beauty!! Also some flakes in the background!

I'm gonna rate it 20 ,20, 20.

After passing through a logging area where a gentleman told us to "not come back", we continued through Little Huff and made it to Johnny Cake mtn. There seemed to be alot of trails there to check out soon.



We made it to Wharncliffe and the WV, Ky and Va state line, the Tug Fork River.
IF PHOTOBUCKET WOULD COOPERATE, I'D POST THE PICTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

looks like a good time.

Impressive Ride! Thanks for sharing!

zingo wrote:

Impressive Ride! Thanks for sharing!

Couldn't have done it without your (and Wes')help. Thanks much.

I like that cover on the back of Kennys RZR. Where did he get that thing?

TBONE21 wrote:

I like that cover on the back of Kennys RZR. Where did he get that thing?

Garbage bag!!

simoniz wrote:

TBONE21 wrote:

I like that cover on the back of Kennys RZR. Where did he get that thing?

Garbage bag!!

Damn Kenny! You better get in here and explain/defend yourself!

If any of you venture up towards Matwan. You need to check out the Historic Matwan House!




Chilling!

Nice...would be an interesting adventure that I would like to do too.