250 mile trip over the Appalachian mountains, the hard way. A religious experience.

Upstairs Chris

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Over the weekend I had to go to Alta Vista, Virginia for family reasons. I left from Charleston, West Virginia and from that location, the best route is almost all interstate. Long, boring, sleepy, interstates. The only thing enjoyable about that was the cooled seats and I got 26.7 mpg. Today however, for my return to Morgantown West Virginia, I completed the 250+ mile journey only using 13 miles of interstate. It was Glorious

The largest portions of the Appalachian mountains serve as a natural border between Virginia, and West Virginia. The two most commonly used routes to bridge cross this range is I-68 which runs out of Maryland along the Mason-Dixon line and into West Virginia. The other is I-64 which runs East to West, just South of Charleston. Leaving small U.S. and state routes here and there that snake up the huge range and down the other side. I knew I wanted to take one of these routes so I searched for a good one. I started searching online and found a forum where people were discussing how good U.S. route 250 from Staunton V.A., to Huttonsville W.V. was. One guy said this
some of the most challenging and exhilarating public driving roads I've ever encountered! Steep elevation climbs, tight switchbacks and banked corners, slow hairpin turns— they’re all here, along with some straights and some sweepers thrown in for good measure.
. I did some more research and found that 250 rips through George Washington National Forest and Monongahela National Forest.

I knew this was the one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_250

U.S. 250 turned out to be the absolute most fun, intense, and beautiful driving experience I've ever had. 250 is always just a two lane, both direction road with no shoulders. For the fun part, it passes through four little 1 stop light towns that look as if they came straight out of the 40's. Old guys sitting on porches gave me a look that seemingly said "Oh look another kid in a fast car is looking for fun". They have most likely seen their fair share of exotic 100k cars roll through town. Traffic was practically non existent outside of these towns. With the exception of a few trail hikers with bikes on a car the only other cars I saw were people doing the exact same thing as me. Corvettes, Porsches, WRXs. Saw them all, and each gave that friendly "This is awesome huh" wave as we passed. The only cops I saw were two in the small towns. Just waiting for some anxious kid to not have the restraint to do 25 for just one mile before the next accent began.

For 100 miles I got to throw the LS into hairpin after hairpin and they were all banked in the most perfect way. Or long sweepers ripping down the other side overlooking massive vistas of the next valley. For large portions of the route over the mountains it was either steep uphill or steep downhill. 13% grades, up and down. The road was cut into the side of the mountains and went back and forth till it climbed the top. The side of the road that went up the mountain was usually a rock face where 250 was carved out of the hillside. This rock faced reverberated that intoxicating noise that the K&N intake gives the LS when its in the torque range all through out the valley below. The majority of the route was "tunneled" by trees and it was easily 20° cooler in there.

Don't get me wrong, 250 is hard, and some spots will easily kill you. I have never come this close to the limit with the LS. For about an hour I was in SST mode and mostly in 3rd, with trips to 2nd to get out of the hairpins, and bursts of 4th in the valleys through the sweepers. The LS was exceptional. I mean, the chassis, suspension, and that near 50/50 weight distribution came alive. Some corners I was fighting to stay in my seat and that chassis felt solid as a rock and still had more to give. It was extremely communicative at the limit, it never lost grip suddenly and tried to kill me. It always eased out the traction and as the tires began to wine, you knew where the limit was. However, the flaws of the LS really began to show. Honestly, the SST mode wasn't the worst. You have to get into a swing of things with it and do all the down shifts right at the beginning of your braking line because the tranny takes so long to get down two gears. Man once you start getting the hang of it and nailing it, it is awesome. 3rd gear is really the LS's money maker. The biggest complainer was the brakes. They were by far, the weakest link here. Less than a month ago I got new rear rotors (got new fronts last year) and new pads all around and the brake fade came on quick and drastic. It was 100% what was holding me back the most. Fortunately, it was only the downhill sections, which brings me to my next point. The LS is one hell of a hill climber. In approximately 50 miles I went from 1300ft to 4100ft with 500-900 foot drops every few miles so it was like 2 steps forward, one step back. The LS was by far the most fun climbing, at those slow speeds it never really felt out of power. Coming out of a hairpin in 2nd, and catching 3rd and riding that all the way to 80mph before braking for the next was heaven on earth.

If for some reason you ever need to cross the Appalachia mountains, do yourself a favor and go find U.S. 250. It's way longer, but it is unforgettable.

This link shows the best part of the route on Google maps. Zoom in and follow the route and just look at those glorious corners.
http://goo.gl/maps/Vw212

Elevation.jpgLSwmTrain.jpgLS250.jpgLSPhillippiBridge.jpg


^This is the covered bridge in Phillippi WV. It is also the only covered bridge serving the US Federal Highway system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippi_Covered_Bridge

Elevation.jpg


LSPhillippiBridge.jpg


LSwmTrain.jpg


LS250.jpg
 
Sweet 2014 Calendar pics Chris! I know the Ridge you speak of, beautiful there.
 
For the brakes... Stainless steel brake lines. It is unbelievable the difference they make.
 
Looks like a ton of fun. I had the best time with my 02 LS driving in the mountains of North and South Carolina.

+1 to LS4ME's post stainless brake lines
 
Awesome, there is a lot of great driving through there. Some of the best backpacking I have experienced on the east coast was in the Monongahela.
 
Nice write-up! I haven't done much with SST in my daily driving, and would love the opportunity to do something like that so I could take advantage of it.
 
Sounds like a blast. Nothing like that near OK...

Actually there is. Old HWY 71 in Arkansas, just a few miles across the border starting in Alma and ending in Fayetteville, is a road full of hills and switchbacks. Used to be a lot of people killed on that road. It's old, winds back on itself, has no shoulder, and can be a lot of fun when there's no traffic. They put in a new 4 lane, which is now HWY 71 a few years ago but the old highway is still there. It used to take about an hour and a half to get to Fayetteville from Alma with the old highway, with the new highway it's about 20 minutes. If you make the drive in the fall when the leaves change it can make a really nice drive. Of course it's not going to be as nice as the road Upstairs Chris was on (been out in that neck of the woods too) but it's not bad.

Alma is off I-40, about 20 miles east of the AR/OK border.
 
Actually there is.

Alma is off I-40, about 20 miles east of the AR/OK border.

I recommend Devil's Den Park, just south of Fayetteville. It is a wonderful natural amenity to this region. Beaver lake is pretty nice too.
 

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