Nah, we get off and take 522 through Berkeley Springs. An area I remember well. I’d love to buy an acre or so and put a cabin on it. Very simple, rustic, basic. My family had a camp up there - my grandfather owned a parcel on the Cacapon with a 3 BR, two story house, right on the river. I think he picked it up in the 40’s or 50’s. When he passed away, my late uncle inherited it. I remember as a kid in the 60’s we’d go down to camp. He owned a speed boat and we’d go out riding, and my cousins and I would sit on the dock fishing and pull in loads of bluegill and bream - we’d fill a bucket, then walk across the road and pour them into the stone water well in the front yard for dinner. My uncle finally sold it off because the river would flood in the spring, and the water would come up five or six feet into the downstairs. He spent more time and money renovating the living room and kitchen than he did actually getting to use it. But, those were good times to still be living up there. My mother remembers when she was in nursing school and doing training down in Baltimore, Hagerstown was a two-stoplight rural community with a two lane local road through the center of it. I’m old enough to remember when there was no Sidling Hill cut - you had to tackle the mountain the hard way, and that hairpin at the top was a two-handed, white knuckle switchback that required concentration and a 20 MPH speed limit. Now 70 is like I-95 during morning rush.
Do you remember the stone wall as you get into Cumberland, at the bottom of the hill, with all the crosses painted on it for those who didn’t make it?
Used to scare me to death, as a kid.
The road up to the hairpin curve is now something out of the apocalypse.
We take the bikes up there all the time on the way to Little Orleans and there are literally little saplings growing on the centerline.
They haven’t repaved that stretch of 40 in forever, which, for some reason, makes it all the more attractive to me.
The tourist trap right at the hairpin is now someone’s house and even the picnic tables on the “scenic view” side are fallen apart.
It is total Zombieland and I love it. :D
You should see what they’ve done with the old Town Hill Inn...
And I freaking love Berkeley.
I creep around the cemetery taking infrared photos whenever I can.
I hated when they made the cut.
70 went from barely any traffic to the Autobahn after that.
Friday the flatlanders tear west to God knows where and Sunday, they race back east again.
The only thing interesting about the cut is waiting for all that loose shale to crash down.
Every time I go by, it’s worse and the pitiful wire “fence” they put up to stop the rocks is next to useless.
I hang over in the fast line when I have to go through there...and I keep my eyes on the cut.
If you want white-knuckle, you should ride up the back road to McConnellsburg PA.
Ack.
:D