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You want to ride but don't know where to go, worse yet you need to get free of the city traffic and just enjoy the day. Perhaps you're a sportbiker and want to enjoy some better riding but don't know where to go to find some roads with corners to task your skills or a cruiser rider looking for a pleasant route to enjoy with that special passenger.
Virginia is full of great roads, and most of the best are all pretty close to the Hampton Roads area. We may not have the tight switchback curves of the mountains but we do have roads that meander along farm fields, drop down and cross little bridges, with enough challenging corners to keep any rider on his toes.
Recently I have been communicating with one of the readers and gave him a route to try. It runs through some nice areas, little traffic, and can be quite picturesque. And depending on how you ride it, it can challenge a sportbiker's skill set.
What follows are the directions that I emailed to the reader; remember these are country roads and you can encounter wildlife, tractors and farm equipment which take up the whole road, cars running at high speed on the wrong side of the road, and fishermen towing boats at any time. Please use caution on these roads and always be aware that sand and gravel live for years on these roads too.
Click on map images
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These maps are far from complete by the time I got enough detail in them you couldn't tell where you were. I have been running these back roads over twenty years. They are now undergoing a change. The county is growing up and the first thing they did was put speed limits on the back roads.
Early Sunday mornings from seven to about ten you have them all to yourself. Weekdays and Saturdays they are busy and of course patrolled. Sunday mornings no one is about until about ten.
The route I am going to suggest will be a fairly simple one but should be enough fun and hold enough changes it should be fun even at a slower pace used for scouting out new roads to ride.
After crossing the James River Bridge turn left at the second light, that's Smith Neck Road, after passing the shopping center, you will pass two new streets on the left then turn left on Reynolds road.
Follow Reynolds all the way out until it comes to 258 or Brewers Neck road and turn right, follow it all the way to ten at Ben's Church, bear right on to ten and go the next light and turn left on 644.
Follow 644 all the way to the intersection of Scotts Factory Road, turn left on Scotts Factory Road. This will intersect with Bowling Green Road, bear left and follow it to 600. Slow for the bridge its rough. You will know 600 by the farm house on the corner and there will be another one on the right of 600 about a few hundred yards down.
Slow down and look up, there may be model airplanes flying in the field to your left. I sometimes stop here to smoke one and watch them fly. They pilots are really good.
Continue on 600 until it intersects with Carrol Bridge Road turn left, follow it and bear right on to Woodland Dr. and continue. Be careful you're coming in to the corners we call the Twilight Zone; two back to back 90s coming from a long straight away.
Follow it down the hill and over the bridge, it will bring you to an intersection with Orbit. Bear left on Orbit and follow it all the way to Five Forks or a little place called Indika. Make a left on to Everrts Road follow it down to the intersection with Milners Road and turn right.
Continue on Milners Road until it comes to Lake Prince Drive and turn right….
After you cross the lake slow as you come up the hill, boat ramp. Continue on Lake Prince Road to the next left 605 and follow it across the lake and down the hill slow down as you pass the spillway, The entrance ramp to Western Branch is on your right, rocks and gravel may be spread on the road just before the up hill bend.
Continue on and bear left back on to Milners Road and follow it back to Lake Prince Drive. At Lake Prince drive turn right and follow it through the banked turns to Everets Road and turn right again. Slow down as you come down the hill onto the bridge you will be turning left onto Longview drive.
Follow Longview to the first road on your left, it has no name or number on the map. Follow it to the intersection with Carrol Bridge Road and turn either right to head home or left to circle around once more through the Twilight Zone. If you do that follow it back to Orbit and take the next left and enjoy the two back to back 90s then slow down for the drop into the woods gravel on the road….. Follow this road 605 to Everets Road again.
You can take Everets road (Left) all the way out to ten, and head up to Chuckatuck and get gas if you need it or water at the 7/11. If it's a Saturday (turn right on ten) head over to Tidewater Motorcycle and get a cold drink and some ice cream tell Pat or Pam I sent you.
Hey this isn't all of the great roads back there, I left off the best ones because you do need a guide for those and I'm not sure I want to give away my best spots. You know what happens when you show folks you favorite hunting spot, you will never be able to hunt there again because at least twenty more folks will know it's a good spot.
Seriously you can't go wrong just putting around back there and discovering some of the other good roads.
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