By Stephen Smoot
“Every time we get together to rally for a cause, we are all left speechless, humbled, and filled with gratitude.”
“We couldn’t have done it without you all.”
So said the Facebook page for Back Roads of Appalachia, an organization of motoring enthusiasts. For the second year in a row, they made Pendleton County landmarks an important point in their statewide itinerary.
Every year, Back Roads of Appalachia runs an event that invites owners and drivers of off road, usually modified, vehicles to test the mettle of their metal. Over a 24-hour period, drivers and vehicles take on the challenge of Mountain State backroads.
The map features approximately 600 miles of roads that range from highways perfectly safe for all vehicles to all manner of paved, gravel, and dirt thoroughfares.
Organizers set the maximum average miles per hour at 40 “to prevent you all from absolutely shredding past people’s homes. If any averaged over that limit, they would be disqualified.”
SXS drivers received slightly different maps to keep them from going into United States Forest Service lands, on which would be considered illegal.
Starting in Point Pleasant, the route extended directly east through Ripley to Spencer, using back roads instead of US 33. Travelers then made their way south through Roane County and into the rugged creeks and hollers of eastern Kanawha County.
The route continued south toward the stunning vistas of the New River Gorge region in the direction of fun and friendly Fayetteville. Drivers then resumed a direction that goes mostly east into Greenbrier County. From there, travelers wound through Pocahontas County into Randolph and Tucker before turning south again to end up in Seneca Rocks and Circleville.
Drivers had to prepare for the wild and not always wonderful weather that they could encounter. Even in the fairest of months, the ridges and valleys of the Allegheny Highlands can create unpredictable patterns. Higher elevations in early March always have varying depths of snow. Some areas, such as Spruce Knob, remain impassable to most vehicles this time of year.
Last year, the event started with hundreds of trucks and other vehicles gathered near the Spruce Knob Visitors Center.
This year the action commenced in Point Pleasant, situated at the location where the Kanawha River empties into the Ohio. One of late colonial history’s most important battles bears the name of the place.
But the star of the show was a famous phantasm styled “The Mothman.” According to legend, this creature appeared in and around Point Pleasant around 1967 and has been linked to the devastating collapse of the US Rote 33 Silver Bridge that spanned the Ohio between Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, Ohio.
Since the release of the Richard Gere film “The Mothman Prophecies,” however, the ominous winged creature has, like The Grinch during the Christmas season, become a mascot for the Mid Ohio Valley region. To kick off the race right, workers laid out massive tarpaulins, covered them with huge mounds of dirt, and graded it to where vehicles could kick off their day in the style to which they have become accustomed – down and dirty.
Drivers could drive on the dirt for a $10 donation that will go to support a Point Pleasant community project.
Rodney Loftis, whose company produced the vinyl placards used, on March 6 posted about joining the day, saying he was “pretty excited to be involved with and participating in a huge event here in my beautiful home state this weekend.” He shared that “over 200 off-road rigs from 26 different states will be competing in an endurance rally.”
“Contestants have,” he stated “less than 24 hours to make it from point A to point B,” which will test “the navigational skills, driver skills, mental endurance, and the capability and preparation of your vehicle.”
The goal? Simply traverse the 600 or so mile map in 24 hours.
The first vehicle crossed into the parking lot of Yokum’s at about 9:16 p.m. on March 8, an SXS 001 driven by Eric Larch and Lucas Holstein. They left Point Pleasant at 7 a.m. and completed the course in just over 14 hours with an average speed of just over 39 miles per hour.
Almost three hours later, the first full size pulled in with Eric Miller of Miller Motor Sports LLC driving. The Cumberland, Maryland, native described the run as “some of the toughest terrain the East Coast has to offer.” He added that “we got to see the most remote areas of our back country and were immersed in the history of the region.”
Miller described how “the demand that these types of events put on equipment is hard to match.
The next day drivers, still likely quite weary from Saturday’s run, could feast on smoked chicken and sides prepared and served up at North Fork Elementary School.
In the final tally, more than 300 people in 142 vehicles, innumerable volunteers, and more came together to once again put together a successful and already iconic event that raised $27,591 for Children’s Home Society.
