Winter Solstice Ride - Four Rivers Loop...or....

...the Best and the Worst of the Area...

Things have been way too busy and hectic lately so managing to squeeze in a long ride wasn't going to happen but some riding is better than none...I had not ridden this loop in a while and it has about 7 miles of wonderful gravel roads and crosses the Pamunkey River and the three rivers which make up the Pamunkey, the North Anna, the South Anna, and the Little River. The loop passes houses built in the mid 1700s and farms with names like North Wales Farm and South Wales Farm which remind one of Great Britian. Its a good thing I was riding my trusty Sturmey Archer three speed hub from Nottingham built onto 700c wheels...my 3 speed rough stuff bike. The route also goes by one of the largest kings land grants owned by the same family but now due to the greed and short sightedness of the county the property will be sold for more houses, and more houses, and more houses...and it could be park... Just don't let the county find out about this little one lane bridge or they will be scrambling to replace it with something big, expensive and ugly.

Of course there is the bad...a two lane section of Route 30 which has loads (no pun intended) of homicidial garbage haulers and timber trucks and crosses I95 twice...you can hear the roar of the interstate from miles away...

Oh well, another successful winter solstice ride....