Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510090016
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This the the territory of Scott Adams, whose new book, ``Mountain Bike Virginia,'' highlights 30 rides, from the cypress swamps and sand dunes of the Atlantic to the waterfalls and mountain gorges of the Virginia Creeper Trail near Abingdon.
For a state whose mountain biking long has been overshadowed by West Virginia, Adams has come up with an imposing list of rides.
``When I started riding [in 1989], I didn't think there was any place to ride,'' said Kyle Inman, a major supporter of mountain biking and a salesman at K-92 FM in Roanoke. ``You still hear that from people who move here. But look around you. Every mountain has riding on it.''
If anything, Adams' list is far from complete when it comes to covering the richness of Virginia's mountain biking opportunities, Inman said. Some rides, especially in remote areas such as Bath County, are yet to be discovered, he said.
``I call up Mountain Bike Magazine all the time,'' Inman said. ``They go to West Virginia - they go all over - and they always skip Virginia. I'm going to call them again and tell them, `You guys have got to start writing about the other Virginia.'''
This is Adams' fourth biking guide, the others devoted to riding in the Pennsylvania and Washington-Baltimore areas.
Adams, who is 26, lives in Richmond and calls his latest work ``an atlas of Virginia's greatest off-road bicycle rides.''
``It is a great book,'' said Ron Glowczynski, manager of the East Coasters Cycling and Fitness store in Roanoke. ``We get it in and it is gone in a few days.''
It isn't for armchair reading. The 256-page soft-cover is meant to ride on the handlebars of a bike by a neat little clamp-on gadget called the BarMap.
The $12.95, Beachway Press book gives directions for reaching trail heads and it rates the difficulty of the ride. Along with locator maps are 3-D profile maps that give the reader a feel for the ups and down that are so much a part of mountain biking.
Inman said he likes the maps, but believes Adams has limited experience in riding some of the trails he highlights, and that shows. Potts Mountain, site of the recent All Sport/East Coasters Virginia Championship Mountain Bike Series, is an example, Inman said.
``You can tell he doesn't know squat about Potts Mountain by the ride he put in there,'' said Inman, who helped organize the race. ``I am not critical, but you can tell''.
Inman praises Adams' effort, but believes readers would have benefited from more riding options.
The book contains some preaching, as Adams' relentless dedication to trail preservation comes through.
``Without open trails, the maps in this book are virtually useless,'' he said.
Mountain biking isn't without its foes in the environmental community, where some back-country lovers view the sport as an intrusion on wild areas and a danger to trails and wildlife. In the western end of the state, some of the most vocal disputes have been between bikers and horseback riders in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, one of the areas Adams highlights.
``With so many new off-road cyclists taking to the trails each year, it's no wonder trail access hinges precariously between universal acceptance and complete termination,'' Adams said.
The obscurity of Virginia's mountain biking has helped soft-pedal conflicts and crowds, and kept the sport a back-country experience, Inman said. But he believes it is time to do some bragging about what's out there, and Adams has made a good start toward that effort.
by CNB