June 14 Suspension Bridge Day Trip

Limited time had us planning a day trip to the Woodstock, VA area. Our plan was to see four suspension bridges in the area and the route would have us riding roads we hadn't before--a double plus. Unfortunately, the best made plans are not always successful. Of the four bridges, we were only able to locate two. One bridge, the Seven Fountains bridge, was nowhere to be seen. I'll need to do more research to find if this bridge still exists. We didn't locate another bridge, one of the two I designated as "Woodstock", because we couldn't find an access road down to the river. This one warrants another trip to see if access is available from another direction.


Our trip was cut short by bad weather: isolated thunder storms. In a few short minutes, the sky went dark, lightning flashed, the wind kicked up. It happened suddenly enough to freak out the weak hearted...we were undeterred. Being close to I-81, we broke our "no Interstate" rule and headed north just ahead of the rain. We gained enough on the rain that when we turned east onto I-66, we were able to avoid it all together. We made it home in record time (the only benefit of breaking the no Interstate rule) without donning our rain gear.

All in all, a fun ride.

Seven Fountains
No joy. We couldn't find the bridge.

Woodstock
Again no joy. Gravel roads didn't appear to offer access down to the river. So far, two-for-two no-shows. Not a good start.

Woodstock 1

Finally! On one side, we found the remains of a bus that appeared circa 1950s or earlier. Unable to imagine how the bus got there, we imagined a horrific accident where the bus careened off the mountain side road to its final resting place with the driver, long since a picked clean skeleton, still behind the wheel. Our skill at filling in the missing details of the mystery obviated any need to look into the bus--who are we to disturb a resting skeleton?

On the other side of the bridge was a deer who seemed only slightly bothered by our presence. Alas, no deer photo.



Willow Grove
This bridge was noteworthy because of how high it was off the water. Funny was a sign that urged caution if water was at the level of the bridge.