Lost City, West Virginia

(September 8, 2015) Over the Labor Day weekend I rode my new Harley to Allegany* State Park in southwest New York State. I also decided to take advantage of my new bike's extraordinary comfort and GPS system, and the long holiday weekend to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, which is near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.** 

Given the out-of-the-way location of this memorial and that of my ultimate destination for the day, Allegany State Park, I chose an out-of-the-way route to reach both places. After a short segment of Interstate 81, I got off at exit 257 and took Virginia route 259 through the town of Broadway. VA 259 led me to West Virginia route 259 and that led me to the hamlet of Lost City.

As I passed the post office, I quickly decided that it was worth a second look and a photo. A few hundred yards down the road, I did a three-point turn and headed back into town.

This is the smallest US Post Office I have ever seen. I challenge you to offer a photo of one smaller! This is the kind of experience that makes taking the road-less-traveled worth it. According to the Wikipedia entry, this post office has been in operation since 1892.

From Lost City, WV to Berlin, PA

When I reached Keyser, WV, I remembered why I love interstate highways so much: it was painfully slow getting through this town.

On the other hand, I enjoyed crossing the North Branch Potomac River. I'm a geography nut and I love encountering important rivers. This particular section creates a winding border between West Virginia and Maryland that gives the former a nub, or panhandle, that juts into Maryland.

At the northern-most point in this West Virginia panhandle, Maryland narrows to less than 10 miles wide as it borders with Pennsylvania in what it called Western Maryland. Take a look at a Maryland sometime and notice how it divides into three distinct regions: the Atlantic coast, the Washington, D.C. part, and the western, mountainous region.

I continued on WV 259 to Baker and turned west on US 48. At Moorefiled, I turned on to US 220 north--though technically I would guess it's east since even-numbered Federal routes are east-west. I followed 220 to Cresaptown, MD where I used MD 53 as a shortcut to Interstate 68, west. After a short ride I got off at exit 29 and headed north on MD 546, Finzel Road. At the PA state line it became Greenville Road.

This is a remote part of Maryland and Pennsylvania. When trying to follow McKenzie Hollow Road off of Greenville Road, I found myself on pavement that wasn't even on my GPS map. It appeared as if I was floating in a green field on the electronic map. That's a sign that maybe a reconsideration of your last turn is in order! I turned around found McKenzie Hollow Road.

The beauty of traveling alone is the absence of anyone bitching at me for missing a turn or getting a little lost now and then.

After a left onto PA 160, I was on my way to Berlin, PA and a much clearer path to the Flight 93 National Memorial. I'll write about that experience in my next post.

Keep the shiny side up!

-The Long Rider

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*For reasons unknown to me, the state of New York decided to spell the name of this park differently than we spell the river and Native American tribe names on which it is sourced.

**Actually, it doesn't really seem to be located close to any town.