From:Hodge e-mail:hodge@engineeredmaintenance.com
Subject:August Minutes / Smoke Hole Update 8-16-10 Date:Mon Aug 16 15:59:42 2010

Highlands Chapter Meeting Minutes
August 12, 2010


Location: Richard’s House

When: August 12, 2010 @ 6 PM

Attendees: Hodge, Flathead Ed, King, Tim, Cliff George, Tom
Holter, Rollo, Dave, Richard and Bob

Food: Hotdogs, chips and beer

Subject: 1) Highlights of our Upcoming Smoke Hole Run
Aug 20, 21 and 22.
2) Other Club News


Thanks to Richard for hosting our August meeting. He provided hotdogs and assorted chips. Richard braved the rain while grilling. Ed brought a variety of beers for us to sample. Thanks Ed.

These minutes include new information regarding our upcoming run. I’ve also included some pertinent information from our previous planning meeting.

SMOKE HOLE RUN – FINAL INFORMATION

The meeting started a little after 6 PM. Hodge, Richard and Rollo had made a trip back to Smoke Hole for a final review of the routes. They met with the Owners of the resort and ironed out the last few details.

Hodge said that Friday’s route reminded him of the runs they use to have back when the Highlands Chapter was in southwest Virginia. The guys rode modern bikes for their recent trip to Smoke Hole. Rollo said that, even with modern bikes, their top speed was 40-45 MPH with times down into the 30’s. Hodge, Rollo and Richard reminded us that these roads, while well maintained, are full of twists, turns and steep hills. All riders need to make sure they take it easy on the runs and that their brakes are in good working order.

As you know, Hodge will be leading both rides. Richard is planning on riding in second position. He has located several places for photos and will be letting us know when to pull off for group shots.

There will be riders meetings before each run. I’m working with Hodge to put together the maps and rider’s packets.

Hodge agreed to call the two restaurants (where we are having lunch) to give them a heads up on the number of patrons they can expect from our group. They did stop by the Heritage Inn and have a meal. Hodge had a great burger and agreed with us that this restaurant will be a very good stop for Friday’s lunch.

I agreed to call Top Kick’s Museum to let them know how many riders will show up after Friday’s lunch break in Petersburg.

The timing of our meals at Smoke Hole Caverns Resort has changed slightly since our last meeting. Friday’s and Saturday’s meals are scheduled for 7 PM. (Note: The resort will sell meal tickets at the time you check into your rooms).

Thursday’s meal will be Hamburgers and Hotdogs and will be $8.00 per person.

Friday’s dinner is Deep Fried Turkey with all the fix’ns and will cost $15.00 per person. Bring your High Cholesterol medicine.

Saturday’s dinner is Steak and Shrimp and costs $25.00 per person.

I understand that the resort will provide non-alcoholic beverages with the meals. I also understand that you can bring beer and wine with you if desired.

There are several restaurants nearby for those folks who do not want to partake of the meals put together by Smoke Hole Caverns Resort.

There is a diner a couple miles east of the resort that serves breakfast.

Petersburg WV is about 6 miles away from the resort. They have numerous restaurants.

There are grills available for anybody who wants to cook their own meals. Each cabin has a kitchen with a range, stove and refrigerator. Keeping our bellies full should not pose much of a problem.

Flathead Ed agreed to provide the tow vehicle for our two rides. He will have a small trailer that will hold one (and possibly two) bikes. Tim said he’d bring a second trailer, if we’d find someone to tow it. I’m sure we’ll come up with a driver. Flathead will be carrying motor oil and gasoline.

We’re trying to come up with a couple of two-way radios. Richard and George will be supplying two each, if anyone else has any, please bring. Cell phone coverage in that part of West Virginia is spotty.

Our group of participants turned out to be smaller than anticipated. I believe we have about 13 cabins or hotel rooms reserved so far. We had previously told the resort owners that they could expect a larger number of reservations. The Owner has moved our group a little further away from the swimming pool, but the cabins are identical to the ones Richard, Rollo and I had visited.

Richard had a copy of the Smoke Hole Cavern’s rules and passed them around for everyone to review. They are a bit stricter than Natural Bridge. The resort owners must have had some problems in the past. They want to make sure that their facilities are only being used by paying guests. For example, you need to have rented a room to use their pool and various gathering areas.

The room check-in time is a little later than we’ve experienced in the past. Note: You cannot get into your room until 4 PM. If you arrive early and need a place to store your luggage, let one of us know. We have a number of members arriving on Thursday, so it shouldn’t be a problem to find a place to store your belongings.

There are a few cabins left at the resort. However, they may not be adjacent to the rest of our cabins. If you haven’t reserved a room, please do it right away. I expect the resort will be filling up pretty quickly over the next few days.


Here is the information you’ll need to get to Smoke Hole Caverns Resort:

Smoke Hole Caverns Resort
HC 59 Box 39 (Mailing Address)
Seneca Rocks WV 26884-9500

Phone: (800) 828-8478 or (304) 357-4442

Directions: Smoke Hole Resort is based 8 miles southwest of Petersburg, WV, on Highway 55 on the banks of the North Fork of the South Branch River. (Unfortunately, the resort doesn’t have a physical address that you can MapQuest). Smoke Hole Caverns Resort is about 3/4 Miles west of the village of Cabins, WV. The best I could come up with was to use Google Earth with the following coordinates: (Latitude and Longitude)

38 59’34.00” N 79 12’58.23” W

If you copy and paste these coordinates and post them to Google Earth it should land you right at the resort entrance. You can convert the view to Google Maps from that page.

Website: http://www.smokehole.com/index.html

Early Arrival : Thursday August 19, 2010
First Official Night: Friday August 20, 2010
Second Official Night: Saturday August 21, 2010
Checkout: Sunday Morning – August 22, 2010





Summary of the Rides


Friday’s Ride – The Short Loop - Starts at Smoke Hole Caverns Resort and makes a 45-mile loop on Smoke Hole Road and Route 220. We’ll have stops at the Hermitage Inn Restaurant in Petersburg and at Top Kick’s Military Museum. We’re planning a 9:30AM start time for Friday’s run. That will put us in Petersburg in time for a leisurely lunch. It will also give us ample time at our next stop at Top Kick’s Military Museum. We’ll be back at home base in the early afternoon.


Saturday’s Ride – The Long Loop - Starts at Smoke Hole Caverns and heads west towards, Harman, Davis, Parsons and on to Elkins for lunch. We’ve reserved a room at C.J. Maggies for our noontime meal. We’ll head east out of Elkins to Seneca Rocks for a view of the sites and some photo ops. We’ll leave Seneca Rocks and head back to Smoke Hole Caverns Resort. This loop is approximately 130 miles. We’ll be in the saddle for about 3-1/2 hours. There is one short section on the return route that is divided highway. We’ll keep our speed limited to 55 MPH. We’ll be back on two lane roads pretty quickly.



Other Club Business:

Richard would like us to consider printing up higher quality non-event- specific club T-shirts. That way we would be able to use them for multiple events. They would include a club logo and other art work. He suggested that the members come up with graphics ideas and present them at our next meeting in September. We unanimously, agreed with Richard’s suggestion. Dave told us that he has a contact for high quality T-shirt printing. Hodge mentioned that in the past we had printed a different T-Shirt, Sweat-Shirt and sometimes hats at least 3 times a year sometimes for the Hell of it and sometimes Run Specific. The chapter did this for the first 5-8 years that the Highlands Chapter was around. He bought an example of many of those shirts and has a box full. He will bring some for review to the September Meeting.

Dave brought by some sample placards for placing near our bikes during bike shows like our Blast from the Past show at Patriot H-D. That would help the public know what they are looking at. He had purchased some acrylic stands for the placards. We all thought it was a great idea. Dave will be contacting us to get information for each of our bikes. We will maintain a file of all of the bikes so the appropriate placards are available for our shows

We need to update our banner to reflect our current location in Northern Virginia. (Right now it says Southwest Virginia). Tim said that his brother designs banners. We gave Tim one of the old banners to use as a model. We will discuss the final design with Tim and his brother in the near future.
Rollo said that Patriot H-D would like to meet with us in the spring to discuss next year’s show. He indicated that the dealership would like to make it an annual event. Rollo told us that we were able to donate $478.00 to the Wounded Warrior’s fund. The fees were collected during the popular vote for the best bike.

Richard would like to have some more club cards printed. He plans on getting a rubber stamp so he can add some additional information on the back of the cards he hands out to potential members. (phone number…etc) We voted to have the club pay for the printing of additional club cards.

Richard took a few moments to express his personal appreciation of Dave Hennessey’s work on our website. He suggested that we make Dave an honorary lifetime member of the club, waving all future dues. Dave would also get a free T-shirt whenever they are printed. Richard suggested that we award lifetime memberships to club brothers that have gone above and beyond in helping to support the club. We voted unanimously to make Dave our first life-time member. Thanks, Dave for all you’ve done. The website is a big asset to the club.

Dave will continue to post photos of our events on the website. He did ask if there are a number of photos you’d like posted, that they be submitted on CD instead of by e-mail.

We’ll, that about covers our August meeting. We are looking forward to seeing all of you at this year’s First Smoke Hole Run. It promises to be a great event.


Best Regards,



Bob Nicholas, Highlands Chapter AMCA – Secretary
August 15, 2010