SQUARE ROOT RALLY - JUNE 2015

Camp West-Mar, Thurmont, Maryland
June 5 - 7, 2015 (1,149 miles)

Because of the weather we were not sure if we were going to the rally until the morning we left.  The plan was to leave Thursday, take two days to get there stopping in Lynchburg, Virginia Thursday night and getting to the rally mid morning on Friday.  After checking the radar Thursday morning we decided to try.  The radar showed we were clear of storms on 74 and 73 toward Asheboro and into Virginia on 29. We thought we would at least get to Lynchburg.  We stopped in Danville, Virginia for lunch and saw Lynchburg had heavy rain so we stayed where we were.  We got that far without a drop of rain and Danville was half way there.

Google Map to Square Root Rally

Friday morning, again we had good luck with the weather and got to Camp West-Mar with no rain.  The rest of the weekend was partly sunny and cool.

Camp West-Mar

Bunkhouses - first come first serve

        Bunk beds ... good on a cold or wet rally.

                                           Helmet charging station!

BMW BMW (Bikers of Metropolitan Washington) hosts the rally.  Camp West-Mar is an American Legion camp for kids.  There is a large mess hall with a kitchen, lots of tables, a ladies bathroom and shower.  There is a different building for men's showers and bathrooms and another building with showers and bathrooms for both.

Mess Hall

Friday night dinner was chili; there was a beer tent and a covered area with lots of picnic table seating for movies that night.  We were happy to discover we had full phone and internet service, something we do not often find at the rallies. Another interesting fact I did not know is that Camp David is in Thurmont in the Catoctin Mountains.  Catoctin Mountain Park - National Park Service is a few miles east of the camp.

Old caboose with railroad crossing

This caboose is actually a working office

Saturday the rally had 4 guided rides, 2 GS and 2 road rides.  Ten bikes went on the Covered Bridges ride (68 miles with stops at 3 covered bridges in Frederick county).  Jose led our ride which started out in Catoctin State Park and onto one lane 25 mile an hour roads through farmlands and mountain vistas to our first covered bridge.

some of the bikes parked to see the bridge

Utica Covered Bridge - north of Frederick on Old Frederick Road (Jose our guide)

The second bridge was constructed in 1846 and the Union army crossed it in pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia

Loys Station Bridge - Old Frederick Road

The third covered bridge was in Thurmont

Roddy Road Covered Bridge

Saturday night we had a catered dinner with 5 kinds of BBQ ... delicious.  The guest speaker was Bob Henig, owner of Bob's BMW in Jessup, Maryland.  He gave a talk on an organized ride he did to Cuba last year. They rented bikes brought through Mexico and had Cuban guides as part of the "People to People" program.

Sunday morning we left early and decided to ride all the way home rather than stay the night in Greensboro. We did highway roads, most of them were very scenic and since it was Sunday not many trucks or traffic for that matter.   Our route was 70 out of Sabillisville to 81 through West Virginia and onto 64 all the way to Richmond (passing by the Blue Ridge Parkway) and then 95 to the cut off 795 to 40 near Warsaw.  It was a long ride home (10 hours with stops) but a beautiful day to be on a motorcycle.

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