How to deal with unseasonal weather

If you have ever been to Southern West Virginia this poem will probably strike a chord with you.....Even though it is about a fictional country of hills and valleys.

“I remember….
The dark woods, masking slopes of sombre hills;
The grey clouds' leaden everlasting arch;
The dusky streams that flowed without a sound,
And the lone winds that whispered down the passes.

Vista upon vista marching, hills on hills,
Slope beyond slope, each dark with sullen trees,
Our gaunt land lay. So when a man climbed up
A rugged peak and gazed, his shaded eye
Saw but the endless vista--hill on hill,
Slope beyond slope, each hooded like its brothers.”
From the poem “Cimmeria” by Robert E. Howard

So, you are wondering now, "What has that got to do with trailriding?"
Bear with me a bit as I travel back to my teens and tie it in with today....

When I was a young guy, I bought a comic book I remember every winter. It was from Marvel and was called “What If Thor met Conan?”
This particular comic book had two unusual characters, the Marvel superhero Thor meeting up with Conan the Barbarian of pulps, novels and movie fame. Needless to say, for a young kid who was a huge fan of both Thor and Conan, it was a Very Big Thing to me.
One of the most vivid memories I have of that four colored epic on cheap newsprint was the part where Thor convinced Conan to travel back to Cimmeria, (Conan’s homeland) for some quest. Cimmeria was sort of like Appalachia in the ancient Hyborian world of everybody’s favorite Barbarian. Conan’s creator once wrote a poem called “Cimmeria” which was about what a dark, somber, mountainous place it was. It sounded like the Kentucky and West Virginia of my youth.
When they got there, Conan said something like, “Ugh, Cimmeria in the dead of winter.”
I can still remember laughing out loud at that. Because just like the fictional Cimmeria of the Hyborian Age, the winter in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky could indeed be a challenge.
And I usually remember it every year around wintertime here in the mountains of Appalachia. Whenever we get snow and it makes things look a bit gloomy and dreary I have been known to mutter, “Ugh, Cimmeria in the dead of winter” in honor of that mythical land of darkness and deep night.

As I sit here typing this it is bright and sunny. In fact, it’s so bright and sunny I went out to lunch wearing a short sleeved shirt! The thing is, it is the 24th of January….In other words, it’s the dead of winter and people are walking around in t-shirts. It was so warm yesterday I could not wait to get home and put on shorts.
Let me assure you, this is VERY uncommon weather for our area.
It doesn’t look or feel like winter….
In fact, it looks and feels like spring…..
What makes it all the more amazing is that not too many days ago it was snowing and bitterly cold!
No doubt it will be cold again.
But in the meantime, this spring like and very unusual weather is posing a challenge to a lot of people.
Some folks have come to our area ready for winter riding only to find that with the sun out on days like today it’s a bit closer to spring in feel…..

Let me give you some advice….
Check the weather locally before you come here.
For example, you can go to the weather feature on Yahoo or other web sites and type in “25601” which is the zip code for Logan County, which is home to two of the most visited of the Hatfield-McCoy Trails.
Or type in 25678 for Matewan which is home to one of our popular trail systems for the proper weather forecast in that neck of HMT country. Or 25130 for Boone County.
Then you can get an extended forecast for what to expect if you are coming this way soon.
(In fact, it is not a bad idea to do a weather check that way any time of the year.)
So even though in theory we are in the dead of winter in Appalachia right now, if you were riding this week, you would have been a lot better off with rain gear or layered clothing you can shed as the temperature heated up.

I can also recommend fleece as it is both warm and lightweight. Until the weather goes back to normal, it might be a good idea to bring along a backpack so if you do get overheated you can doff some outerwear and stash them in it to make your riding more comfortable.
As for me…
Well, even though it is “the dead of winter” I wish I was outside right now, riding around through the hills….because it may be January but it looks like April or May today.

So if you are coming this way, get online and do the five-day forecast thing with local zip codes to see what kind of weather to expect or prepare for.