Snowshoe, Cass & Green Bank

Snowshoe, Cass and Green Bank in one loop from Marlinton: the route goes north on US-219 to Slatyfork, takes WV-66 and climbs to the Snowshoe village at the top of the mountain and back down the same road, drops to the old logging town of Cass, follows WV-28 to Green Bank and returns by Dunmore and Huntersville. It's 74 miles. Green Bank sits in the National Radio Quiet Zone: there's little or no cell signal, so download the route and the map before you go.

From Marlinton the route rides north on US-219 to Slatyfork and takes WV-66 to the Snowshoe resort. Snowshoe is upside down: its village sits at the top of the mountain, at about 4,848 feet, and the slopes drop below it. The access road is steep and dead-ends at the top, so the route climbs to the village and comes back down the same way before heading east on WV-66 to Cass.

Cass was founded in 1901 by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company as a logging town, and today it's a state park where geared Shay locomotives still haul passengers up the mountain; the trains run from May to October, but not every day. From Cass the route follows WV-28 to Green Bank, home of the Green Bank Observatory and its telescope, the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. Since 1958 the area has been the center of the National Radio Quiet Zone, about 13,000 square miles where cell signal is scarce or absent: download the route and the map before you leave Marlinton. The loop returns south by Dunmore and Huntersville. It's 74 miles.