I’m not sure which letter I didn’t understand in “ATV” but found out early this afternoon.
I drove up U.S. 221 this morning from Roanoke to Floyd, then Route 8 up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, then south to Meadows of Dan, through a little town called Vesta and finally arrived at Primland Resort, 12 or 13,000 acres in two southwest Virginia counties. Along the way, I stopped at Cafe del Sol, one of my favorite coffee shops, on Main Street in Floyd, refilled my morning coffee, sent a few e mails and also picked up one of their amazing cholocate-and-caramel-AND-peanut-butter brownies for later. When I got back in my car, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, broadcast on WVTF public radio, accompanied me all the way to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the 12 miles to U.S. 58.
That put me a little later to Primland than I intended, but the schedule was low-key and I arrived in plenty of time for lunch (pork tenderloin-with-pineapple-salsa-and-swiss-cheese sandwich). I came up to pursue a story or two – Primland is opening its new lodge next week, and they’d invited various media up for a visit. Primland sits at an elevation of about 3,000 feet, on the plateau you climb coming out of Roanoke beyond Bent Mountain. From our outdoor lunch, we overlooked the new lodge close-up, and beyond, clear despite the miles of distance, the beak of Pilot Mountain at Mt. Airy, N.C.
Back to “A – T – V.” Somehow in my mind “ATV tour of the property” had translated, in my mind, to a guided golf cart, or maybe Jeep or some other shuttle, tour of golf course and cottages and well-trammeled routes, the kind of tour I’ve had before at various places, sort of an overview and opportunity for interview.
Carl McDaniel, wildlife manager for the resort and a forestry graduate of Virginia Tech, gently explained to me that I would be driving one of the ATVs. And then I think a little more clearly about “property” – Primland is not your typical resort. People come here to hunt and fly fish. There are, as I mentioned, 12 or 13,000 acres of land here. An ATV is the best way to get around quite a few of those acres.
Not a half an hour later, I am outfitted with a helmet and goggles and am test-driving an ATV around the parking lot, trying to remember not to use the foot brake, trying not to tip over while making a left turn. We try a few small hills, and I decide to do it.
The next three hours were pretty darn fun.
I understand the drawbacks of ATVs, of course; they’re noisy and if they’re taken off-trail can do some serious damage to slopes and vegetation. But handled carefully, driven on trails and in moderation, they’re a practical solution to backcountry navigation, and alllow one to cover a lot of difficult ground.
We saw a turkey and a deer – which I could smell, faint and wild, after it bounded across the path in front of us. We crossed a creek five times, and stopped at beautiful, beautiful overlooks. By the end of it, my right hand could barely hold a fork at dinner after maneuvering a throttle half the day, but I can say I went all the way to the top of the mountain and back again. The last couple minutes of the trip we drove in through a rainstorm that was chasing us all the way back. There’s more to Primland than ATVs, including an observatory with a computer-controlled moving dome and telescope, with camera. Staffer Nathan Pruitt gave us a demonstration despite the cloudy weather, and showed us brilliant images of stars, nebulae and galaxies photographed by the telescope. During the day, he works IT for the resort. On clear nights, he comes up to the observatory and roams the night sky.
“27 million light years is the farthest out I’ve been,” he said.
