Mid Atlantic Backcountry Adventure Trail

Now Available Self Guided Ride Packet

The Mid Atlantic BAT (MABAT) is a scenic ride for dual-sport and adventure motorcycles that uses dirt, gravel and paved roads to wind through remote parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Starting in Damascus Virginia, and ending in Lawrenceville, PA, this 1,080-mile route, primarily uses forest roads and rural country lanes, to lead riders through the Appalachian mountains, majestic forests, bucolic farming landscapes, Amish country, and locations that played pivotal roles in early American history.

This ride is structured as a week long adventure. Riders will spend each night in a different hotel along the route. Riders will be eating in restaurants and snacking on the trail. The ride includes a support truck to carry riders gear so that riders may enjoy a lightly loaded bike.

What is our excitement about this ride?

The main MABAT route has turned out to be awesome. The MABAT route is shown on the active map below as a BLUE route It provides a great mix of back paved and dirt roads. Perfect for Adventure bikes and intermediate riders. But we have added both easier options and harder options. For those newer riders or rider simple wanting an easy scenic day or riders having a tough time we have nested into the route all paved options shown a GREEN routes. And yes of course we understand some riders come on Dual Sport bikes wanting even tougher choices so we have identified several hard RED route options. So what is great about all this? It's that most everyone can now enjoy this route and choose their own experiences along the way.

gpsKevin

Navigation Made Easy

We have made navigation easy for riders by developing a custom GPS chip to simply install into your Garmin GPS or BMW GPS unit.

We have also made matching motorcycle ride maps that you can carry directly in the window of your motorcycle tank bag.

Self Guided Trail

This MABAT is designed to be a self guided adventure. Riders install a custom GPS MABAT microSD Card into their Garmin GPS unit. The routes are then displayed as the rider travels along. Navigation is made easy. Riders can choose to follow along at times or can choose among hard and easy options. Or riders can simply choose to ride off the routes and return to them later. For many, this allows them to just experience the trail without the burden of getting lost.

Do this ride yourself: Purchase GPS microSD Card, and Ride Maps for this ride.

Note: A Full Rider Packet consists of a GPS microSD cards for your Garmin or BMW GPS unit and Large (11x17) daily ride maps and a complete set of Small Tank Bag reference maps. The ride packet also comes with hotel recommendations.

Note: Enter you GPS model Above, we need to know this to make the right micro SD card

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View the ride maps

OK since many of you like to study more detail about the ride, below are the ride maps.

I put these ride maps on the web page because I know a few of you love looking at the ride detail and dreaming about the ride. At first glance these maps do not look so impressive, but they are way cool. If you start zooming in, you can see the ride in incredible detail. I have spent a ton of hours sorting through the details of the ride for each day, so for those of you that enjoy this sort of thing, well enjoy!

Legend:

The Blue lines are MAIN routes

The Red lines are Harder routes

The Green lines are Easy options

The Black lines are the out and back viewpoints

How does the ride navigation work?

This is a self-led GPS ride; all riding is on your own. You are responsible for your own riding. You will be given a GPS map file and instructions on how to use your Garmin GPS unit. People will hook up in small groups of less than 6 riders and tend to ride together. You are not encouraged to ride alone. You are responsible for your own riding and yourself.

(see my ride Navigation Video)

Are you right for this ride?

When something goes wrong on a ride, would your riding friends say that you are more likely to need help or more likely to give help? You should be in the more likely to offer help camp. This ride is filled with riders that are more likely to give help, so most of the time the riders never need help. Additionally there is all the normal stuff, come prepared to maintain your bike, fix your bike on the trail, repair flat tires, deal with bad weather and rain and make a joke or two.

How do I make the GPS stuff so easy?

I develop very high quality ride maps custom for our ride. They come from much of what I and others have ridden. I take the best from all my rides and make new ones.

(See my Custom Ride Maps Video)

Note from me, gpsKevin

My goal for this ride is simple, great riding, so you can count on great routes and places to ride.

But in addition: the ride is about discovering new places, meeting new friends, seeing new parts of the Southwest.

Thanks

gpsKevin

FAQ's

Q:How is this route different from the public MABAT?

A: The main Blue route is the same, we have added both easy and hard choices and have made the GPS navigation much clearer and easier to use. Just put Micro SD card in your GPS and you're ready to go.

Q: Would this be a good ride for new riders?

A: No, this ride is for intermediate and experienced riders only. The riding has easy route choices and tough route options. Each evening we will study the following day's choices. You will find lots of supportive people at the ride.

Q: What are Motel room arrangements?

A: Lodging is suggested, you make your own arrangements and reservations.

Q: What bikes are right for this ride?

A: Any adventure bike, small to large.

Bikes including and in between the Suzuki Vstrom and the KTM990 all can do well by choosing the easy or hard route options.

Q; What do I do if I don't have a Garmin gps?

A: Buy one, you need it, we will show you how to use it. You can get a great one for under $200 bucks. ( See gpsKevin's gps recommendations)

Q: Is the riding really on my own?

A: Yes, but almost everyone hooks up and rides with a friend, or a new friend or me.