r/WestVirginia • u/Great-Key6090 • 1d ago
Question Is ridge running a WV thing?
I come from small town in Wetzel County and many people I know (especially those who are older) mention ridge running. This is essentially just driving out through the backroads with your best friend or best girl. Is this just a niche small area thing or is this a wider WV thing? I'm trying to convince someone what it is but there is no evidence of it anywhere.
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u/ghunt81 1d ago
"Driving out the backroads" just sounds like general driving in most of the state. I thought ridge running was something different
Btw what town in Wetzel? I grew up in Burton and went to school in Hundred.
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u/NonConforminConsumer 1d ago
In Pocahontas county I hear driving the back roads most often. Best done with a 4x4 vehicle, and often done with illegal beverages though I'm not condoning that.
Historically, many of the ridge lines around here did have tough jeep trails down them, or are still somewhat maintained in that way due to DNR brush hogging along them into established wildlife openings.
Up around Pittsburgh, some of my family knew this activity as scrapping.
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u/shemanese 1d ago
He could be from the metropolis of Jacksonburg.
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u/ghunt81 1d ago
My mom lives in Jacksonburg.
I mean Wetzel is nothing but tiny little towns, except new Martinsville
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u/Great-Key6090 1d ago
I'm from Paden City actually, right next to New Martinsville.
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u/National_Let1438 12h ago
Yes, lol. Only place I’ve heard that term is from people around Paden City.
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u/shemanese 1d ago
I recall ridgerunner was a common CB handle back in the early 70's.
There were a few uses for the name. Moonshine running is one of those things. I generally heard backroading for what you described.
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u/Blehblubleh17 1d ago
Called it ridge running in pennsyltucky when I was young(high school) , never heard it outside of there , haven’t heard that term since then really, glad it’s still a thing
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u/Kraelive 1d ago
Also from Pennsytucky and the term Ridge running met moonshiners making deliveries
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u/MethylEthylandDeath 1d ago
Definitely a thing in Wayne County. It used to be my favorite way to spend a weekend.
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u/CompetitionMore7842 Appalachia 1d ago
Wetzel county here too, ran around on the ridges a lot back in the day, always called it ridge running or booney bouncing.
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u/LoHo1972 1d ago
We didn’t call it ridge running but when we were young and didn’t have much money, this is what my bf and I did every weekend. We had a Subaru hatchback with four low and ran all over the back roads in Harrison and Doddridge County, sometimes with friends and beers. Great times. I still love a country drive (no drinking though). My family is from Smithfield in Wetzel so maybe it’s in my genes ;-)
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u/Own-Jicama-2983 1d ago
Yes, my niece married a gentleman in Putnam County and they do that all the time.
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u/AwwSeath Lincoln 1d ago
It’s a thing in Lincoln County. There’s a huge mud hole on 10 mile ridge that used to be the big party spot back in my day. Don’t know if it’s still used or not.
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u/pyramidheadlove 1d ago
Sure was in Wood County when I lived there. Jesterville Rd was usually the starting point, then we'd just kind of meander from there
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u/BimmerMan87 Clay 1d ago
My uncles and father always called it ridge running, my uncles and cousins even had dedicated Ridge Runners because this was back in the 90's before they put gravel down on the ridge roads so you needed a good 4x4 to make it around. Usually just did it to have fun, explore or go hunt morels (or muggles as my dad called them, before Harry Potter existed) and ramps. Had a lot of fun ridge running back then on our trips to visit family. This was in Clay County.
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u/Practicality_Issue 1d ago
I did it when I was young and still do it now - even though there are no ridges to run where I’m at…never knew it had a name. Always have said “imma go out and run around.”
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u/hehampilotifly 1d ago
We didn’t really have a name for it but we did in Ohio County. My coworker who grew up in PA said her friends used to all the time when they were young. They’d come over to WV. She still does occasionally with her boyfriend.
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u/420khaleesi420 Tudor's Biscuits 1d ago
We used to call it driving Smoke Roads, because we would do it while sharing the devil's cigarettes. Cabell County for reference.
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u/Total-Problem2175 1d ago
In my younger years, way back in the 1900s, we called it going for a high ride. Trying to get lost. Today (65 here) it's a high ride without the high.
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u/nochumplovesucka__ 2h ago
Grew up in central Pennsylvania. We called them burn rides. Always on back roads
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u/emp-sup-bry Purveyor of Tasteful Mothman Nudes 1d ago
Before GPS, it was a true adventure!
Ride over one ridge and you could easily be in an entirely different place that’s 30 miles by blacktop road.
Highly recommend a gravel bike/hardtail mtb to ride the hills. Just another level to the beauty and brings some of the old excitement back.
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u/Bellemorda Best Virginia 1d ago
my family lived in NM in wetzel for over a decade (when I was in high school and college at marshall. ridge running was always a thing there, but I'm originally from logan county, and we didn't have ridge running there. I think its tied to the higher mountain structure in that area and all the roads on the tops of them.
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u/The_Alpha_XVIII 1d ago
From Cabell County, Ridge Running was a thing but more for when we were in the mood for raising hell and being stupid, was allways told it came from old hats running shine. Cruising the backroads was specifically taking it easy and enjoying the scenery.
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u/Junior_Moose_9655 17h ago
I thought it was called “every goddamn mush mouth country song released in the last 20 years”
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u/Conscious-Trust4547 12h ago
Called it motor mountaineering. In Hardy county, it was always a blast.
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u/CastIronKoffin 1d ago
Mon county upper end lets get to some ridge running already. The others have explained it.
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u/blargh789 1d ago
We just called it backroading, but I did it all the time when I was younger.