I agree about it being a fantastic weekend of riding, meeting new friends, putting faces to the NT-list handles, etc.
For next year, we'll go a week later,
May 13-15, 2016, skipping the Mother's Day weekend. The Alpine Lodge was not the Crowne Plaza but it was clean, well-kept and the staff was helpful and nice. We paid $58 a night for a non-smoking King with free WiFi that was fairly strong and consistent. The hotel never filled completely because this was off-season. Attached to the hotel is a family-style restaurant (no alcoholic beverages) open 7-days a week, 6 AM to 9 PM, with immense portions for a reasonable price.
Next year we'll bring camping chairs so we can join the camp fire gathering at night but we only sat on the grass for a few minutes and the campground people brought chairs to us! From the Alpine Lodge, the walk into town or to the campground was less than 1/4 mile in either direction so pretty ideal for both groups. We also discovered an excellent restaurant next door to the Alpine Lodge and also one in town but there are more.
Davis, WV is getting more contemporary and it reminds me of a lot of small towns in CO or WY where people from out-of-state have moved to open businesses. The biggest draws in that area are downhill skiing, fishing, mountain biking, and probably hunting.
More photos...
The first photo was taken outside the hotel restaurant and it was a line-up of those who were camping. The second photo is of the placard from atop Spruce Knob which had a fairly challenging ride up-and-down the mountain. The third photo is just of the NTs that were not part of the camping group on that first day. I never got a photo of the bikes belonging to Sojourn, Woodaddict and Rustinpeace because they came later.