White's Ferry is a nice crossing, but I don't know how you'd get to it without taking the C&O for 30 miles. Except for route 28, many of those roads seem to go east, not south.


I bike and drive that part of Loudon County often. IMO route 9 is not bikeable.

Route 9 looks good on a map, and parts of it look bikeable in West Virginia. But route 9 is the main highway through that part of Loudon County. Approaching the WV/VA border and in Virginia, route 9 is one lane each way, with narrow lanes, no shoulder, ditches and walls, very fast and very heavy traffic. If you try to take the lane, you'll have 10 miles with a long line of 50 mph traffic trying to squeeze by, with no margin of safey and no bail-out zone. Plus there is the BIG climb over the mountain at the border.
I don't know which clubs ride route 9, but PPTC rides try to avoid it if at all possible. Where you have to cross it, you might have to wait several minutes for a gap in traffic. (Next weekend I'm riding many of these roads, around Waterford, Lovettsville, Purcelville, and the two little bits I have to go on route 9 are the only parts that I have to worry about. A quarter mile of nasty on a 44 mile loop.)

If you value you life, stay off of route 9.

Route 617 / Harpers Ferry Rd is not as bad as route 9, but it is still narrow and traffic is fast and heavy. And it dumps you onto route 9 several miles from safety.

If you want a fairly traffic free, not too hilly ride on quiet country roads and through some quaint old towns, my que should do it for you. I can vouch for all of it but the bit from Brunswick to Lovettsville. It's a very nice ride.

(added - If you end up taking route 9, and you survive to Hillsboro, there is a back road route that takes you away from the traffic. Involves going north on Mountain Rd, picking up Irish Corner to Lovettsville, and following my que the rest of the way. Might as well save 15 miles of traffic and 10 miles of backtracking and go through Brunswick to begin with.)