Every year on the third Saturday of October in Fayetteville, West Virginia (or Fayettechill as some call it), adventure sports meets county fair for one big hoedown. Bridge Day, if you have never been, is truly a sight to behold.
Bridge Day must be a logistics nightmare to put on. Most events that we attend are held in parks, along rivers and in the mountains. Bridge Day, however, is held on… a bridge. The longest steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere, in fact. High above the New River, the New River Gorge Bridge draws tens of thousands of people to West Virginia’s largest single-day festival.
This isn’t a pedestrian bridge either. Three hundred and sixty-four days a year it is extremely illegal to cross the bridge on foot. On any other day, the New River Gorge Bridge allows over 16,000 cars a day to cross freely. All of this normal traffic must be diverted early in the morning so the bridge can be closed and secured by authorities. All of the vendors (over 150 of them) are lined up in order so everyone can drive in and set up seamlessly.
The New River Gorge Bridge is within a days drive of two-thirds of the countries population. For this reason, among many others, Bridge Day draws a huge crowd. The draw isn’t just for the vendors. Although, there are a lot of excellent vendors. The main draw is to watch the BASE jumpers. Bridge Day is the only day of the year when it is legal to BASE jump off the bridge.
Jumpers come from all over to hurl themselves 876 feet down towards the earth below. Bridge day is the oldest and largest legal BASE jumping event in the world.
This event was a fitting way to wrap up our 2018 tour. The people were wonderful and the weather was better than expected. We’ll miss you all this winter but we’re ready for snow! Give us a wave and a smile if you see us in the van.
There is one way for this tour to be a reality, our sponsors! Sending a thank you shout out to our title sponsor Nite Ize, and all of our other awesome sponsors that make this happen: Crazy Creek, National Geographic, Sea to Summit, Mountain House, Lowe Alpine, Old Town, Leki, HydraPak, UCO Gear and Wenzel. If you like the gear that keeps us groovin’ click here to enter for a chance to win.
