Where to Stay: Eventually, Summersville Lake State Park will have cabins and tree houses, but right now the park offers a mix of open RV sites and more secluded tent sites. The Overlook RV campground has plenty of amenities, even a coin-operated laundry room, and full hookups (from $82 a night), but I recommend grabbing a tent site, which are tucked into a shaded grove and will give you immediate access to the Climber’s Trail (from $42 a night).

Where to Eat: The town of Summersville is sleepy, but I like Maloney’s Pub downtown, which is a local hotspot with good wings and burgers. Appalachian Coffee House has really creative lattes and solid organic coffee. If you’re looking for more options, the lake is just 20 minutes north of Fayetteville, a bustling adventure town on the edge of New River Gorge.

Day Two: Backcountry Biking on Monday Lick Trails

Leave the lake and drive across the Gauley River through a quiet section of Monongahela National Forest. You’re heading to Marlinton and the brand new Monday Lick Trail System, but you should make time for a couple of detours. The 42-acre Summit Lake is tucked into the mountains and makes for a secluded paddle or spot to fish for bass. Or if you’re looking to stretch your legs, hike this short trail through the Cranberry Glades, where a boardwalk traverses a high elevation wetland that supports wild cranberries. The surrounding forest has a Jurassic vibe to it with lush ferns, mosses and huge elephant ears sprouting from the wet earth below.

Just make sure you have enough energy for the 30 miles of purpose-built trails at Monday Lick, a trail system designed for mountain bikers on the edge of downtown Marlinton. It’s backcountry flow at its finest, with half a dozen trails beginning on a ridge and dropping in sinuous fashion down to the edge of  Greenbrier River. A gated gravel road climbs to the top of the system, making it relatively painless to knock out laps here. As for what to ride, I really like Lens Ridge, which is a big descent with big, sweeping berms that lead into beautiful sections of rock armoring, dropping more than 1,200 feet in five miles of pure joy. Messier is more of a cross country effort, playing out like a 2-mile long pump track full of rollers and optional jumps. Monday Lick is the signature trail, and it’s more technical than the others, dropping 1,000 feet of elevation in just three miles of tight bench cut singletrack with plenty of root gardens and off-camber rocks.

You could spend an entire day wearing yourself out on this system like I did. If you’re more interested in a pleasure cruise, you can pick up the paved Greenbrier River Trail at the same trailhead, which runs for 77 miles along the river between the small towns of Cass and North Caldwell.

Where to Stay: Head 28 miles up the mountain to the Corduroy Inn, on the edge of Snowshoe Resort’s mountain-top village, which has well-appointed one-bedroom suites with plenty of room to stretch out and easy access to the bike lift (from $168 a night).

Where to Eat: Don’t leave Marlinton without getting a meal at Dari Land, an old-school drive-thru that has awesome smash burgers and milkshakes. When you make it up to Snowshoe’s village, head to the Junction Ale House for a good selection of local beers and hearty entrees.

Day Three: Downhill Day at Snowshoe Mountain

Snowshoe Mountain Resort is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It’s crazy to think I’ve been skiing this mountain for almost half of that existence. In the last several years, Snowshoe has become as much of a destination during the summer as it is in winter thanks to its ever-expanding downhill bike park (day lift passes from $45). This mountain now boasts one of the best lift-served bike experiences in the east, hosting two UCI World Cup events in recent years. There are 40 trails to choose from, traversing a mountain that drops 1,500 feet in vertical from top to bottom. I’m not a huge downhill biker, but there’s something for every level of rider. On my most recent day on the hill, I saw groups of armor-clad dudes sending big jumps, and families cruising down mellow green trails. I found a happy medium in the middle, focusing on the bevy of intermediate trails that drop from the mountaintop village down to the edge of Shaver’s Lake.

If you want the most open terrain, show up on a weekend when lifts on both sides of the mountain (the Basin and Western Territory) are running. Western Territory has the hardest trails, but the Basin has more variety. I really like Dream Weaver, a double track blue trail with pumpy rollers and optional B lines if you want to get rad. On the Western Territory side, which has its own lift, check out Skyline that takes you deep into the evergreen forest away from the ski slopes.

The thing about lift-served mountain biking is it’s easy to convince yourself to do one more lap, but this is just a weekend trip. If uou’re like me, you have work tomorrow, so you save some energy for the drive home. Make sure you have enough time to take a swim in Shaver’s Lake and maybe grab a cold beverage and burger at the Boat House, at the bottom of the lift, before heading back into the real world.

Graham Averill is Outside magazine’s national parks columnist, but he loves a good road trip most of all. He recently wrote about the art of survival and the best swimming holes in our national parks.