Tesgin

I'm looking at doing Skyline Drive, starting at Front Royal, going down to Waynesboro for an overnight, then back.

I'm looking at breaking up each trip with an overnight at either Skyland Lodge or Big Meadows. Wanting some input here though:

Initially I was looking at going 50 mi to Big Meadows, overnight, then to Waynesboro for an overnight, then back to Big Meadows. BM seemed like a decent stop cuz it's almost exactly 1/2 way.

However, I read at least one post that suggested doing the overnights at Skyland Lodge: even though it's only 40 mi from Front Royal, that's the most difficult climbing. The suggestion was that that would be the recommended 1/2-way point.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Tesgin

CroMo Mike 

I did that trip with the Baltimore Bicycle Club years ago as a two-day trip. We did 111 miles from Front Royal to Waynesboro on Saturday, hotel for the night, and the other way on Sunday, stopping at Big Meadows for lunch each day. Both Big Meadows and Skyland have excellent facilities, but Big Meadows seemed to me to be the logical half-way point. The climbs at the north end on day one weren't too bad. I found the most difficult climb was on Sunday morning coming out of Waynesboro on US Rt. 250 and climbing back up to the Skyline Drive entrance station.

The ride brochure said that the ride included about 10,000 total feet of climbing each day.