bykemike 

I just got back from a wonderful week on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Every morning for 6 days I got up and took my bike to the turn off near Craven Gap and did the climb to Craggy Visitors Center
and then just beyond to the Craggy Dome rest area. 15ish miles and three tunnels..and all up with a short coast just before the VC.

For me, an older Florida guy, this was more climbing than I have ever done and I learned a few things.

One was a little disappointing. It seems I got weaker as the week went on, I expected the opposite. I did take one rest day and went hiking and it did help a bit on the last day but
I didn't come back the superman I expected to be.

The other was that I love going back down, maybe a little too much, the speed is very addictive and I can see a fall under those conditions could be a bit damaging, akin to crashing a motorcycle and I have a few of those under my belt. I do have great tires and brakes and watch for hazards as much as possible.

Another thing I noticed is I am just about deaf over 25 mph coming down, the wind roar from the helmet makes hearing a car just about impossible, is there a solution to that?

Nice time all in all, way too much car traffic on Sunday but everyone shared the road with no problems. If you haven't ridden the Parkway and live within a days drive you
are missing one of lifes better experiences.

Mike

OldTryGuy

This FL. guy wishes he could have been up there riding along. I understood a long time ago that older age means slower/limited recovery so I have no problems with the aftermath of a hard ride.

NealH

I don't like the wind rush sound either. In the colder months the beanie type hats cover the ears and helps. Other than this, Surefire makes a nice ear plug set and its relatively cheap. I have not tried these yet but, am getting ready to order a pair. There are several models depending on the specific type protection desired. Just remember, hearing the sounds of automobiles is important to safety.

It takes longer than a week to develop a good "climbing" physiology and fitness. You need to make more trips up here and be sure to let people know next time as some of us will join you.

We often start at the Folk Art Center and ride to the Craggy visitor center, or even to Mt. Mitchell. The fall season is not the best though, as traffic is often quite heavy. As the winter season approaches, the Park Service will shut the gate thus providing superb riding on that stretch. Just walkers, hikers and bikers are allowed.

The entire Parkway is an outstanding riding venue - especially southern section from Craggy all the way to Cherokee. Tunnels are just about the only adversity. I hate them but have now become used to them.....for the most part anyway. A good rear light is mandatory.

Terex

Recover a couple of days and the strength will seep into your legs. For a few days. And then you will come back down to earth, unless you use the experience to kick-start a higher level of effort on your local roads. Push, recover, push, recover, etc. That's how you improve.

Sounds like you had a great time.

bykemike 

This is so true. I have done three trips this summer. One was for the section from Cherokee to Pisgah, the next time I went up north and spent the week in Blowing Rock and concentrated on the Viaduct/Little Switzerland area. Even got up to the top of Mitchell twice. Now this time was Craggy.

I drive 8 hours to get there and it is worth every minute of the drive.

Most of the time in the summer I amjust about the only vehicle on the road before noon on weekdays.

And Terex: I am just going to have to try and push real hard on the flats of Florida until next time in the hills.

BikeWNC

Hmmm, "climbing above it all" eh? Sounds like fun to me. Glad you had fun. The BRP is one of the best roads to ride anywhere.

bykemike 

Quotes keep me from plagerism I hope.

jppe

Glad it worked out and also that the weather was pretty agreeable! I've found that on multiday rides my riding form is better every other day.

One year we did the Assault on Mt Mitchell from Spartanburg using the stretch of the BRP via Asheville from where Hwy 74 crosses to the top of Mitchell. I think we had ridden 80 miles when we reached the BRP and it was 37 or so more to the top of Mitchell. I did great until about mile 110 and then I totally hit the wall. A total and complete bonk. Couldn't eat enough. Stopped a lot but somehow managed to finish the darn thing. Can you now imagine climbing all the way to the top after riding 80 miles at a pretty hard pace????

My favorite stretch on the BRP is south of there........it is a 30 mile section used on the Blue Ridge Breakaway. Some long climbs but beautiful views and very little traffic.

bykemike 

I think about you guys doing the assault on Mt Mitchell and have trouble seeing how that is even possible to do. My best climbing effort up there was just under 20 miles and my legs were shaky when I got off the bike.

I went down 151 about a half mile and scared myself, thought I was going to have to get off and walk. I need to spend a week a month up there but I do work still and there is the marriage thing.

JimF22003

I'm bored with riding the BRP in Virginia

Not really, but kinda. There are some beautiful stretches, but a lot of it isn't very challenging or particularly scenic, especially down around Roanoke. I've ridden all it in VA from Waynesboro south to near the NC border at Fancy Gap.

It's definitely on my "list" to ride more of in in NC next summer.

bykemike 

I think you may find the Blowing Rock south to Cherokee is some of the best of the Parkway. I invested in a good bright front light to be able to make it through
the dark tunnels, along with a pair of rear lights. A couple of those tunnels approaching Pisgah can be a little scary.

At your end I like the climb to Ravens Roost, one of the nicest pull offs on the Parkway in my book.

Rick@OCRR

Actually bykemike,

The Assault on Mt. Mitchell is not that difficult. I did it in '88 (still have my bib number and Assault water bottle!) and as long as you have your climbing legs under you first, no problem.

I found the support to be very good to excellent, plenty to eat at the checkpoints (so not sure why jppe bonked), well marked course, super friendly folks who organized and presented the ride. They even had a flag-man out to warn us before a dangerous downhill right-hand corner.

I lived in St.Louis at the time (13 hour drive!), so all my climbing training was on Missouri hills, i.e. shorter and steeper than Mitchell . . . but I still did fine. I remember the climb from Marion up to the Parkway was tough (Buck Creek Road?) but otherwise, not bad. Since moving to SoCal in '95 I've ridden lots of double centuries that were tougher than AOMt.M.

The other thing though, is that I love to climb and on a ride like that a positive attitude is a big help . . . well, on any ride, now that I think about it. Wish they had let us ride back down the mountain but we got bussed back to Spartenburg from the finish; don't know if they still do it that way.

Rick / OCRR

BikeWNC

It rained for most of those first 80 miles as I recall. I also bonked, though at mile 96. That left a very long 20+ miles of climbing to go. Ah, memories.

BikeWNC

Come on down! Neal and I will show you around.

BikeWNC

Our collective bonk on the AoMM that year was probably due to not being able to get into our pockets to get food. It was raining hard the first 4+ hours and in traffic there were lots of slowing, braking and avoidance maneuvers needed to stay in the draft. I guess we paid the price.

It's the State Park that does not allow the bikes to descend from the summit. I think the NPS also prefers to keep the bikes going in one direction. So as a condition of use, the organizers bus the riders and bikes off the mountain back to Marion, and then if needed to Spartanburg. I avoid point to point rides like the AoMM now for the most part because of the logistics involved.

Rick@OCRR

Thanks BikeWNC,

Both of those explanations make perfect sense. Thankfully we didn't get rain until we were way up on the mountain, and the weather changed as we rode around (and up) the mountain. Rain, then sun, then snow flurries. All kinds of fun and adventure!

The fog was so thick they wouldn't let the busses up the mountain so they took us to the base in the Ranger's private vehicles, or Park vehicles, or in my case a medical supply truck. No complaints though. It seemed to be getting colder by the minute up at the summit, so a (kinda-warmish) supply truck was fine with me.

Rick / OCRR

jppe

I completely forgot about the horrible conditions for the first few hours. It was really raining as we were coming through Lake Lure and Chimney Rock----I recall sucking in rooster tails from the wheels I was following wondering if any possums were road kill......... My brother was going to ride as well. When we woke up in the hotel that morning he decided to just drive back home. He was 9 months removed from a broken hip and didn't want to risk going down with the wet roads. It was interesting how the energy just completely left me while climbing. I was doing fine going up the BRP and then all of sudden I just couldn't turn the pedals over and had never experienced that at all. I had also stopped and taken a lot of food not too long before after just getting on the BRP from my sister in law. I went from rest stop to rest stop and never recovered. The frustrating part was people passing me that at one time I was probably an hour ahead of.......

This was pretty soon after I'd started riding, my bike was almost 10 pounds heavier and I was probably 20 pounds heavier than what I am now. Sorry Rick but a 30+ mile climb after riding 80 miles under those circumstances was hard......We came up from the Asheville side as a Hurricane had washed out the BRP using the normal approach. What you described is coming up Hwy 80 (steepest part just before the BRP) via Marion.

rm -rf

The Parkway just south of Virginia:

I traveled on I-77 regularly, and stopped many times near Fancy Gap or Galax to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway.

One of my favorite routes is from Cumberland Knob picnic area to the cafe in Doughton Park. ( Last time I was there, the cafe was closed. I expect it's reopened since then.)

This ride starts with some smaller climbs, a few good views, and a nice ride through woodlands and farm fields. Then the mountains appear ahead. The round trip from Cumberland Knob to the cafe is 47 miles.
Ridewithgps map (pull down the Map list, and select Terrain to see the mountains)

Some photos from summer 2009. This ride started at Little Glade Pond, just past US-21, and continued south past Doughton Park to turn around at Sheets Gap Road. That's an interesting ride, too.

I've always had very light traffic there. Even on Saturdays, it's not very busy. On weekdays, I'll see a car or a few motorcycles every 5 minutes.

Asheville vs Galax
But now, for me, it's about the same time, 6-7 hours, to get to Asheville or Fancy Gap / Galax. The Galax part of the Blue Ridge is nice, but I'd rather ride near Asheville.


Climbing to Doughton Park

bykemike 

What a nice section of the Parkway. The traffic you describe has almost always been my experience. Most of the time
the road is yours. Incredible how lightly traveled the BRP is most of the time.

Last year I rode all of the Natchez Trace (BMW R1100S) and that is just about deserted, very pretty, almost no hills and that
fantastic Birdsong Bridge on the north end.

jppe

I ride that section a good bit as well as it is easy for me to shoot up I77 from the Charlotte area. I start about 10 miles from where Highway 21 crosses the BRP----see Stone Mountain State Park. Very nice views and very little traffic.

There is one heck of a climb from Stone Mountain Park up to Hwy 21 on Oklahoma Road.

pdlamb

Just IMHO: the stretch around Galax is pretty country riding, no more. But the view to the south when you hit Doughton Park is stunning -- miles and miles of beautiful foothills. If you stay in Boone, the ride south has more climbing, but I'd prefer going north to Doughton. I think I prefer it to the southern end of the Parkway, although I certainly enjoy looking at my Waterrock Knob picture coffee mug, secure in the knowledge I biked all the way to the "top" (actually the parking lot, had to walk the rest of the way!).

BikeWNC

Waterrock Knob is a good climb but we locals don't count it unless you start in town or in Cherokee. Both about 18 miles up, one with 3900' the other with 4700'.

unterhausen

I was riding near the BRP last summer, but the closest I got was riding under it. It's too bad, much better road than most of the ones we were on. I've ridden on the Parkway a bit back when I was a teenager. Mostly organized centuries out of Roanoke, but we also did a time trial starting in North Carolina somewhere. Since as a climber, I'm a good descender, that wasn't my best race. At least I wasn't DFL

jppe

Is Waterrock at the top of last long climb on Blue Ridge Breakaway? It's sad but I've never paid much attention to where I am on the BRP, just enjoying the views. And by that time in the ride I'm just trying to get to Soco Gap.......

I just looked at a map and didn't realize how close Soco Gap is to the end of the BRP in Cherokee.......duh.

Notgrownup

All them climbs are a lot easier on My Harley...I love Hwy 80 ..It is beautiful and encountered a few cyclist doing it the times i went up on the M/C...I remember saying "Them sum*****es are tough" about the cyclists...LOL....I am not in any shape to tackle those kinds of hills yet...I admire those who do.