September, 1997

Two summers ago, I rode from Toccoa, GA, through South Carolina to Morganton, NC to visit a friend. From there I rode to the Blue Ridge Parkway and toured for three days near Blowing Rock, Boone and Asheville. There’s a lot to be said for scenic highways that boast 45 mph speed limits and don’t allow 18-wheelers. Thus, I vowed to return and immerse all my senses into such a bike paradise. Adding a triple to my humble Woodrup would make it more bearable to "negotiate" the mountains with 80 pounds of gear: tent, sleeping bag, power bars and even a Minolta SLR, Vintage 1970, including other odds and ends. I bought a copy of Bicycling the Blue Ridge via the mail and this book proved to be my Bible for the journey. As a teacher, I had the summer free and I decided to make this the "trip of a lifetime": I would ride the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Unfortunately, there is no organized tour of the Shenandoah Parkway. The Skyline Drive begins at Front Royal, VA -- 70 miles from Washington -- and goes to Rockfish Gap near Waynesboro, VA, 105 miles total. The Blue Ridge Parkway begins there, and goes 470 more miles to Cherokee, NC. Distance for my concocted vacation: 575 miles, a formidable number under any circumstances.

It didn’t take long to quickly exhaust my list of possible odyssey partners. While the beauty along the way was breathtaking, it would be quite an undertaking physically: the total climb would be 48,601 feet -- over 9 vertical miles!!

Logistics proved a nightmare. I opted to drive my car to Front Royal, VA, leave it at the Skyline Drive visitor center and hitch-hike from Cherokee to retrieve it later.

One bad thing about telling everyone you’re going to do such an undertaking is that, eventually, you’ve got to go ahead and do it. So, after meticulously stockpiling provisions and gear for the trip, I loaded my car June 23rd, and set out for Front Royal!

Let me tell you right now that Shenandoah is a long way from Chattanooga -- exactly 553 miles. I arrived on the Skyline Drive at 4pm, and by 5pm had the bike ready to roll. Saying goodby to my trusty HONDA was not easy.

The Skyline Drive speed limit is 35, and before I had lost sight of my car, I was shifting into the granny ring -- not all the way to 30-26, but, as they say in calculus, "approaching the limit". Starting a ride at 5pm seemed strange, but I was there, so the mecca began. It seemed I couldn’t go a mile before stopping at an overlook for a picture; my head was overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. In my gear was 6 rolls of film; 168 pictures!

The Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway are designed for cars, with campsite and restaurants few and far between. There are exits off the parkway, but often they lead to nothing a biker would need, and require quite a climb to return to the parkway. The "Bible" helped a bunch avoiding fruitless (literally) missions.

Approaching dusk, I rolled into Pinnacles restaurant, but unfortunaltely they were closed. Two hikers I met there were from Marietta and were walking to Maine on the AT, which paralleled Skyline Drive. They recommended a campsite down the road they had just been and I found it acceptable. It was on a ledge, barely off the AT, with a lovely view. At dark I could see lights and learned later that this was Turay, VA. 38 miles completed.

Day 2 started innocently enough--bagel jump-start, then on to a real breakfast less than 5 miles away. En route I saw Mama Bear and Baby Bear, the highlight of the trip! They were forraging less than 40 feet from the road. I stopped my horse in the middle of the road; no traffic early on the parkway. Mama glared at me and growled a bluff, as the hair on my back rose. I knew that before she could eat me, she would have to eat the bike first! She seemed to like the vegetation she was in better, thankfully, and I fumbled to get my camera. She kept forraging, and I had to yell at her--though in "nice" tone--to get her to look up from her feast so I could get her mug shop! She appeared to me to weigh over 300 pounds--quite large! The cub soon disappeared in the thicket.

Riding the parkway alone may sound like a lonesome effort, but meeting people was easy when it came time to get off the horse. People seemed interested in such adventures, and I enjoyed learning about where they were from, and their itineraries. Some were from TN and GA; it’s a small world. On the third day, I saw a couple of guys touring with all their gear. We stopped and talked and took pictures together. They were from Virginia and one was riding to Annapolis, while the other’s wife was picking him up that afternoon. I would not see othere bikers carrying gear on the trip.

Back to Day 2 -- after the bear episode, I hiked to Dark Hollow Falls, a nice diversion near lunchtime. The campsite this night was 30 miles farther south, and featured a muscle-quivering climb of 1.5 miles: 46 miles in all for the day.

By midmorning of Day 3, I had completed the Skyline Drive section. I was taking pictures of this occasion when Mike and Betsy Solomon passed me on their bikes. I struggle to catch them for about a mile -- thankfully, we were on a flat section. The Richmond couple were moving to Waynesboro to be closer to the Parkway. A year ago, Mike had ridden several days on the parkway with two others, moteling at night. It was nice to get to ride with others for a change, though they had to return home after 25 miles with me. They advised me to make it to Otter Creek, despite being a long haul. I reached Otter Creek by 6:00 with the last five miles downhill at 35mph! Elevation here was only 777 feet and I had made 85 miles.

Day 4 would be my hardest, as I had to regain the elevation lost yesterday. At the James River Visitor Center, I latched onto Andy and Dianna Hoolinger from Texas. They were doing a century today, and were dressed in matching racing outfits of their team. Within 25 miles, we had gone from the lowest point of the parkway in VA to the highest point in the state: we climbed to 4000 feet! We were at Peaks of Otter Lodge and Restaurant and I stopped for lunch here as they continued their century.