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My ride on The Blue Ridge Parkway, NC today

M

MOUNTAIN RIDER

Guest
I have only had my bike for a week now and thought I would share a little about my first long ride other then commuting to work and home. The wether here in WNC can change rather fast depending on what side of the mountain you are on and today I started out with 60F in my home town of Black Mountain, NC. and saw/felt 50F on my ride. The 50F was not so bad as my commute to work in the AM hours have been 34F - 32F, for the days that I could ride into work without rain, berrrrr..

So after my wife got home from her daily run I was off on my ride by 10:30 AM EST. stopped at the go go juice shop, and hit the ATM to pick up a little cash for lunch. My wife asked me were I was going to go riding and I did not really know were I was going, but said to her that I will go were the road takes me. Well as it turned out this road happen to be the Blue Ride Parkway. I started out taking HWY 70 W/ Tunnel Road to the parkway entrance and was going to go up to Mt. Mitchell but forgot that the Parkway was closed 8 miles after the Folk Art Center, something to do with road repairs I remember reading about and of corse itÔÇÖs winter.

As it be I turned around and headed South on the parkway with a new plan to take the parkway until I hit the Great Smoky Mountains Expy. My ride was going great, I passed a number if riders enjoying the parkway as I was and the temps were not so bad until I got to about 4000 Ft. elevation and this is when I started to see snow on the shaded sides of the road. I took a short break at Grave Yard Fields to rest my arms and hands, and realize that I need to do some exercises for my upper body, if I am going to continue doing long distance riding. [And you know I will. ;) ]

As I started back out on the parkway rested and ready to tackle the rest of this American dream road, to my disappointment I was forced to get off the parkway at NC 215 Lake Logan Rd. I have never been south of Black Balsam on the parkway and I found my self in amassment at how beautiful and fun NC 215 is with itÔÇÖs tight twistyÔÇÖs and the smell of pine as I got closer to Lake Logan. Lake Logan reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting or even something from the movie On Golden Pond. I would like to visit this place again in the summer time for a swim or even to do some camping at one of the camp sites I saw on the road side.

Once I got into Candler I took 40E ALT until I was able to get onto Interstate 40E and road this until I hit 25 south and made a lunch stop at Atlanta Bread Co. After eating my lunch and drinking a warm cup of coffee, I hopped back on my trusty steed and headed up to 74A south taking this road to NC 9 North back into Black Mountain, NC. 74A has some great twistyÔÇÖs once you get past Fairview, NC all the way to NC 9. Turning North on NC 9 just before Lake Lure one of the sites for the movie Dirty Dancing, I was once again passing fellow bikers all having the same great time as I was with our waves of [Ya ! I know your having just as much fun as I am.] Again NC 9 is a great road to travel if you like to weave in and around mountain walls. Once I got back into Black Mountain I was ready to head back home and have a nice hot cup of tea, and a donut I picked up yesterday from the store. The beer will come later with dinner ;)

In closing I road 135 miles had the time of my life, and canÔÇÖt wait to get back out again.
I would be nice to have some other people to ride with, but for my first solo trip I am very pleased with how my day turned out. Sorry I do not have a pictures to share, but will try to remember to taks some snap shots next time I got out. Bring on the next ride !!!!
 
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