(A)typical Day Ride on the Parkway

Mountains have moods. Ignore this anthropocentric faux fact at your own peril. I’ve made the mistake of ignoring the mood of the mountains a few times backpacking, too light and ill-equipped while peak-bagging, and found myself in dangerous and uncomfortable situations. And I’ve done it biking a few times as well.

Today Richland Balsam enticed me to play on her steep slopes with sunny skies, moderate temperature and the solitude of a closed and gated Parkway. Just above 5,000 feet, the mood turned gloomy as a half frozen rain began pelting me. Turning back, I found the weather had closed in from behind as well. Sneaky mountain.

Jack

Warm Showers Continue...

The past two weeks has brought us three WarmShowers guest. Andy Lievertz spent a few days with us as he passed through on his way to the Blue Ridge Parkway on a bike of his own creation. A tandem turned touring rig. Andy stayed with us long enough to meet a few of our friends and to join us on the gem mine ride.

About a week later Debbie and Max Thompson spent a night with us as they did a loop around our area. Starting in Cleveland Tennessee, passing through Gatlinburg, up and over Newfound Gap (impressive!), Bryson City, North Carolina (gateway to the Smokies), and on to Murphy before returning home to Cleveland. Debbie and Max are missionaries who run an orphanage in Brazil. They were a fascinating couple and we enjoyed meeting them very much.

Read more about Andy, Debbie and Max on VeloHobo

Thanks for reading, Jack and Raquel

Bicycle Prospecting

Always willing to push the extremes of bicycling, we ventured out Sunday to do some ‘bicycle prospecting’. Gone are the days where prospectors loaded Molly the mule with pick-axe and shovel to stake a claim in the wild outback. Our very good friend (bicycle diva and belly dancer extraordinaire) Paige, organized a ride to a gem mine to sluice for treasure. Rubies, sapphires, moonstone, garnets and other gems pollute our local soil and we did our part to correct things by sifting through buckets of mud and removing them. Too much fun made even funner with a bike ride.

Jack

Paige's 20 carat Sapphire!!!!!!!

I Screamed for Ice Cream!

Friends Cindy and Sue joined us for the 44-mile Brasstown Loop Sunday. We started in Andrews, rode to the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown where we stopped for a picnic lunch, and then rode through Murphy. We did the mandatory ice cream stop at the Sweet Tooth in Murphy then headed back via the Valley River road.

This is one of our favorite rides and is one of the most beautiful in our area. You’ll ride by rolling pastures surrounded by mountains and two quaint small towns. The folk school makes an interesting rest stop and a great place to have a picnic.

Raquel

Lighten Your Load with Free Gear!

Here are a few tips to lighten your pack...er, panniers, from a great blog I've stumbled across.

http://www.geartalkwithjasonklass.com/2009/01/free-ul-gear-to-lighten-your-pack.html

"If you don't mind some borderline petty theft, here are a few things you can snag for free to lighten up your pack on the cheap."

from Gear Talk with Jason Klass

Curious Critters

One thing we learned about bike touring on this last trip is not to walk off with an open pannier, even if just for a few minutes, and especially not if curious critters are about.

This photo snapped by Joe Lilly of Weaverville.

Another bike tourist we crossed paths with on Loft Mountain.

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Also, keep a close eye on roadside mules. They lure you in with that innocent look then nibble away when your back is turned.

"Say Buffy, that looks like the Brooks saddle you ate last week".

Jack

And we're back

As it is, we completed all of the Skyline Drive and 200 miles of the BRP. We learned a lot about ourselves, each other and bike touring. This was a tour of extremes. One night we were stealth camping a stones throw from the Parkway and bathing in a bathroom sink, the next we were enjoying dinner theater at a mountain top lodge. One day we were basking in sunshine, the next we were in fog so thick we could not see more than a few yards. We toiled for hours gaining thousands of feet of altitude only to lose it in mere minutes on fast descents.

The trip was great despite the rain and fog, which had us hemmed in at Tuggle’s Gap for two days and sitting by the side of the road for some time atop a few of the higher peaks. We reluctantly decided to cut the trip short at Fancy Gap, rent a U-Haul in Mount Airy and truck ourselves back home. We had thoughts of pushing on in the thick fog and frequent heavy downpours and getting a bit farther south, but we realized we would be missing the very thing we came for, the views. We also had a sick puppy waiting for us at the vet. The kennel called to tell us our beloved 15 year old basset hound Indio had emergency surgery. She is doing fine now.

Fancy Gap is only a four hour drive from home so it will make for a good starting point for a second tour to complete the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Special thanks to Paige for the ride north and the offer to “come rescue” us if anything went awry. Luckily, all went well (okay, not the weather, but all else) and we can hardly wait to accrue more vacation time to finish the Parkway. We feel very fortunate to live next to such a beautiful scenic byway that lends itself so well to touring by bicycle.

Here’s a link to the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdmoore63/SDBRPTOUR2009#

Thanks,
Jack and Raquel