Day 4 was by far the toughest day for me. John had gone to Charlotte for the day to check out the City for a potential job relocation and Mark and Josh wanted to watch the Indy 500, so I was on my own to ride. Prior to the trip I was really hoping to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway, and hopefully to the top of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi topping out at over 6,000’. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to check out the Parkway, so I loaded up Mark’s car and headed to a start location about two miles from the Parkway entrance in Asheville. I had estimated that the ride to Mt. Mitchell would be about 25 miles, and based on review of maps the route seemed to be mostly uphill from my start location to the base of Mt. Mitchell. I had never been on the Blue Ridge Parkway and was excited to check it out, as I have always heard it is an amazing place to ride. The Parkway was designed as a recreational route, and even though it was only two lanes with no shoulder the auto traffic was really nice to cyclist and had no problem waiting their turn to pass me as hammered away at 10 mph. The views from the Parkwa
y were amazing 
with huge vistas and miles of forest. As the ride progressed I was really starting to feel the affects of the long climbs, and was starting to hope that around every corner I would see the sign for Mt. Mitchell. The turn-off finally came 31 miles into the ride. I now had another 4.5 miles of climbing to hit the top. The first two miles of the Mt. Mitchell climb are the hardest and it levels out towards the top. At the top I picked up a coca cola, some peanut butter crackers, and a Gatorade to replenish my reserves. I was now at the mid point of the ride and had another 36 miles to get back to the car, but a good portion of the return trip would be downhill. For perspective the out portion of the ride took me 2:45, while the return trip took me 1:45 for a total ride time of 4:30. In the end I got 10,000 vertical feet of climbing and built up a huge appetite. 
y were amazing 
with huge vistas and miles of forest. As the ride progressed I was really starting to feel the affects of the long climbs, and was starting to hope that around every corner I would see the sign for Mt. Mitchell. The turn-off finally came 31 miles into the ride. I now had another 4.5 miles of climbing to hit the top. The first two miles of the Mt. Mitchell climb are the hardest and it levels out towards the top. At the top I picked up a coca cola, some peanut butter crackers, and a Gatorade to replenish my reserves. I was now at the mid point of the ride and had another 36 miles to get back to the car, but a good portion of the return trip would be downhill. For perspective the out portion of the ride took me 2:45, while the return trip took me 1:45 for a total ride time of 4:30. In the end I got 10,000 vertical feet of climbing and built up a huge appetite. 
2 comments:
Nice man! I see you're already on the Blue Ridge bandwagon...shame on me, my dad lives with in 2 miles of it in Asheville and I haven't biked it yet. Soon, tho.
NIce - lucky you - the riding looks fab g. Take us sometime!
Post a Comment