| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
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| 2312.1 | a mountain loop | SHALOT::ELLIS | John Lee Ellis - assembly required | Wed Jun 10 1992 19:35 | 10 |
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Sorry, I don't have good advice for a 500-mile loop, but for a
start, the Skyline Drive (105 miles) terminates at the start of
the Blue Ridge Parkway, whose first 200 miles are in Virginia.
You could get your first 305 miles in just getting to the NC/VA
line, then coming back in the foothills (e.g., through Lynchburg)
and the Shenandoah Valley (!) which parallels the Skyline Drive.
-john
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| 2312.2 | There and Back? | SPEZKO::SMITH | Recreational pCYCLEpath... | Wed Jun 10 1992 20:42 | 5 |
| For a loop, I'd go down Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway for 250
mile and turn around and go back 250 miles. ;') It's different in both
directions, downhills become uphills and visa versa.
...Ed
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| 2312.3 | My trip to the Blue Ridge Moutains | SMURF::LARRY | | Mon Sep 14 1992 21:03 | 129 |
| Just got back from my Skyline Drive/Shanandoah Bike ride and
though I would give a quick summary.
Day one consisted of driving to my friends house in the Philadelphia
PA area. The next morning we drove to Gettysburg and finally
got our bikes on the road at about 10am.
Both our bikes were of the "older" sport/touring variety that
have long since been modified with triple rings. I could not
imagine going on a long bike tour with gear and not having a
triple. My low is 28 tooth front and 30 tooth rear. Our
packs weighed about 25 lbs (maybe 30 including the fig newtons).
We both brought enough clothing for 5 days and NO camping gear.
Sleeping in a dry, comfortable bed is the way to go after a
long days cycling. We did not make lodging reservations
and were hoping that our post labor day trip would help us
out in this regard ... it did.
Our target distance for each day was about 75 miles.
The first riding day took us from the congested roads near
Gettysburg to Harpers Ferry in West Virginia. In between
we rode through the back roads of Maryland. Maryland seems
to have its act together with wide shoulders on most of the
busier roads and lots of back roads where the shoulders were
not needed. The countryside consisted of a few large ridges
to climb but mostly rolling hills though farm country.
A real treat was riding along the Canal tow path that followed
the Potomac river in Maryland. This path starts in Washington DC
and goes all the way past Harpers Ferry. I think thats over 80 miles.
We met some people who rode out from DC on the path.
We did a 12 mile stretch on it.
The whole area is filled with Cival War history but we did not
have much time to check it out.
We did get to walk around the town of Harpers Ferry after finding
a nice hotel overlooking the Potomac.
A side note: The next time I plan a trip without the
aid of bicycling tour book (or company) I will try to get
some good county maps. Trying to plan a route with a state
map is less than optimal. Although we did find some excellent
roads I'm sure we could have done even better with county maps.
The next day we started out in the rain, the only time it
rained on our trip. It stopped in the afternoon.
This section took us to Front Royal Virginia, the beginning
of Skyline Drive and Shanandoah National Park.
The riding that day was though lovely farm country over
rolling hills. It was not until our return trip that we really saw
just how lovely Virginia is!
Front Royal had plenty of accomodations. There we
had the opportunity to check out the Skyline Caverns.
The next day we woke up excited about going up the mountains and
onto skyline drive. We tooled up to the entrance and were
greeted by a freindly ranger who told us we could not ride up.
"too foggy" she said. We might get clobbered by an RV or something.
We had to change our plans. Instead we head north and east through
the Shenadoah Valley. The turned out to be a great ride as we
road through a state forest with mountains off in the distance.
The road finally crossed over a ridge (the Masanusset mountains?)
into Luray where the "famous" caverns were located. We did
the tour. I was impressed. When we got out the murky weather
finally broke and the top of the Blue Ridge was clear. We
took a chance and decided to climb up the Luray entrance
to the Skyline drive. This time the entrance was at the
top so if we had to turn around it would have been an ugly scene.
The climb turned out not to be as difficult as I expected.
I had about 2 gears left while climbing about 4 miles of what
felt like 6% grade. Fortunately the ranger let us through
the entrance and we continued along the ridge. Little did
we know that the next four miles were also up hill to the
high point on the drive (3600 feet). I think we went from
about 1000' in Luray to 3600' in about 7-8 miles. Not
nearly as vertical as the Sierra mountains or Rockys but
we did break out into a good sweat! After a few more
ups and downs we reached our destination for the day.
This time we stated at Big Meadow lodge on top of the Drive.
Because it was after Labor Day we easily got a room with
view of the valley 3000' below. The next day we took off
the bikes and hiked in the general vacinity. Lots of deer
and other small animals. Spectacular views up there. I
highly recommend spending some time at one of the lodges
along the drive.
The next day was our longest day at 105 miles. We also
found out that the challenge of Skyline Drive is not its
vertical height but its rolling mountainous road. The
rest of the 55 miles on the drive was a continuous up
and down. The climbs were all about 500'. Until the
final descent into the valley we would go down 700' and
back up 500'. Long break at the HoJos near the end of
the drive. The rest of the day was spend riding through
beautiful farm country in the Valley. We finished in
Harrisonburg. Home of James Madison University.
The next day we headed back to Skyline drive to ride the
portion we missed the first day. Back over Massanuset
and back up the Luray entrance. This time we ran into
some of the fog that the rangers were concerned about.
It seems the clouds like to hang out at about 2500' in
some places. When you ride through the clouds the visibility
is real poor... very scarey.
Once below the clouds it was spectacular again. Well worth
the trip up the second time.
We finished the day in Front Royal.
The next to last day we road through some VA county roads
past beautiful horse ranches with very expensive looking
homes. This was followed by some of the worst riding
on route 9 in West VA. Rt 9 was very busy with NO shoulder.
It made it very difficult to appreciate the scenery.
We also had our worst headwinds of the trip.
When we finally made it back to the Potomac river we
were whipped both mentally and physically. Luckally there
was a nice B&B in Sharpsburg. Sharpsburg is where the
bloodiest battle of the Cival War took place ... over 20,000
casualties in one day! We had a chance to walk around the
Antietam battle field ... very strange feeling.
The last day of a long trip likes ours is always the toughest
mentally. Its hard to fight the desire to just get home
and still enjoy the riding of the day. Thank goodness
for the excellent Crab cakes in Maryland!
All in all ... a great time. Looking forward to the next
trip (Colorado or Glacier I hope!).
Have a nice day,
Larry Cohen
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