Day 7 - The Finish of the Blue Ridge

( The Final Days Elevation Profile! - Click on it to zoom )

Blue Ridge Folks,

This is it, the final day of the Blue Ridge. We will have ridden all 470 miles when we reach Cherokee 86 miles of riding from Ashville. We will be staying at the Comfort Suites.

You better have paced yourself because this day will be the hardest of them all! You will need lights mounted to your bike as well! Today will be a day full of 17 tunnels! There will be plenty of climbing as well. In the first fifty miles we will climb from 2000 ft up to 6047 ft, the highest point actually on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here are some of the sights that you will have seen on this day, and others as you conquered the Blue Ridge.

Click to Download PDF of Blue Ridge Map!

Weekend Riding 10/27-10//28

Folks,

I plan to ride this weekend. I can ride long Saturday. Sunday I have to be back at a reasonable time since I am flying out to Atlanta Sunday night for the week.

My thoughts is our group is burned out from too many hard rides, so lets get out there, do some non-hammer miles, with some coffee stops! Saturday would be a good day to ride from My house out to St. Charles and the Crooked Tree! Sunday can be a city ride!

Let me know your thoughts, and if you can ride!

Roark

Latest on Rooms

Blue Ridge Folks,

With the latest adjustments in couples for the Blue Ridge Tour; here is how I see the room and car situation.

Right Now I am looking at the following blocking of rooms for the Blue Ridge Tour.

You will all recall, I am willing to share a bed and spoon, but I dont sleep on the floor or a sleeper couch.

If we pick another rider we will go back to three bachelors per room most nights. I have at least five rooms reserved each night at this point.

If the group wants only two per room, that can be arranged at additional cost, I am basically cheap but willing to go with the flow. If you want cheap, and still have problems spooning, you are welcome to bring a sleeping bag.

1 Room - Brian & Cheri & The Girls
1 Room - Roark, Mike, Dan S, Mark
1 Room - Dan B, Ken, Rick, Ron

(some nights we will divide into 2 per room, some nights the rooms can sleep up to six)

We can move around who is where in the bachelor group.

Automobile Groupings

SUV with Trailer For Bikes (used to SAG) - Brian, Cheri, The Girls, Roark, Mark

Seven Passnger Van (given to Girls with Parent during days) - Mike, Dan S, Dan B, Ken, Rick, Ron

I beleive unless we pick up an additional car, we have room for only one more.

Day 6 Back On The Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Folks,



Yes its time for another days post on this summer's Blue Ridge Tour. We leave Pineola after a day off and head to Ashville where we will be staying in a fancy Motel 6. The good news is double queen beds in each room. You will want these beds because between Pineola and Ashville is the climb up the Blue Ridge to the turn off for Mt Mitchell. You can take the option of detouring for a few extra miles to ride to the top of tallest peak in the east of the Mississippi. Back on the Blue Ridge you next pass through Craggy Gardens before the reward almost 20 miles of pure down hill all the way to Ashville.



The elevation profile for this 73 miles day is shown below (don't forget to click to zoom).

Blue Ridge Day 4 & 5

Blue Ridge Folks,



So here we are up to Day 4, when we will ride 66 miles from Laural Springs to Pineola. We will be staying for two nights at the Pineola Motel & Inn. That's right this is where we will have our day off. To get to this location we will have to ride near the picturesque town of Blowing Rock, and the Lincove Viaduct at Grandfather Mountain. There will be many choices on our day off, such as Linville Falls, and if your really gutsy ( this is for Mike ) you can try to climb Beech Mountain where Lance trained for his comeback. The word Lance is still painted accross the top if you make it!

You can browse Day 4 elevation profiles below (click on it to zoom!)

Blue Ridge Day 3

Blue Ridge Folks,

The third day will take us 83 miles from Tuggles Gap to Laural Springs. We will be overnighting at the Station's Inn. Here we will both sleep and dine, and share some stories with the Motor Cycle crowd the Inn caters too.

The elevation profile is shown below, and of course you can zoom by clicking on the image.

Day 2 Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Folks,

Just in case you didn't get a bit motivated to keep those hill climbing legs intact from our first day on the Blue Ridge here is the scoop on Day 2. We leave the Peaks of Otter Lodge and do some up and down climbing for an 80 miles day. We will be dinning and staying at the Tuggles Gap Restaurant and Motel. Its a small hotel, we are currently booking 8 of the 9 rooms. At this hotel its two per room, except for those with youngins.

I wont go into how much climbing, not as much as day one, but we will go way down to 1000 ft and back up to 3000 ft. You can see the our climbing grades below and click on it to zoom in!

Day 1 on The Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Folks,

I am fast at work getting things planned for the Blue Ridge. We will have a mix of both rustic and spartan modern hotels along the route. The night before we get started (Saturday) we will be staying in Staunton Virginia at Howard Johnson's. We depart Rockfish Gap Virginia on the Blue Ridge and End at the Peaks of Otter, and will be staying in the Peaks of Otter Lodge. Our first day will be 86 miles and there will be some long 6% climbs (10 miles). The elevation profile is shown below.

Ride Saturday, 10/20/07

Is anyone interested in a city ride Sat 10/20? I'd like to meet Brian and the girls at the City Museum....around 12p or 12:30p. If we do a city ride, I would just end at the City Museum at 12p or 12:30p and anyone else could continue to ride/ride back/etc.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.
Cheri

Rooms Groups For Blue Ridge

Folks,

Right Now I am looking at the following blocking of rooms for the Blue Ridge Tour.

1 Room - Brian & Cheri & The Girls

1 Room - Roark, Mike, Dan S, Mark

1 Room - Dan B, Ken, Rick, John (if he joins us)

1 Room - Ron & Suzzette

We can move around who is where in the bachelor group.

Automobile Groupings

SUV with Trailer For Bikes (used to SAG) - Brian, Cheri, The Girls, Roark, John J

Seven Passnger Van (given to Girls with Parent during days) - Mike, Dan S, Dan B, Ken, Rick, Mark

Five Passenger Car - Ron, Suzzette (Suzzette has car for touring while group is riding)

All bicycle riders will take their turn driving the SAG Vehicle.


We need three vehicles. My hope is group members can supply the vehicles, so no renting is needed. I still need to work out a fair way of splitting the costs of the vehicles.

As you can see the logistics as our group is growing has grown as well. To make planning easier on myself, since adding rooms later may be difficult, its time to commit now.

This will not be an easy ride, I will let Mark comment on what he has read in the Book I lent him "Riding the Blue Ridge". You need to be able to climb for miles and hours at a time, unless you plan to spend most of your day driving our SAG.

Blue Ridge Date & Budget

If there are no major objections the dates for the Blue Ridge Bike Ride will be

Saturday July 12 to Sunday July 20th

Note: We will leave after work on July 11th to get some of the driving out of the way.

Current Participants:
Mark ( Nancy )
Mike
Brian & Cheri ( Melina & Amanda)
Roark
Dan
Ken (Dan's Friend)
Rick
Ron ( Suzzette ? )

My assumption is that for those not bringing companions or kids we will be sharing rooms. I am budgeting $100 per night per room. If you are interested in going stag, then the choice is either two or four per room. If we choose four per room (spooning involved) its $25 per night.

Using Last Years Budget as a Basis (divide by number of participants)
Trailer Rental $350
Misc Expenses $200
Gasoline $400 (1 SUV Type Vehicle)

Of course actual amounts will depend on how many actually commit to going.

Assuming eight riders going stag.... the cost will be $500 not including meals.

Important!
In order to be able to get rooms at some of the lodges along the parkway, reservations need to be made ASAP. There is no guarantee that once we have our rooms, we will be able to add more later. So if your planning on joining the group this summer, you need to commit soon.

Roark

Blue Ridge Mountains Bike Tour

The dates Cheri listed look fine for me. Either week will work.

Mark

Blue Ridge This Summer News

It looks like the interest is in riding the Blue Ridge Parkway from End to End.

I have done some preliminary work showing its 12 hours of driving to get to the Rockfish Gap Virginia. Its about 8 hours of driving to get back from Gatlinberg.

So here is the tentative schedule to happen some week in July.

We will cover 470 miles. You must have lights in the tunnels.

Day 0: Friday - After work we leave say 5 pm and ride four hours out.
Day 1: Saturday - We complete the drive to Rockfish Gap
Day 2: Sunday - 86 miles from Rockfish Gap to Peaks of Otter Lodge( on parkway)
Day 3: Monday - 80 miles from Peaks of Otter Lodge to Tuggle Gap ( lodging tba )
Day 4: Tuesday - 77 miles from Tuggle Gap to Laural Springs ( Bluff's Lodge )
Day 5: Wednesday a Day Off Drive into Boone or Blowing Rock etc.
Day 6: Thursday - 65 miles from Laural Sprints to Linville ( lodging tba )
Day 7: Friday - 77 miles Linville to Ashville ( lodging tba ) Can climb Mt Mitchell as addition
Day 8: Saturday - 86 miles Ashville to Cherokee (finish)
Day 9: Sunday Drive Home