Blue Ridge Departure Times

Folks,

I hope to have the SUV & Trailer pulling out from my house at 3:00-3:30 pm.

SUV Passengers Include:
Cheri, Amanda, Melina, John, Mark, Ginger

Everyone else needs to be at my house at 4:30 pm. We will depart promptly for the Blue Ridge picking Brian up in route. The SUV has room for one more, so if your interested in getting out of town earlier please let me know.

Roark

Blue Ridge Countdown Info

Blue Ridge Folks,

Please make sure anyone attached to you and coming on the trip; but not getting the blogger gets a copy of the information that will be flowing in the next few days.

First, the Sag List is Done. It's not perfect, but its an attempt at being fair. You will be getting a copy of sag list before the ride starts. You will need to make sure you pull off close to where indicated if your driving. If your bicycling you must know where you supposed to take your turn. It's your responsibility to take your turn.

Second, we could definately use a cell phone assigned to just the SAG vehicle. If you have a spare cell phone (activated), and can provide the phone, please let me know. It would be great to have just one number to call if you need the SAG vehicle. I would also like someone to volunteer to put together a cell phone list, to be passed out to the group. That way we could all be able to reach each other (except for John who carries no phone). If no one comes up with a cell phone I might rent one for just the week passing the cost along.

Third, please pack in at most two duffels. Think of this as Colorado without the need for a tent. Two bags should be plenty. I also suggest a day pack that you can put into the SAG for quick access to arm warmers, etc. On the Friday we leave this should hopefully be packed with your overnight supplies. At least one of your duffels should be dropped off with your bike Thursday to be packed into the trailer. It will not be available till we reach the Blue Ridge.

Forth, dont forget your bike must be at my house Thursday. I will not wait or repack the trailer if your bike comes with you on Friday. In fact I hope to be able to let the slower trailer and SUV leave ealier if the Lopatins and I can figure something out that works for them. The trailer could be gone, if you show with your bike Friday.

Next, do not expect on returning Sunday to just scoot for home after arrival in St. Louis. I will expect help breaking down the trailer, and returning the Van. If we are early enough even the trailer will be returned. We all will have been gone, and eager to see our loved ones, but no one should have to shoulder the burden of cleaning up from the trip without full participation of the group. PLAN ACCOURDINGLY!

Lastly, if your not working this Friday, I am sure John and I could use your help packing. We start early so let me know your schedules.

Roark

Blue Ridge Info Needed

Folks,

John J is helping me build the bike transport trailer. He asked me to get you all to respond to this request to hole us out! Please respond ASAP. Relay this on to any of the group who are not hooked into the blogger.

Roark

ASAP ----We need anyone going to take the front wheel off their bike, roll it up to a wall, and measure from the floor to where the fork hits the wall(center of where the scewer would fit)ALSO;: when you bring your bike Thur. A--bring something to put the wheel in(wheel bag, taped flat carton also workes fine) B: With a felt tip marker write your name as large as possible because we are going custom fit front wheel hold-downs on the two sides of the trailerand than tag your your spot. Roark and I picked up the lumber and hardware last nite at H.D. We may work on this tonight(THUR) so your co-operation is appriciated. john jauss

Blue Ridge Thoughts...

Folks,

I am working on the logistics of our friday departure. We have a six hour drive ahead of us. That in mind please let me know how early Friday you can leave town. We most likely will exit in shifts.

Also all bikes must be to my house on Thursday July 10th. The trailer will be outfitted Friday morning, and if you bike isnt there when we work the bolt downs, there is no guarantee there will be room.

Roark

Blue Ridge - Checkup IMPORTANT

Folks,

The Blue Ridge is fast approaching. Now would be a great time to get your bike checked out, and tuned up. If you have a mechanical problem, and its something that we cannot take care of by ourselves ( you better be handy or on good terms with Johh J), figure two days off the bike. The day it breaks down, and the next day to find a bike shop in a town. You will also be inconveniencing either the Lopatins or Sag Wagon Driver. Its fine to cause an inconvenience if something goes wrong that couldn't have been anticipated. Its not so fine to come to the Blue Ridge with a Bike waiting to fail. Make extra sure your cables, chain, and brakes are in good working order. Make sure that you have no cracks developing in your rims. The drive trains will be stressed during our long climbs, and you don't want brakes failing or a wheel failing during one of those long fast descents.

Please have your bike tuned up and checked out in the next two weeks!

Each cyclist with be assigned a 10 mile stint, driving our Sag Wagon (SUV with trailer) every other day. I will hand the order and assignments out on a daily basis. You are free to ride in the SAG at any time, but you are responsible for driving during your assigned slot. I will be picking the order so that the stronger riders SAG in the morning, so that the SAG period gives a break for those not quite so strong. If you have a request for when you would like your slot let me know now, I will try to work with you, but ultimately the time you get is the time you drive.

I will have some spare components for use for our own repairs. The list follows of what I have and think we need, even if all bikes are checked out ahead of time. Anything I have of course is Shimano, and 10 speed. Please let me know if you can bring anything on the needed part of the list. Also let me know if you think we need to add anything to the list. Obviously if you use a component you will need to return it, buy it, or replace it.

Brake Pads - Roark
Front & Rear Brake Calipers - Roark
Brake Cables - Roark
Shifter Cables - Roark
2 Spare 10-Speed Chain - Roark
Spare Seat - Roark
Spare Deraileur Pulleys - Roark
Spare Front Deraileur - Roark
Basic Toolset - Roark
1 Spare Tire - Roark

Front & Rear Wheelset - Ron

Rear 10-Speed Deraileur - Needed
Spare Pedal & Cleatset - Needed

Blue Ridge Rooms

Folks,

I am ramping up for the final plans for the Blue Ridge Tour. We currently have 13 adults who will be riding. At the moments rooms are arranged so that we have the following (not counting Lopatins).

Friday: 3-Adults Per Room ( 2 Double Beds)
Saturday: 3-Adults Per Room (2 Queen Beds)
Sunday: 3-Adults Per Room ( 2 Double Beds)
Monday: 2-Adults Per Room (2 Double Beds)
Tuesday: 2-Adults Per Room (2 Double Beds)
Wednesday: 3-Adults Per Room ( 2 Queen Beds)
Thursday: 3-Adults Per Room ( 2 Queen Beds)
Friday: 3-Adults Per Room ( 2 Queen Beds)
Saturday 3-Adults Per Room ( 2 Queen Beds)

Now is the time if you object to spooning in a bed smaller then a queen to voice your opinion. You can always bring a sleeping bag.

Additionally I have increased our gas budget. The estimated cost < $500 each.

Roark

Blue Ridge Cue Sheets Now Available

Folks,

I just finished posting onto the blogger links to the Blue Ridge Cue Sheets. You will find the links to the daily cue sheets in the upper right hand corner of the blogger. Each sheet contains the sights and highlights referenced against the mile markers on the Blue Ridge. You will find additional links on the cue sheets taking you to more information on the different sights along the way. If you want to be familiar with what to be looking for along the way, here is a good place to start.

At the bottom of the cue sheets is the elevation profile for the day. I am sure I will tweak the cue sheets a bit before the ride, but expect these to pretty well cover the information provided each day.

For ease of use the links are also below. Note: Day 5 is a non-riding day.

Roark

http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/BlueRidge/BlueRidgeDay1.html
http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/BlueRidge/BlueRidgeDay2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/BlueRidge/BlueRidgeDay3.htm
http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/BlueRidge/BlueRidgeDay4.htm
http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/BlueRidge/BlueRidgeDay6.htm
http://www.geocities.com/rdweil@sbcglobal.net/BlueRidge/BlueRidgeDay7.htm

Blue Ridge Update

Blue Ridge Participants:

First with the van rental here is the new budget per person for the Blue Ridge before we add any additional riders.

A couple of upfront notes:

We will still be taking the Lopatin's car with trailer on the daily route. The non-riding Lopatin and kids will have the rental van during the day. So if we all need to sag it will be done in shifts. The only drivers for the rental van will be the Lopatins and myself because it's $50 per extra driver who is not a spouse of the primary renter. I will let Brian or Cheri be the primary renter, and I will be the add on.

In the past with a much smaller group, and with less variety of expenses we just all payed a portion along the way and evened up at the end. I am not sure that will work for a number of reasons with this large a group, and with new participants I don't know well personally.

I am mulling over ways that we can work out the expenses and distribution, so that no one has to put out $3000 by the end of the trip and worry about reimbursements.

My initial thought is that a few designated (could be one) individuals cover different expenses. Every partipant would pay up-front their estimated expenses, with a small adjustment made at the end for actuals.

Here is another option. I am making room assignments, and they are mostly fixed for the entire trip. Without room assigments it would be caos each night we check into a new hotel. It could be up to the individual sharing a room to figure out how to even up each night. The van & trailer rental could be payed up front, with gas evened up at the end. In order for this to work, one individual in each room must be an AARP or AAA member, those are the rates I have gotten.

Let me know if you have another option that would work, or your comments on these options.

Once we have some consensus I will let everyone know how we are going to do this. Remember I am not a professional tour operator, and am sharing my portion of expenses like everyone else.

On that note: Please send me $100 to cover the deposits being made for rooms ect at your earliest convenience.

Van Rental Option

Blue Ridge Tour Folks;

I found information about renting a twelve passenger van with unlimited miles and states for our Blue Ridge Trip. The cost would be about $1020 for the week. Dividing this by nine riders ( Lopatins are bringing their car so are not included in van cost) it would be an additional $113 per cyclist.

The good points to this option:

1. No one needs to supply a van.
2. We open up the option to adding up to 4 additional cyclists (which brings the van and possibly hotel costs down a bit)

I need your feedback soon if you know of a different option then renting a van, or know of additional friends who would be willing to commit to join us to bring down the van cost a bit.

Roark

Blue Ridge Trip Expense Update

Folks,

Directly above you will see the estimated expenses for our Blue Ridge Trip this summer. You will notice in the last column the allocated expenses and that everyone expenses are not identical. This of course reflects the number of individual assigned to specific hotel rooms.

All gas expenses for both cars are allocated to the cyclists. Trailer rental is also allocated on a per cyclist basis. I hope I have made everything as fair as possible. Bottom line is we are at about $400 per cyclist for non-food expenses. This again is an estimate from the information I have to date.

On another note, one lodge on the Blue Ridge has required an up front deposit for the five hotel rooms. I will have to pay this on my next charge bill so I would appreciate a $100 per rider to help begin covering deposits that need to be made. At this early state all deposits are refundable.

Thanks,
Roark

Road ID Group Order

Folks,

I have contacted Road ID about putting in a group order. Road ID are Id bands that one wears while cycling in case of a mishap. One cant be sure that each time they hit a dog, they wont go down! I beleive this is a good idea to have when we get to Blue Ridge, and of course when we ride here.

Take a look at the different styles at https://www.roadid.com .

Don't order because we will be doing that with a group and at a discount. Just take a look and let me know if your interested.

Roark

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!

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.

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