Blue Ridge Parkway Cycling

Cindi and I returned from our 10th wedding anniversary trip to Asheville, North Carolina and while there without my bike this time I was able to scope out what it would be like to cycle on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stayed at a Holiday Inn located at 1450 Tunnel Road just a few miles east of one of the ramps to the BRP (Blue Ridge Parkway). From that ramp at approximately BRP mile post 383 to the Craggy Gardens picnic area located 15 miles north of the Folk Art Center. The parkway is closed north of the picnic area to just south of Mount Mitchell because of a landslide and the detour around this closed section is about an hour in car. For someone who is new to the BRP this 15 mile section may be the best section that I observed. It is 15 miles of climbing a mild slope of 4 to 6% with maybe a flat or descending section once in a while. The section going up to the picnic area is much steeper, but there are restrooms available and picnic benches under the tree canopy to cool off. I observed more cyclists on this section of the BRP than any other section that we traveled.

The next best section I thought would be good to cycle on was from mile post 340 up to mile post 320, but it may be that the lighter traffic on these sections is due to the road closure compared to the sections south of Asheville, which had much more traffic. In any case one needs to have head and tail lights on the bike for the tunnels. One thing I noticed about driving a car through these tunnels that could be dangerous for cyclists is that for a second or two entering the tunnel from the bright sunlight is a second of blindness while my eyes adjusted to the dark tunnel and car headlights. A cyclists at that particular point may not be seen.

We saw a few more advanced looking cyclists between mile post 420 and 440. The roads look great in this section. There would be miles of climbing to the highest peak near mile post 435, but there is a lot more traffic traveling a higher speeds and there are a lot more tunnels to contend with. I think for me I will leave this portion of the parkway to the bolder more experienced cyclists.

As far as bike shops I wanted to visit a few and just check out friendliness of staff members, gear and bike brands. The first store I tried to go to was Pro Bikes, but we were not able to get there. The second store happened to be unplanned as we were making our way around the BRP detour driving through some smaller towns. We stopped in Black Mountain and I saw Epic Cycles. When I entered the shop I noticed the owner wearing a Road Atlanta shirt so I started talking to him as I purchased one of his shop caps. He had grown up cycling in Sandy Springs, which is located at the top of the perimeter of I-285 in Atlanta. I spent a few minutes talking with him and asking him questions regarding cycling in his area. I could understand his desire to move away from Atlanta and settle in a small quiet town of North Carolina. Plenty of great rural road cycling and long epic mountain bike trails to keep things interesting. On the way home I stopped in Liberty Bicycles in Asheville to see if I could buy a cap with their logo, but they did not have one. However, this is a well stocked shop, big maintenance area and a friendly staff that did give me a water bottle with the shop logo. If you are cycling in Asheville and need to pick up some items that you either forgot or need to restock like tubes and such, Liberty Bicycles can help you out.

Cindi and I discussed going back to Asheville for a fall trip sometime in the future for some more hiking expeditions and hopefully I will take the bike the next time around and get on the parkway at least once. Maybe I can talk some of my cycling buddies into going with us and doing a few sections on the parkway.