The Plan

The idea for this ride came from Gary. He and I have never met but have corresponded from time to time since 2005 when we both independently rode from coast to coast and at one point were within a couple of days from hooking up and riding together. A spite of bad weather in the rockes put Gary a couple of days behind and a fierce tailwind in Montana put me another day ahead. Last year Gary was planning to ride the Northeastern Loop but some things came up as they sometimes do and he had to cancel. So anyway, Gary suggested Skyline Drive and The Blue Ridge Parkway as a ride for 2008.

The route looks like this. We will probably use the avoid D.C. option.

This ride will be a self contained ride with no support. We carry our gear and resupply along the way. The Plan is to camp whenever possible. The route will be a typical road ride for the first 750 miles. On this section there will be plenty of services, places to get second breakfast, lunch, and make stops for ice cream, snacks or whatever. There a few hilly sections and good size climbs but nothing like what will be to come. Then we enter Skyline Drive. From that point on there are limited services, narrow winding roads, and few flat areas. In fact from the beginning of Skyline Drive at Front Royal, VA to the end of The Blue Ridge Parkway at Cherokee, NC there will be over 48,600 feet of vertical change over 570 miles. Campgrounds are few and far between so end of day destinations are pretty much absolute with no room for error. As far of rides, this section is one of the more challenging road rides in the USA. On this setion we will be carrying most of our food and making almost all our our meals. That combined with the terrain makes for slow going. Most days will be 50 to 60 miles depending on the spacing of campsites. There is no camping allowed outside of designated camping areas. Stealth camping will get you arrested.

Approximate Vertical Profile.

The plan is to complete this ride in three weeks and a couple of days. It should be doable if we average around seventy-five miles a day until Front Royal and then around sixty miles a day until we finish at the airport in Asheville, N.C. The days alloted for the trip allow for two to three days off. Then the plan is to rent a vehicle one way for the drive back to New England.

The weather from Connecticut south in late May and early June is generally perfect for bicycycle touring. It's rainy sometimes at this time of year and as ususal when it rains and you are touring on a bike, you get wet.

It worked out well riding with Denny last year and I look forward to riding with him again. It looks like I am going to finally ride with Gary after a couple of tries. Since this ride was his idea, if the weather is lousy he'll be the one to blame. Hmmmmm . . . . then I guess I'm to blame for the bad weather in northern Maine last year. As my son in law Tim says when refering to the weather, "It is what it is". I guess then that there won't be any laying on of blame for bad weather.