This was our second annual trip to the Asheville, North Carolina area. A few newbies joined the crowd and we ended up with 8 people with 7 riders for this ride. We started arriving Friday afternoon at the KOA a few miles east of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and 4 of us rode 33 miles on the parkway to limber up those dormant legs form the trip. The predominant talk among us was not if it was going to rain, but when was it going to rain. Friday's ride was surgically planned between the forecasted rain cells on the radar. After riding a couple more exploratory miles Dave (Tanner) and I got slightly drenched in the last 1/2 mile, while Paul (Mowery) and Nancy (Lichtensteiger) arrived a bit earlier and dry!
Saturday was no better. But, when would the rain hit? Our first stop was early at Black Mountain where Klaus' friends own a very hospitable bed and breakfast. Due to a scenic route diversion or in other words, Jim ( Schroeder) got four of the party lost and missed out on the city plantation showing. The two groups converged at the end of Old Highway 70, but quite recently the abandoned 70 has become a serene and scenic bike path through a very thick new grown forest. Dave was enthralled at this new find.
The path turned back into Old 70 all the way to Old Fort amidst a few historic markers, train trestles, and old train stations. The South seems to take pride of their history a bit more than the Midwest; and it's not just Civil War! This town was rather quaint but had quite a lot of factories. We later found out it was the home of Ethan Allen Furniture, quite a Carolinian industry.
Well, it had to happen and the liquid stuff started dripping off and on. The route turned gravel, a Jimmy standard, so we backtracked back to the busy US-70. This first chapter was mostly rolling where all of us got used to each one's riding style and speed.
The second chapter was our approach to the Blue Ridge Parkway on SR-80. The rain had stopped as Dave and Jim stopped and gazed at a foot and a half turtle hitchin' on the side of the road. This new-felt mugginess reminded me of southern Indiana in the summer as we passed a rather large lake complete with dam and waterfall from the spring rains. We all stopped at a camp store for a snack before the switchbacked climbs up. The first section of those was just a prelude and got us complacent with our abilities. Alas, the last four miles were steep and the switchbacks kept on piling on us. There were markings on the road every half mile as this was the route of The Assault on Mt Mitchell that starts in Spartanburg, SC. In fact the race this year was the following Monday. There was also a photographer taking pictures and had a website peddling his Pix. Klaus' are much better!
We're finally on the Parkway and all seven of us are strung all over western Carolina. A few stopped to reconsider while Paul got mixed up and went north on the Parkway for a few extra miles. Jim didn't stop and kept plugging away on the worst chapter (3) of the ride: up to the 5 mile long entrance to Mt Mitchell. We always forget about this long agonizing stretch before it really gets agonizing! Sylvia came upon us one by one as she was driving the Subaru to be our "crew gal" supplying us with needed amounts of encouragement. Meanwhile, Jim was shocked as "wrong way" Paul blew by me as if I was standing still!
The winds they started a-blowin' as we're climbing up to 5500 ft. Jim had to stop at the entrance and compose himself searching for some gumption to get up to the highest point east of the Mississippi. The first two miles were known to be the toughest and that they were. But, the the winds picked up, then a little of hail and rain to make it memorable. Dave was up there already taking in the museum and all. As Jim was traversing down, Glenn and Tammy Berger were teaming it up to the top.
Jim dried himself out at the restaurant restroom and was greeted by some long awaited sunshine. Klaus and he headed back down to the entrance for the last climb to Craggy Gardens as the sun was tossed aside by this rain cloud that we actually were riding through. The rain and cloud was so thick nothing was seen by us while we were hoping the cars would still see us! This was one time it was better to be climbing as our work kept us warm.
As soon as we reached Craggy we knew the ride was in the bag as it was 18 miles down to Asheville. However, the rain was still pounding on us while we were chattering through tunnels and waves of water on the roads. The rain started to dissipate as our altitude fell, as we even saw from above sections of sun baking up the distant hills.
We all completed this heart wrenching ride of 95 miles with 9600 feet of climbing putting this one into the "epic file" of our bicycle memories.
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