Day 7 - Finish [Click here for Climbing Video]

I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Cherokee, NC the morning after finishing my ride of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Looking back, it was not fun in the traditional “Disney World” sense, but for a 55 year old aerobic-addicted athlete, it was just what I wanted. The challenge was great, the scenery was spectacular, I got to spend meaningful time with my wife and the ride provided me a sense of accomplishment similar to my ride across the United States last year.

We began our final day in Asheville where we discovered the miles around marker 380 were heavily traveled by locals entering and exiting major highways that converge there such as I-26, I-40 and 74. The traffic lightened up some around mile marker 400 as we progressed south toward the end of the Parkway in Cherokee. I climbed for several hours from 2,500 feet of elevation to the highest point on the Parkway of 6,053 at mile 431.4, Richland Balsam Overlook. Robbie was supposed to meet me there with lunch, but was late. She’d been hanging out at the Mount Pisgah General Store at mile 408, which we agreed was our nicest stop of the entire ride. It’s at 4,900 feet, beautiful scenery, a nice porch with rockers, plenty of coffee and hot chocolate. She read there for a couple hours. When she finally got to Richland Balsam I was gone, I started an 8 mile descent, she caught up with me with lunch a few miles later.

After lunch I continued the descent, hitting a few tunnels on the way. Tunnels were a big part of the story today. There are 25 to go thru on the North Carolina side, almost all of them occurring during my last 2 days of riding. They are dark, scary and dangerous. I found the small headlight I brought did not do much to light the tunnels on Friday; I actually waited for Robbie to lead me thru several tunnels with her car headlights. If you ever do the Parkway ride, invest in the brightest headlight you can find, it’ll be worth it.

After the brief descent, I continued to climb backup to over 5,600 feet to mile 460. The climbing was tough; I had my biggest climbing day with 7,971 feet. Much of it lonely, with some self-doubt. My wife reminded me “this is what you came up here for.” I broke the climbing into 5 mile sections, promising myself to stop at an overlook, eat something, take in the scenery. Something to look forward to. Because of the height of the mountains in the area I was in Friday the views were more spectacular than any other point on the Parkway.

Many people ask me “what do you do with all that time while you are riding, do you listen to an iPod or something?” Normally I don’t, but trying to draw some inspiration and fight off the loneliness, I often turned on some music from my iPhone in my jersey pocket, without headphones. I also looked at the scenery and thought a lot while riding, “what are the people who built this thing doing now, what were their thoughts while building it, were they just happy to have a job, did they know the lasting impact it would have?”

Robbie and I met up again around mile 456. She had already been ahead to scope out the remainder of the ride. She told me there were 4 tunnels, about 6 miles of climbing, with the big 8 mile descent at the end. I ate a honey bun, which I always enjoy but normally can't cope with that number of calories, filled up my bottle with Gatorade and took off. The climbing was very steep, most in the Big Witch Gap area, which I love and enjoy riding when I'm in the Cherokee area. At mile 462 I reached the summit, quickly shifted to my larger gear on the front chain ring and the chain came off, and was jammed a little. I was exhausted, but managed to lean down and untangle it, wrap it around the big chain ring, wipe the grease off my hands on the grass, and start downhill. The gradient was steep, I’d done this stretch before uphill, 2,700 feet of elevation change in less than 10 miles, I was flying, tapping my brakes around the blind corners, dodging potholes, looking for cars. I went thru 3 of the tunnels with Robbie nowhere around, but thankfully she was there to help me thru the last one, which was long and dark.

I finished the descent at the end of the Parkway which spills into highway 19 with no warning, just a stop sign before hitting the 4 lane highway. It’s amazing that the Parkway, with so many billions of dollars spent on its construction and maintenance, has no signage, no ranger’s station, no explanation at all of its beginning in North Carolina. We looked for a sign to take a picture in front of, there was none.

My feeling of accomplishment was great at the end of the ride. Robbie was relieved to have me complete the ride without getting hurt. We headed to the Fairmont-Marriott hotel in Cherokee for a bath and a big night out at the Stockyard Steakhouse just down from Harrah’s, Robbie is a big fan of the latter, she is gambling this morning.

The Blue Ridge Parkway, hills, descents, tunnels, great views, wildlife, farms, pastures, heat, cool mornings, traffic, tunnels, motorcycles, overlooks, windy, friendly people, a great experience.