{"id":2227,"date":"2007-10-02T09:19:53","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T13:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/riding_high\/"},"modified":"2007-10-02T09:19:53","modified_gmt":"2007-10-02T13:19:53","slug":"riding_high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2007\/10\/riding_high\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding High"},"content":{"rendered":"

. . . or, put differently, cycling at high elevations.
\nThe last two weekends I’ve certainly met my climbing quota on the bicycle. I made two trips to the mountains of Western North Carolina for three rides. The weather all three days was spectacular: blue skies, comfortable temperatures, and incredible views–I couldn’t have ordered better conditions.
\nOn September 22, I went to Sylva, North Carolina, and participated in the second annual Tour de Tuck<\/a>. The ride is a 104 mile loop which features 11,000 feet of elevation gain and a 45 mile leg on the Blue Ridge Parkway<\/a>.
\nThis past Saturday I returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway and joined 12 other Bike Forum<\/a> members on a 39-mile social ride<\/a>. {Pictures available at the link; I got there late so I’m not in the group pictures at the start.] We did an out-and-back ride, climbing for several miles to Richland Balsam overlook, the highest point on the parkway, then riding along the crest of the mountains until just beyond the Devil’s Courthouse overlook. A good time was had by all.
\nSaturday afternoon I drove down the parkway to Asheville, where I rendezvoused with my sister, brother-in-law, and one-year-old niece. Little Seth is quite a handful. And I’m certainly not a natural at childcare.
\nSunday afternoon I parked at the Asheville Folk Art Center<\/a> and rode to the top of Mount Mitchell<\/a>. It was the first time I’d been to Mount Mitchell, and I didn’t know exactly what to expect. In general, the climbing on the parkway wasn’t too bad (steep), but it was a longer trip than I expected.
\nI got a little bonus riding in along the way. Someone had told me that there was water available at “Craggy Gardens.” When you’re doing an multi-hour unsupported ride, you definitely don’t want to run out of water. So I turned off the parkway when I saw a sign for Craggy Gardens picnic area. Only I didn’t see a picnic area there; I saw a windy steep road that headed up into the woods. I assumed the picnic area must be right around the corner, so I kept going to the next turn, then the next . . . and next . . . and next. Finally, about a mile later, I reached the picnic area. On the way out, I debated whether or not water had been worth the climb. That question was answered three miles later when I saw the Craggy Gardens visitor’s center, with water fountains, right on the side of the parkway. Alas.
\nThe parkway tops out at Craggy Gardens and rolls up and down along the ridge until you reach Mount Mitchell State Park<\/a>. There’s an 11 mile stretch which offers some fantastic views. I stopped several times to soak it all in.
\nThe climbing wasn’t over when I reached the state park. To the contrary, there was 1,400 more feet to go. The first couple miles past the entrance are steeper than the parkway, and I was feeling my legs by that point. Fortunately, the grade eased up the last couple miles as I motored to the finish.
\nAt last I reached the summit. The observation deck area was closed for construction, so I had to settle for the parking lot view. It was still pretty good. I’m not skilled at identifying landmarks, but I could clearly see what I assume is the Smoky Mountain ranges, 70 miles away.
\nAfter basking for 20 minutes at the top, I headed back down the mountain. There were a couple notable climbs to toil through, but otherwise the return trip was much faster than the ascent. The only two challenges I had going down were: (1) dodging the potholes and uneven pavement, and (2) navigating a tunnel in the evening daylight [it gets dark in there without lights!].
\nI got back to the car just before sunset. I returned to Knoxville tired, but satisfied from another successful cycling weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . . or, put differently, cycling at high elevations. The last two weekends I’ve certainly met my climbing quota on the bicycle. I made two trips to the mountains of Western North Carolina for three rides. The weather all three days was spectacular: blue skies, comfortable temperatures, and incredible views–I couldn’t have ordered better […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}