Entire Blue Ridge Parkway Ride

[Scott Baker]

Gibbs, Chris, and I are leaving 7/24 to drive to Waynesboro, VA to ride the BRP from Mile Marker 0 at Rockfish Gap, VA to MM 469 in Cherokee, NC. We will be doing it in five days beginning 7/25 (Sat) and arriving in Cherokee on 7/29 (Wed). We are fortunate to have our spouses go with us and haul our stuff from each point along the route. Sorry to disappoint you touring folks that we are not doing it self-sustaining! We are staying in a variety of places each night right on the BRP so we can get off it and on it easily on the bikes.

Below are the estimated routes for each day, along with mileage and approximate elevation gain. I will write up a blog on the Sundog Cycling with photos upon our return (http://sundogcycling.wordpress.com).

If you want to follow us as we go along each day, I plan to Twitter our status periodically as we get to certain mile markers, etc. My Twitter is "profcyclist" if you want to subscribe to my tweets on your cell (you must create a Twitter account and set it up iwth your mobile device, which is really easy) or simply go to twitter.com/profcyclist and view the updates online. If you subscribe via mobile device, you can post replies and such I believe.

Here is a cool map of the entire BRP if you want to use it as reference.
www.blueridgeparkway.org/maps.htm

Day 1
Rockfish Gap, VA to Peaks of Otter, VA
~86 miles
7000' gain
www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/va/-rockfish-gap/947124450726678710

Day 2
Peaks of Otter, VA to Fancy Gap, VA
~113 miles
7000' gain
www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/va/peaks-of-otter/881124450756689757

Day 3
Fancy Gap, VA to Blowing Rock, NC
~96 miles (4 miles are a detour near Blowing Rock)
5000' gain
www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/va/-cana/177124454962421327

Day 4
Blowing Rock, NC to Pisgah Inn, NC
~110 miles
9000' gain
www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/nc/blowing-rock/777124450809345196

Day 5
Pisgah Inn, NC to Cherokee, NC
~67 miles
7000' gain
www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/nc/-asheville,-nc/757124450824532140

[squidlyman]

Jul 18, 2009 15:01:03 GMT -5 Scott Baker said:

Sorry to disappoint you touring folks that we are not doing it self-sustaining!

Don't apologize... to modify a hiker credo: "ride your own ride". Even if on a lightweight bike w/o a bunch of gear, the BRP from end-to-end is quite the challenge. And in 5 days, too... quite an aggressive schedule.

Enjoy! May you have less rain than me and m'lady did earlier on our ride earlier this summer. Sheesh... Mother Nature had it in for us!

[Moose]

Sounds like an awesome trip! I have been thinking about doing this after graduating for a while now and having all of this mapped out is awesome. I was just up at mile marker zero earlier this summer on our way up to Shenandoah National Park for a hiking trip. Great part of the country!

[Scott Baker]

Hopefully Mother Nature will be king. Someone told me there is 48,000' of elevation gain on the entire BRP route. I estimated 35,000' using the mapmyride.com data. Looks like there may be more climbing each day than estimated. However, it will be a great time and great training set.

[tailchaser]

Jul 22, 2009 13:26:56 GMT -5 Scott Baker said:

Hopefully Mother Nature will be king.

Nope. This is the Parkway you're talking about... Mother Nature will most certainly be QUEEN and you'll be her little b***h! :-)

Sounds like it'll be a great ride! Share all the gory details once you're done for those of us transplants that rarely get to climb more than 3-4 minutes...

[Scott Baker]

LOL - Will do. I plan to do a good write-up with the assistance of Gibbs & Chris once we return.

[1yellowtire]

Update on the BRP Death March, Day 2:

2 days
195 miles
18K of climbing
10 deer sightings
Two tired legs

[1yellowtire]

Day 3 update. Stuff I have learned:

1) the NC part of the parkway is the prettiest part.
2) Gibbs and Scott are in great shape.
3) It is possible to suck wheel for three hundred miles.
4) Detours suck
5) Back to back to back centuries take a toll on the body.

[wcuracer]

Hope you guys have a great day 4! The elevation gain on day 4 is not pretty... No pain...No gain! I love statement #3.

Wish I had the time to do such a thing

~ CLINT ~

[1yellowtire]

Finished today.

5 days.
478 miles
46K' of climbing

Good week.

[Scott Baker]

We had a great trip! I will work on daily summaries and start posting them in the coming days. Please be patient.

[Gibbs]

It feels great to be back in WNC. The Parkway Ride is part physical and part mental and it was nice to have two tough riding partners in Chris and Scott. I also want to thank Stacy and Heather for hauling our stuff around so we could focus on the riding. Finally, thanks to the folks at Boone Bikes. They fixed my bike cable and housing at the end of Day 3. There was even a picture of David and Paul in the restroom at the bike shop.

[Scott Baker]

The blog is done for the BRP ride. It it broken out by each day. Remember to scroll down for Day 1 then up for the subsequent days. Enjoy!

sundogcycling.wordpress.com

Scott

[Vespa]

Aug 3, 2009 13:25:48 GMT -5 Scott Baker said:

The blog is done for the BRP ride. It it broken out by each day. Remember to scroll down for Day 1 then up for the subsequent days. Enjoy!

sundogcycling.wordpress.com

Scott

Excellent write-up and pictures. Thanks guys!

[dobovedo]

Aug 3, 2009 13:25:48 GMT -5 Scott Baker said:

The blog is done for the BRP ride... Enjoy!

Enjoy indeed! Thanks again for sharing the epic ride with us.