37 mi road ride (3hrs 10min)
Home -> Parkway -> Hwy 151 -> 19/23 -> Home
Having rained all day Friday and Saturday, mountain biking this weekend was out and I promised myself I wouldn't run for a week from Wednesday. It was nice spending all day Saturday with the family just relaxing and piddling around the house. That afternoon, Bethany and I dropped Ellie off at "Grandma" Stephanie's and went to watch Leather Heads in Hendersonville. It was a chill day that we all sorely needed but I was still chomping at the bit to get in some sort of excursion.
Saturday night I hatched a plan for an adventure Sunday. Sunday had quickly filled up with plans to go to the Nature Center at 10am and house hunting later that afternoon so there wasn't much time to squeeze in a ride. Around 11:30pm I had decided on a basic loop road ride up towards Mt. Pisgah that would take around 4 hours. I formulated two extension options in case I was just crushing it and still feeling good. If I was to be back in time for our other obligations, I'd have to leave by 6am at the latest. I spent the next hour swapping my mtn bike tires for slicks, planning, and getting all of my lights, food, clothing, water, maps and miscellaneous gear packed.
My alarm wasn't set correctly so I didn't wake up until nearly 6am. Not all that concerned I got dressed, downed a bowl of oatmeal and made one last effort to find my big head lamp. After striking out in the light department, I slapped my small LED headlamp on my helmet, donned my pack and hit the street. The roads were still damp from the previous night's rain but not enough to get me very wet. I rode with a relaxed pace and did some on-bike stretching as I passed the Biltmore mall. After 9 miles of rolling terrain, I climbed up the ramp to the Blue Ridge Parkway and pulled off into the French Broad River overlook parking area. This parking lot (2100' ASL) overlooks the French Broad River and the Skyland area. I couldn't see any of it due to the thick fog that still hung around. There is around 11.8 miles of continuous climbing from there to the intersection of Hwy 151 at Elk Pasture Gap (4200' ASL). I peeled down to my under armor shirt, bike shorts and one pair of fingered gloves. It was quite cold but I knew the climbing would warm me right up. It sure did.
The climb took about an hour and a half and was slow and methodical. The fog closed in and I got the distinct impression I was riding on a treadmill for several miles. One small excitement came in the form of having to dodge the thousands of night crawlers in the midst of a soggy asphalt pilgrimage. If I didn't dodge, they would squish on my tire and get slung up into the underside of my down tube or onto my back. EEEWWWWW! Around mile 7, a gaggle of turkeys ran out of the grass, jumped into the air and flew across the road in front of me and up into the trees with the grace of a herd of elephants. I don't think I've ever seen a turkey in a tree and this struck me as a funny sight for some reason. What little traffic I saw seemed to pass only as I was going through the several mountain tunnels on that road. My dim headlamp was pretty pathetic but cast just enough light to keep me from running off the road into the walls. I drank a mouthful every 15 minutes or so and ate something every 45.
After mile 10 I rounded a corner and got to experience a series of unbelievable sights. The sun had just appeared over the ridge to my back and shown past me through the fog creating a perfect, VIVID, circular rainbow that looked to be about 30 ft in diameter and 30 ft in front of me with its base sitting just above the pavement. It seemed as I though I could ride through it like a giant hula hoop. A quarter mile later I began noticing my ceiling changing from dull white to blue. A few pedal strokes later and I was above the top of the fog and into crystal clear blue skies. Mt. Pisgah lay directly ahead and stuck up out of the dense clouds like an Island in the sea. Everything below me was white. Everything above, a brilliant blue. Having rounded the corner, I was back in shadow of the ridge but the sun behind me lit up the mountain like a spot light. It was truly breathtaking and I'm still cursing myself for not bringing a camera! I rode the remaining mile or so to Hwy 151 and decided to turn around. If I didn't have a camera, I'd better go back and just sit for a while to take it all in. I hammered the pedals back to the rainbow spot but the sun had already risen too much to create the effect. Proceeding to the amazing mountain island view also was a bust as the winds had blown the rising clouds up onto the road on their way over the ridge. What I had witnessed was a right place, right time sort of thing that likely only happens under the right weather conditions at the right time of year and time of day. I felt very special having gotten to see it.
151 drops off steeply from the Parkway and descends 1400' in a little over 3 miles. I was hot but since 151 drops into shadow on the North side of the mountain and submerges beneath the cloudy sea, I put on all the clothing I had including, two shirts, a jacket, two pairs of gloves and a wool hat before heading down. By the time I hit the bottom 15 minutes later I was shivering and had completely lost feeling in the three smallest toes on each of my feet. There's just no way to generate body heat standing stationary in the wind of a descent when your only body movement is your fingers moving to brake. Down in the valley, I hammered the pedals for several miles before warming back up but it was fun riding in high gear hauling down the road.
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful except for the traffic of 19/23 being pretty scary. Big diesel truckers with extended side-mirrors that don't move over for bikers are pretty high on my shit list right now. I made it home in just over 3 hours and felt pretty good, rocking out the Nature Center with the family like a champion. This was a great ride. Next time I'll need a bike lock and some running shoes so I can continue on up and bag Pisgah Summit. When I get into really good shape, I'll bag the summit and continue on to Hwy 276 which makes it a 67 mile loop :o).
No comments:
Post a Comment