Blue Ridge Trip Advice

[ChrisK]

Starting to put together a trip out East with some friends. Some of you may remember a trip I had planned last year blew up in my face, so here's to round 2... 

Thinking about riding from here (near Chicago) down to the Tail of the Dragon, then riding the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway and up Skyline, then back to the West.

What's a good time of year to do this. We want to avoid extreme cold and rain. I know those roads can get pretty congested in the best time of year, so what is a good compromise?

We're most likely going to tent camp the whole way. Any yays or nays to that?

Really just looking for any other advice for riding around that area. The trip would likely be 7 days long, so plenty of time to spare. It would be me on my Monster and a buddy on his Honda cafe, possibly another straggler or two.

[cyberswine]

I can only tell you that I did the BRP and Skyline the first week of last July and I got soaked every day.  I camped, but eventually had to hotel it to get all my stuff dried out.  Traffic was amazingly light and there were ample camping spaces available: I was told that is not unusual nowadays.  Every time I went near a mountain including W. Virginia, Tennessee or Pennsylvania it rained, the rest of the weather was fine.  That was my bad luck but everything will tell you weather can and will be unpredictable at altitudes.  Be prepared for anything with enough clothing for all conditions and just enjoy.  I did learn to plan gas stops on the mountain runs because there is none in the immediate areas.  Same goes for food.
I'll likely do it all over again and wet or no, I had a great trip!

[ChrisK]

Wow I would have thought the first week of July would have been really busy.

Thanks for the advice! Definitely would remain flexible for unpredictable weather.

[cyberswine]

Just to add to that I sat for a while chewing the fat with a ranger one night and he said things ain't what they used to be on the Parkway..... he did say it gets busy in the fall with folks out to see the colors.

[the_Journeyman]

I live in the southern most region of the BRP, Deals Gap is an easy day trip for me, only about 90 minutes away on the bike.  I don't see a HUGE amount of traffic until color season.  Sure, it's heavier in the summer than the winter, but it doesn't reach "parking lot" status until color season.  That is usually early October.  Traffic volume starts picking up in September, and is usually heaviest in October.  If you find Asheville, NC the BRP passes right through there, I'm about 30 minutes to the west.  Here's the weather we typically get.

Temperature/weather related:
May - you will likely encounter frosty mornings early in the month, especially in the higher elevations.  High temperatures are all over the place, but rarely getting above the 60s.  Expect showers, but usually not "all day" type rains. 

June - Occasional cool morning, but not bad, highs are usually in the 70s, with random days sneaking into the 80s.  Usually, we get storms rather than showers.  They don't usually last long, BUT can be severe with very heavy rainfall and we see a few all day type rains.

July - Basically June, but higher highs, still with the random summer storms.

August - Typically, it's our hottest month.  It is hot, and ranges from humid to dry.  Typically less rain, one of the drier months

Sepetember - August all over again, starts to cool down toward the end of the month.

Let me know if you have questions specific to the southern end of the BRP area.  I'll do the best I can to answer or find an answer.

JM

[ChrisK]

Great, thanks for that breakdown.

I really think that this will most likely happen in June or July now that I'm thinking about it.

I've been looking at various routes and I think that it will likely come out to about 2500 miles round trip. 2500 miles, over the course of 7 days, is really pretty easy to do, so I like to think that gives us a day to just sit tight and wait out a storm.

[Curmudgeon]

For the last five years I've lived 70 miles east of the north end of the BRP. Last summer was one of the wettest on record. Central VA finished the year with a 9" rain surplus. Ordinarily I'd ride out there 10 - 12 times in a season because some of the best riding in VA is near there as well as a county "with more breweries than stoplights".  One is particularly good and 7 miles from the BRP. http://www.dbbrewingcompany.com/default.aspx I'm spoiled by English Real Ale, so I'd rate the beer as fair, but the food is excellent. Anyway..., as I don't like getting wet, I only made it out there 4 times last summer.  :'( It did stay dry enough locally, so I mainly did lunch rides on my favorite loops. Did get boring eventually although many would kill for those roads too.

In the late 80's and early 90's I did three end-to-end BRP rides from NJ with a large son on the back of a K-RT and later K-RS. The bike had full bags and trunk for those trips and we needed every sq. in. for mixed gear and a week of clothes for two. Those were late June due to scheduling and never got wet, although there was a dense fog bank on one morning. Always wanted to do it mid-May but never managed. That's when the mountainsides are in full bloom and just stunning. We used hotels though and based in Asheville from which lots of good roads are possible. My favorite part of the BRP is Asheville to Boone.

You'd do best to watch the long range forecasts online which we never had in those days. The BRP is 45 MPH. You can ride faster, but not a lot, and the Rangers issue a Federal ticket for stupidity. The Winnebagos can be tricky to pass sometimes and long stretches have no passing zones, so keep your eyes peeled! 

There are GREAT mountain roads west of Staunton, VA into W. VA. IMO the Skyline is a yawn, 35 MPH and heavily policed by locals who'll cut you ZERO slack as opposed to the Rangers of the NPS. Suggest you take in those fast, lightly travelled W. VA mountain roads back to the Midwest.

[ChrisK]

Great advice, thank you.

I had never heard that about Skyline, good to know. I was actually thinking it might be better to spend our time touring around on Cherohalla and some of the loops down south instead of going all the way up Skyline.

Thanks for the brewery suggestion too! 

Actually just got an update from one of my buddies who has set dates he has off work: May 23-29, June 27- July 3rd, August 1-7, or September 5-11. So it will have to be one of those weeks.

[Curmudgeon]

Cherohala didn't exist or I might have tried that. The Dragon is no big deal to me as I hate crowds.  If you came from the west, I suppose you could work your way over to the the BRP from Cherohala. Have lunch at the Pisgah Inn on the BRP if you can. No personal knowledge but people RAVE about those mountains roads west of Staunton, VA into W. VA. If you post on CAM and give it a few days, people there know those roads and can fill you in. They take long day and weekend rides out there from NoVA.

[Curmudgeon]

Ohhh... Did you say "brewery"?  That "bump" in the distance is on the BRP @ ~ 3,500'.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/d/275075-1/DB-Brewery.jpg

http://gallery.leica-users.org/d/291755-1/DB-Brewery-T-100.jpg

http://gallery.leica-users.org/d/314003-1/Friday-Ride-1.jpg

[El Matador]

Here's an  of when i did it. Tons of fun!

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=26965.0

ride safe!

[the_Journeyman]

The Cherohala is a really nice ride.  I've done a couple day rides that included it.  It does have a couple sneaky turns that have caused some really serious accidents.  It's very easy to get from the BRP to the Gap/Cheroahala area on some nice scenery.  

One way is cutting through the Great Smoky Mountains park and across the Foothills Parkway over to Lake Chilhowee and turn south on US129.  That allows you to take in the Gap, then continue on south to the Cherohala.  There is a BnB just before you get to the Cherohala if you don't mind riding on gravel and some campgrounds in the area around the lake there.

This other way is faster, but less interesting.  You cut through Cherokee & Bryson city, but on a 4-lane Lake Fontana and then pick up NC28 toward the Gap & Cherohala.  This gives you two options.  You can stay on NC28 and ride "The Hellbender." and pass another place to say, Fontana Village, and on the the southern end of the Gap right at the Motorcycle Resort.  You also pass a motorcycle specific campground on NC28.  If you don't want to ride the Hellbender & Gap, you can grab NC143 into Robbinsville and get to the Cherohala from there.  The Cherohala is NC143 and turns into TN165.

The food is good at the Pisgah Inn, and uses mostly local food.  The view from the dining room is very nice.  There is also a campground right there too if that coincides with a stopping point.  It's a very nice ride from the southern end of the BRP to the Pisgah Inn.  There are also some 'fun' roads that intersect the BRP in that area that are a blast if you're wanting throw in some technical stuff.

JM

[ChrisK]

Here's an  of when i did it. Tons of fun!

http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=26965.0

ride safe!

Awesome, very cool reason to make the trip!

[ChrisK]

Thanks for the advice Journeyman, good notes to keep stashed away.

[Mike_D]

No personal knowledge but people RAVE about those mountains roads west of Staunton, VA into W. VA.

Chris,
   As Curmudgeon said, Skyline Drive is nice, but slow and loaded with  .  A better ride, in my opinion, is taking 33W out of Harrisonburg, VA to 219S at Elkins, WV.  Ride south on 219 for about 25 miles until it meets 250E back to Staunton, VA.  I rode part of that loop this past fall--traffic was light and saw only one  (who had me dead to rights but did not turn around to come after me...whew!).  Even in the summer, if you can hit that area during the week instead of the weekend you should have no trouble with traffic.  Let me know when you are going to be there this summer and I'll try to ride out to meet you if you are interested.  Sounds like a fun trip you are planning.

Here's a couple of pics from that ride.
http://www.ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=65402.0