Boone / Banner Elk area. Suggestions?
 

Greetings,

I'll be up in that area with the family for a ski trip. Since I much prefer biking to skiing, any suggestions on places to ride are appreciated. I will be bringing both road and mtb. I don't mind driving a little ways away to get to an excellent ride location, maybe within 45 mins. or so.

I have looked on Trails.com and mtbikewnc.com, but most of the ones listed there seem much farther west.

What are your best road routes and mtb trails around there?

Thanks.

Climb Beech Mountain. The road from Boone through Valle Crucis<sp> up to Banner Elk is nice. Then once you get to Banner Elk, climb up Beech Mountain Road. You also have the Blue Ridge Parkway (If it is not closed for the winter in that area).

:eek::eek: Not with the winter-sports traffic! That would be horrible.

http://www.mapmyride.com/search?lstR...%2C+nc&x=0&y=0

Anything that takes you around Moses Cone Park and/or meets up with the BRP is great stuff. I think the rides on there are pretty self explanatory as to their difficulty. Tell me which one you pick out and I can probably give some hints as which roads to ride and what not to ride. When are you headed up? Wouldn't mind getting out on the road myself.

Ride the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was up there in December after Christmas and rode it with BikeWNC from the Balsam Gap area. Closed parkway makes for great riding! No traffic to worry about. Of course, I'm from the eastern side of the state and don't know the roadway conditions, but hey, if the road is ok, that's where I'd want to ride!

Great, thanks for the road bike route suggestions. I am leaning towards the idea of the Parkway. Any suggestions on this route (out and back) that would be good to know about:

Link

Thanks,

-Dave

The route goes over the Linn Cove Viaduct. http://www.blueridgeparkway.org/linncove.htm Not really a problem unless you have a fear of heights and watch for the gaps between the road and bridges. If I remember correctly there is one really long climb up to the viaducts. I'll map it later and maybe even get out to ride it today.

ohhh, now that's what i've been wanting to ride - the Viaduct. that would be sooo cool:).

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united...oone/158120599

I'm going to go get on it right now! Just got my new shifter installed. Ill post a report when I get back. Should be getting on some time after 221 if the parkway is open.

I am going to try that. As long as the guardrail is not too low, it should be OK, it's a only a 1/4 mile.

Thanks.

Any mtb suggestions?

Be ready for a solid steady climb... It killed me with the cold damp air. I got to the first viaduct before the cold damp air and lack of gloves (forgot) and shoe covers (don't have) and quickly setting sun turned me around. The descent would have been enjoyable if my hands didn't freeze!

As far as mtb I can't help you there. I don't think I will be in the LBS this weekend but if you want call Boone Bike and Touring or Magic Cycles and get some suggestions.

I make it up that way from time to time to get in some training rides. One thing I've been doing lately is parking at the School beside the park in Valle Crucis. You can do 3 nice loops from there and each one is around 25 miles or so. It let's you use your car as a Sag stop.

The 3 loops I do are George's Gap-head over to Sugar Grove from Valle Crucis and do the last 20 miles of BS&G. The next Loop is up Hwy 194 to Banner Elk and back-you can ride on over and do Beech but I'd really avoid it this time of the year. If you don't get bummed going up you'll not enjoy coming back down with the ski traffic. The third loop I do is to ride from Valle Crucis and do Shull's Mill Road to Hwy 221 to the Parkway and then back to Valle Crucis via Shulls Mill.

Another option is to look on Gaston County Cyclists website for the Blowin Beech cue sheet. It starts in Blowing Rock and uses a lot of the same roads I mentioned above. It's only about 50-55 miles but you feel like you've done quite a bit of climbing over those miles.

Thanks for the road bike suggestions. I found a mtb trail that sounds good. Does anyone have experience and recommendations on this one, it is off NC 1357, Maple Grove Church Rd, it looks like about a 17 mile trail.

Thanks.

I have always wanted to ride around Boone but never had the chance too. In fact, I have never ridden in western NC. Are the Georgia mountains comparable to the NC mountains?