Southeast BF Spring Ride - May 17/18
 

Alrighty people - for those who have not had the great pleasure of riding your bike on the BRP (Blue Ridge Parkway) or experienced the awesome leg burning pain of mountain riding - here is your chance!!

There will be a Southeast BF Spring ride in May on the 17th & 18th. The plan is for all participating in the ride to stay at the Pisgah Inn or at the campground located across the street. Information about the campground can be found at this link. Reservations at the Pisgah Inn should be made for the 16th & 17th.

The proposed route for Saturday will be the Pigeon Loop and will begin at the Pisgah Inn. Food & drink can be had here as well. For Sunday, we will ride on the BRP up to Richland Balsam (out & back type of route). More information about these routes can be obtained from BikeWNC.

So, mark your calendars, make your reservations, and start preparing for some awesome mountain riding! I plan to be there, as I would not pass up a chance to ride up there at any time:).

WP.

*Edit* Attendee List

Rider: Saturday Ride, Sunday Ride
wolfpack:Yes, Yes
BikeWNC: Yes, Yes
rnhood: Yes, Yes
roadrider: Yes, Yes
cnickgo: Yes, Yes
Porter20: No, Yes
Derby: Yes, Yes
Velo Vol: Yes, No
soarallover: Yes, Yes
rm -rf: Yes, Yes

Sounds like fun for an overweight flatland rider like me. Count me in as a maybe, as the 18th is my daughter's birthday.

Hey, WP! Thanks for taking the TT schedule into account, or at least gettin' very lucky with the scheduling! :beer:

By May, I should be good for one of the two days. Things here are approaching some resolution. Finally. :)

Hey VV -

You can thank BWNC for the dates...tho if you look at my blog and the tenative rides I have planned for the year, it does fall right between TT's...I'll try to make some of them, but prolly not all of them.

Do hope you can make it up there...it won't be that hard. :D

:eek:


Um. Yeah. :rolleyes: :o






















:D

While it is snowing here today I have a few minutes to add more info about the rides. The Sat. ride will start at the Pisgah Inn at milepost 408 on the BRP. If you are planning to ride both days this is the place to stay. As mentioned, there is a campground nearby too. The restaurant serves breakfast and dinner and is quite good. There is also a campstore for the usual snacks and drinks. This trip is family friendly for those with non-riding spouses or kids. There is plenty to do in the good ole outdoors in the area. Hiking is obviously the first choice but fishing and photography are also great. Asheville is not far away for a day trip to the Biltmore Estate or the Western NC Nature Center (small, nice zoo). If the weather is very warm a short drive to Sliding Rock might excite the kids. The Cradle of Forestry Discovery Center is also close by.

The Sat. ride will be on the Pigeon Loop. This is a 51 mile loop beginning at the Pisgah Inn heading down US 276 to Bethel then back up to the BRP on NC 215. Once on the BRP the route returns to the Pisgah Inn. There is about 4400' of climbing on the ride, most in the 4-6% range. There are a couple of sections with steeper grades but they are not too long.

The Sun. ride will start at Graveyard Fields at mp 418.8. From there we will ride South (BRP South) to the high point of the BRP at Richland Balsam. Water is available from a good spring just down the hill. We will return back to the car by retracing the ride out. Total ride will be around 30 miles and about 3000' of climbing all on the BRP.

I'll add more info as I think of it.

Thanks for the info, BWNC! :)

Need to look at the map and see where all this is

Check out the map for the Saturday ride, fsm. Then you'll know. :)

Looks like a great route! Does this Routeslip stuff export garmin files??

You could lay it into mapitpronto and get a .crs file.

Hey Bikewnc no 14% grades this time? Even though I'll have a compact by then. Lesson learned don't ever
ride in the mountains with Bikewnc with a 39 26 as your smallest gear! Any one that hasn't ridden on
one of Bikewnc rides is in for a great time. I highly recommend it. Cullowhee mt. ride was one of the
hardest rides I have ever ridden (being a flatlander) but at the same time one of the best I have done in
a long time. Can't wait till May.

Heh. I hope there's no 14% grades, but if there are, well so be it cause I'll be a climbing them!

I'm glad you'll be able to come back in May for this ride...it should be really fun!

Hey, glad to be of service! No, the main climb up NC 215 has a couple pitches that may have transient sections at 10%. The last couple hundred yards before reentering the BRP are some of the steepest but no, nothing like Cullowhee Mtn Rd.

It has been called to my attention the rates for the Pisgah Inn on the website are quite high. It has been my experience that if you call them they are about half of what the website says. I hope that is still the case.

Rates at Pisgah Inn are $93 for standard room and $103 for deluxe room. (my bad, chose 2 nights and got $186/$206 and thought that was per night, duh!). The deluxe room has a refrigerator & coffee maker.

I'm an interested maybe. I'm a sorta flatlander (especially compared to some of you) that is a real hill slug (ok, a slug in general). How long are the grades? I can power up hills but mountains are another story!

Heh. Guess I lucked out and caught him when he was in a softy mood. ;)

Just think of them as long hills. I think BikeWNC is trying to scare people with his 10%. I did the ride last spring and it's not bad at all. If you are in decent riding shape you can handle it.

Hehe, not trying to scare anyone at all. I do think the last pitch just before the BRP is near 10% though. Luckily it is short. Most of the climb is between 4-6%. Parkway pitches usually max out around 7%.

OK people. Look, I am a true flatlander, coming from Clayton, NC. On a 40-50mi ride around here, I might and I mean might, have 1000-1200' elevation change. And, I'm being very generous with those numbers.

I just came home from riding up there with Jschen, BWNC, and roadrider. Yes, the Ring of Fire loop (Cullowhee Mtn Rd, Pine Crk, & Elijay) was very hard to ride for me. But, I managed with a 34/27. Yes, I had to stop some and rest. Yes, I was the last one on every climb. This last ride was a social ride, as were all the others. No one is here to race or see who can get to the top first. It surely won't be me:rolleyes:. If it's your first time riding in the mountains, you get some pats on the back and high fives when you reach the top because this is a great accomplishment, at least it was for me. And, don't forget - the downhill descents way more than make up for the climbing!!!! 52.8mph max downhill speed for me on this last journey!!! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee:)

Being a social ride, there is no real "racing" on the ride, but, if I have the strength/energy, I will try to go for the county line signs, city limit signs, etc, or try to beat BWNC up the very short and not too steep grades on Burningtown:D. I know that I most likely won't win, but hey, it's all in fun:).

Seriously, don't let the elevation profile scare you away. Yea, it looks rough and hard, but in all seriousness, if I, a true flatlander, can go up there not once but five times and ride, it can't be all that difficult. (Yes it can, but it's completely do-able:)). I must be a glutton for punishment as I'm doing this ride, and have plans for 3 or 4 other events up there this year.

So, go ahead and make your reservations for a night or two at the Pisgah Inn and come on up and enjoy riding in the WNC mountains and on the BRP. I already have my room reserved:).

WP.

Here's the ride reports from last May. Photos are in this web album.

The big climb is 2700 feet, but we did a lot of stops last year. There's only one short section where I needed to stand. The rest of the climb is just a matter of pacing. This is 9 times as high as my local 300 foot climbs, and I made it OK.

Here's a route map. Edit--If you have a fast internet connection, click the "View this route in 3-D (Google Earth)" link. The satellite data has been upgraded recently; the Pisgah Inn buildings now are visible, before, it was all a blur. You can get Google Earth at earth.google.com The ride is shown in yellow on the view. You can get a cool 3-D view by pressing the mouse wheel like a button and dragging the mouse downward to tilt the view.

I had a great breakfast at the Pisgah Inn. The whole wall is glass with a great view. It's affordable, too.

OMG... I may be heading to the east coast that weekend for other reasons! I would love to ride BRP again. I may manage to swing by for the SEBF spring ride. :D

you must make a special stop in for the ride on Saturday then. I'm trying to figure out how to get out west or somewhere now too:). i've got traveling on the brain.

I'm more likely to be able to make it for Sunday (gotta be in NYC on Tuesday) but may conceivably make it out there for both days. We'll see.