bnettles

{For a nice loop (~17 mi.) from the grove park inn, turn left (old toll rd.) and head uphill. Keep heading up until you get to NC 694 (town mtn. rd.). Turn left and head up to the parkway. Turn left (north) and ride a short ways until you see ox creek rd., turn left there. Short hard steep climb up to elk mtn. scenic hwy., turn left. Descend the nice switchbacks until you T into beaverdam rd. Turn right on it and ride a short ways, take a left on Kimberly ave. Follow it through nice neighborhoods until you see the grove park inn up on your left, several options from there. Have fun!}

Do part of this route backwards; that is, start at the Grove Park, ride through the GP property by the GP golf pro shop, after going through the neighborhood - - -look at google maps - - - get on Kimberly and ride to Beaverdam, turn right onto Beaverdam, then veer left onto Elk Mtn road and start climbing, about 7 miles. At the top, make a right to go down to the BRP and go left to head toward Craggy or go right to head to Town Mtn Road or beyond (Pisgah?). Descending on Elk stinks. The road surface is bad and traffic can be dodgy.

Go to the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club website, which features a great ride library complete with maps and cue sheets.

BikeWNC

Did a ride with Road Bike Guy today starting up on the Blue Ridge Parkway then looping down and back up to the BRP. 51.6 miles, 4500' of climbing and my ride time was just under 3:30. He was a little faster on the climbs than I was, dang extra weight I have. Nice day to ride, sunny to partly sunny mid 60s.

Wheel_Motion

The only other way up to Mt. Mitchell is to go from Montreat's Rainbow Rd. to Old Toll Rd. / Mt. Mitchell road. to BRP. You would need a MTB or beef-e touring bike to do this one..

Road Bike Guy

It was a great three days of riding! The Mt Mitchell ride on Thursday was fantastic. Thanks, BikeWNC, for waiting for me while I took a detour to get to the Pisgah Inn for Friday's ride. I really enjoyed riding with you. You are very fortunate to live where you do. I think that if I lived there all I would do is ride. The climbs are great, and the roads are in good shape.

I am in the process of downloading the power files from the rides and I hope to have a summary of everything on the blog in the next day or so, maybe even tonight if I can keep from watching the Olympics.

merlinextraligh

We missed the memo. Started out Sunday from the Biltmore planning to do Mitchell. By the time we realized it, there wasn't an option to reroute that would get us there. So we did a few repeats up the Picnic area at Craggy Gardens, and went up and down Ox Creek.

Got in 7,000 vertical, and a good work out. (actually steeper climbing than Mitchell) but we were still a little bummed.

wolfpack 

sweet! wish that no bicycle sign was not there!