Ride Report - The Blue Ridge Parkway

Rotten_Ronnie

Rotten_Ronnie

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This is my 5th time down to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, and the route I plotted for Day 1 was highly entertaining, although it didn't really shine until we'd crossed over into Pennsylvania and hit Wykoff Run as suggesated by Omnivore.

I'm on the Bandit and it's handling well on the roads fitted with Metzler Sport touring rubber.

Anyhow, the sun is coming up and it will soon be time to scarf down breakfast, load the bikes and head deeper south towards Roanoke Virginia for tonights motel.

I'll have pictures and more to post later on this week.

Cheers from Hagerstown MD!

Hey Beastiegirl! Wazzup! See Hyner view State park. :P
 
I did the Parkway last summer and loved every minute of it. I also took a ride up to Monticello and enjoyed the historicity of it all. I highly recommend.
Rotten_Ronnie said:
This is my 5th time down to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, and the route I plotted for Day 1 was highly entertaining, although it didn't really shine until we'd crossed over into Pennsylvania and hit Wykoff Run as suggesated by Omnivore.

I'm on the Bandit and it's handling well on the roads fitted with Metzler Sport touring rubber.

Anyhow, the sun is coming up and it will soon be time to scarf down breakfast, load the bikes and head deeper south towards Roanoke Virginia for tonights motel.

I'll have pictures and more to post later on this week.

Cheers from Hagerstown MD!

Hey Beastiegirl! Wazzup! See Hyner view State park. :P
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Did the stretch from Roanoke to Ashville today, not as nice as the northern parts but still plenty fun.

Hello, from Bryson City, NC
 
regder said:
Did the stretch from Roanoke to Ashville today, not as nice as the northern parts but still plenty fun.

Hello, from Bryson City, NC
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Everyone I saw headed south with luggage made me green with envy. :)

We made Roanoke yesterday without incident, although one rider got clipped with a ten inch rock on the interstate, came bouncing out from underneath a tractor trailer and hit his front wheel, and when he applied his front brakes a minute later there was nothing there until he pumped the lever.

Yet another rider clipped a deer on the blue ridge parkway.

311 west virginia was a hoot, and so was US 3 towards Beckley, but the corners were a bit dirty with gravel.

Later on I ran US 72 which turned out to be a rural lane and a half along the ridge and along the river. I got my best pictures there.

Tomorrow is Pennsylvania and NYS, then Onterrible.

I can't decide if I should cross in Erie or Lewiston.

I hope you guys are having as much fun as I am.

Cheers!
 
no i am not. ride safe. sounds like you're having a blast.
 
Rotten_Ronnie said:
Hey Beastiegirl! Wazzup! See Hyner view State park. :P
Click to expand...
Sorry to read about your friends' incidents - glad trip wasn't ruined and more importantly nobody got hurt.
I came back last night (Sunday) via Lewiston - about 7:00 p.m. Nightmare and will be worse today. To add insult to injury they opened 4 new stations to the right and those of us stuck in long line gots to watch as newcomers got flagged over to the empty stations.

Didn't get to Hyner this time - cuz 120 rocks and 144 rocks moreso - one run to get the lay of the land then a run just for fun pretty well took up my time! Wheeeha - and only a few hours away!
 
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BeastieGirl said:
Sorry to read about your friends' incidents - glad trip wasn't ruined and more importantly nobody got hurt.
I came back last night (Sunday) via Lewiston - about 7:00 p.m. Nightmare and will be worse today. To add insult to injury they opened 4 new stations to the right and those of us stuck in long line gots to watch as newcomers got flagged over to the empty stations.

Didn't get to Hyner this time - cuz 120 rocks and 144 rocks moreso - one run to get the lay of the land then a run just for fun pretty well took up my time! Wheeeha - and only a few hours away!
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I'm glad you had fun, those are two of my favourite roads. I was on 120 for a short stretch on Friday. My border crossing today at the Fort Erie Peace Bridge was the shortest wait in my life. There were four cars ahead of me in Fort Erie at about 1430 this afternoon. Go figure! We almost beat Mr. "Nexus" Wobbly. :D



Does this link work for you guys? It's supposed to be a google map showing the photo locations...
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/albumMap?uname=112330859327156980481&aid=5745123939809823985#map
 
Day 1: I begged Wobbly to leave early Friday morning as I wanted us to get across the city before rush hour and get us over the border before the rest of sleepy Toronto caught up with us. We left at 0630 and made good time to the border, where the line up was light and we were through and on the I-90 in 15 minutes.

It seems appropriate that the group we ride with sets the meeting spot as the Springville NY Tim Hortons, so rather than get yelled at by angry border guards trying to reassemble your group through customs, or waiting on the side of the highway on ramp, we split up at the border and meet up at the Timmies before heading further south...

Here's Chiller and the gf pulling in...
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We parted company with them and headed further south off of 219 and towards the Allegany State Park where I had made the mistake of plotting the route directly through the heart of it. Imagine my surprise when the posted speed dropped from a nice 35mph to 25mph! We crawled through a long stretch, and in retrospect both agreed that while the park was beautiful, we'd skirt it in future. That being said, the route off of 219 went no where near a truck route or Olean or Ellicotville, both traffic traps IMHO, so while we lost a bit of time, we more than made up for it through the day.

The next bit on the list was to head over onto 120 Renovo Road and find out why Omnivore likes Wykoff run so much. It's Southwood road without the frost heaves and sand in the corners. I had deer fear and blind corner fear holding me back, but I did manage to get this:

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US 22 wasn't really anything to write home about, it was relatively truck free as Garmin tends to route them on the major roads, but the last stretch, State Route 1005 off of US 522 through the Buchanon State forest was a twisty fun little route that woke us both up and had us forgetting about the sore spots we'd developed while sitting for so long.

We pulled into our motel in Hagerstown to find that someone had beaten us there. Oh well, it turned out that they'd stayed mainly on the super slab, so we clearly won having worn our chicken strips away to a fine line. :D

That's all for now folks. The blog is under construction, but the pictures are all up...
http://rottenxxxronnie.blogspot.ca/2012/05/2012-queen-vickys-ride-or.html

I'll leave you with my favourite photo from Day 1:

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Google Map links:
Day 1 ​
http://g.co/maps/y8f7h
Day 2 ​
http://g.co/maps/96arp
Day 3 ​
http://g.co/maps/vpahd
 
Day 2 saw us waking up to beautiful weather, and I got an early start along with Wobbly Cat as we had showered and packed up as much as possible and fueled the bikes the evening before.

After a quick breakfast, we hit I-81 south out of Hagerstown for about 75 miles, playing tag with some transport trucks and cages. There's considerably more truck traffic in the States than we see here in Canada, although along the 401 there may be a tie. I was going to overtake one as we went through a construction zone with lane shifting, but he had a load of hay on board that was flying off in bits, I hesitated, and then watched him as he left his lane into mine. I had sort of expected it to be honest, so stayed where I was...
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I found out later on at a rest stop that Wobbly Cat had hit a bouncing rock that had been spat out from under the tires of a truck. He described it at being 10 inches round, and it had hit his front tire, feeling the impact through the clip ons, but doing 65mph leaves no time to stop and pull over when the lanes are reduced and barriers line the sides. When I rolled off and hit my brakes to avoid the hay wagon, Wobbly applied front brake to find that there was nothing there, and elected to swerve to avoid hitting me. Frantically pumping on the lever brought the brakes back, and he was able to bring it under control.

Shortly afterwards we left the highway to inspect his brakes, to find that there was no damage whatsoever, so he assumed that it must have spread his calipre somehow, and he had to pump the lever to close them up again. Yeah, it was a bit more drama than I was hoping for, but thankfully one of the few "Oh Sh_t!!!" moments on the trip.

There are loads of cruisers down there, we passed these guys once, then they passed us back and held a decent speed, so I dropped in behind with a decent space cushion and tagged along while they were headed in our direction.
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I was wide awake by the time we pulled off the highway in New Market Virginia, and we headed US211 East towards skyline drive...


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It winds it's way towards that first ridge, and goes from 55mph down to 35mph into the first corner as it crests the first ridge, leading to a rapid descent into the valley below then up the next ridge where it's intersected by Skyline Drive, and the entrance to the park itself. They charge motorcycles $10 dollars for a seven day pass to the park...
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With Wobbly Cat leading, we headed south along Skyline drive with over 200 miles of twisty, winding roads that run along the ridge. The views to either side were stunning. You simply never get bored of the scenery, and as this was my fifth trip down the parkway, I'll have to apologize and tell you that I didn't stop for many photos as I've quite a collection of them from various look out points.

We stopped in Madison Virginia at the Pig & Steak where we met up with the rest of the group. I'm made a mistake with my route, and headed about 70 miles further south past the turn off, so Wobs and I had to double back to meet up with the others who were just finishing their lunch when we pulled in, so we ordered take away, and sat outside eating our pulled pork sandwiches in the beautiful sun while surrounded by bikes. It's a popular lunch spot, so you need to be prepared to sit and relax while they get your order together. There's a McDonald's just at the corner, so you have the option of grabbing a McD's while you gas up, but then you'll never know the taste of their coleslaw, and just how hot the BBQ sauce is. I've had better, but that was further south in North Carolina at the 105 Diner in Boone.
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Wobbly and I thought to overtake them later on, so I plotted "shortest route" to get us back up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, but Garmin decided that meant via gravel roads, and neither of us was in the mood for heading off into twisty, winding, hill climbing gravel leading to a hiking path, so we snapped some pictures and booted it back out to the main road.

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then onto US 33 to get back up to the Blue Ridge where the group had stopped for a photo opportunity in front of the sign.
 
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