2010 Boone Trip - #6 Sunday

Wow, wonderful blue skies this morning, and warmer too.  It was probably the nicest morning of the trip.  Getting home was the main goal of the day but a close second was a good breakfast.  We cooked up eggs, pancakes, and peppered bacon.  It was a relaxing, outdoor breakfast.

Katie's chickens made some nice eggs for us.

Beautiful morning skies.

Sometime around 10:30 we left for home.  It was nice driving and dry until we reached Ohio.  The rest of the way home was on again and off again rain.

Packed for the rest of the drive.

After dropping off Ryan and unloading his stuff I made a fuel stop and looked at the trip display.  964 miles and 20 hours and 40 minutes of driving.  We had spent $140 on gas and $80 on camping.  Prior to leaving we spent about $100 on food.  Who says you have to spend a lot of money to have a lot of fun?

Sweet trip!  Hey Ryan, let’s do it again soon!

Daniel likes his souvenir, a "bike airplane".

Mounted on his bike's handlebars, the propeller spins.

I wonder how it would look on the Litespeed?

2010 Boone Trip - #5 Saturday

Yet again, I woke up inside the tent to hear the familiar smack of rain drops falling on tent nylon.  Back asleep, wake up again…no more rain drops.  Out of the tent we found another wet campground but the rain had stopped and the skies looked okay.  Let’s ride!

 Pre-ride gear hunt.

After a quick breakfast and the usual scrambling around to piece together all the necessary cycling clothes and gear for the ride, we set off for the Parkway again.  Yep, it’s definitely a cool ride to the Parkway from our campground.  Good views of the mountains, a couple good climbs, and plenty of twisting roads, all this with low traffic.

 On the way to the Parkway.

Reaching the parkway we turned north for the first time.  The plan was to ride until content, then turn around and come back.  Once again it turned out to be a beautiful, dry day with lots of views to take in.

 Nice views to the northeast.

On the way out we had a couple long downhill sections and several good climbing sections on the parkway.  We were amused by tracking our elevation with the signs at the pull-offs.  We stopped at one pull-off and asked a lady to take our picture.

 Picture posing on the Parkway.

The ride was a good conclusion to our trip.  It had all the characteristics of riding in the Boone area.  Climbing, descending, twisting roads, mountain views, low traffic, other cyclists to wave at while out riding.  Good times.

 One of the lowest elevations of today's ride.

Back at camp we showered and packed up camp.  Everything fit back into the truck the way it came out and we were on our way north.  At the suggestion of a fellow camper we took a more direct road north, US221.  It might have been more direct but it was not a minute faster, way too many curves for a Dodge truck to lumber through.  It would have been more fun on the SV650.

About four hours after departing Boone we were back in the same campsite we started at four nights ago.  Only this time we were racing to setup camp before rain instead of darkness.  It was pretty much a down pour as we finished setting up the canopy.  After some relaxing in the truck we turned in for the night, eager to cook up a good breakfast tomorrow morning.

 Note to the wise... even if in a hurry, do not stick a half

consumed Gu under your pant leg for storage while riding.

2010 Boone Trip - #4 Friday

The cell phone alarm clock was set for 7:00.  Sometime between the first beams of sun and the sounding of the alarm clock I awoke to the sound of steady rain pelting the tent.  I decided to go back to sleep and figured there would be no riding this morning.  The alarm sounded and my ears confirmed the sound of rain, back to sleep.  About 7:15 I woke up again and heard… silence, no rain.  Ryan and I both clambered out of the tent to find thoroughly wet surroundings but partly blue skies.

It was still drizzling as we ate breakfast, inside the truck.  We drove to the front of the campground to check the radar map with the laptop.  Green blobs were scattered about and it was hard to guess if we would encounter precipitation on the route we planned last night.  With rain jackets and warm clothes we drove to Valle Crucis, the start of the Beech Ball loop.  On the 20 minute drive we had the windshield wipers running more often than not.

Oatmeal and eggs eaten in a truck, watching the rain drizzle.

In Valle Crucis we found the parking lot for their community park, after a missed turn of course.  Donning wool jerseys, tights, and rain jackets we headed west out of Valle Crucis under questionable skies.  It was not raining as we climbed and climbed westward, away from town.

 Just prior to heading out on today's ride.

After what must have been 20 or 30 minutes of climbing we reached the top of a pass and I was way too warm.  Off came a sweaty rain jacket and thankfully it never came back out the rest of the ride.

Ryan starting the climb out of Banner Elk.

Further west we passed through Banner Elk, a nice little town, and began a loop around Beech Mountain.  We gained elevation quickly and ended up on a higher elevation road riding around a shoulder of the mountain.  The views were awesome and the sun lit up the surrounding valleys and mountains.  As we continued along this section of road a dog ran out to join us, and I mean really, he ran out to join us.  For at least half a mile he ran along with us, just to our side.  Finally, as we rounded a corner and met a woman at her mailbox, the dog broke formation and set down in a yard as we pedaled away.  He was good company.

This is not the dog that ran with us, rather this little guy

came out to greet us during a picture stop.  He and Ryan connected.

Looping through Bethel, we made our way back to Valle Crucis.  The skies were beautiful and rain was never a consideration.  Back to the truck, we enjoyed a very lazy post ride lunch on the tail gate.  A can of V8 was our post ride drink the past couple days.  Ryan debated whether he would normally vegetable juice, or was it the setting that made it appealing?

 The bikes, done with their job for today.

Before saying good bye to Valle Crucis we stopped at Mast General Store for a couple souveniers.  A short drive later we were back to camp.  Tonight’s objective was BBQ for dinner.  I called Boone Bike and asked for a recommendation on where to go, and they pointed us to Sledgehammer Charlie’s in Blowing Rock.

It was short drive to Blowing Rock, about eight miles south of Boone.  We ordered up some pulled pork and brisket with smoked corn, seasoned fries, and vegetable skewer.  The food was good but did not match our BBQ experience with 12 Bones in Asheville last trip.  But, there was plenty to eat and we walked away full and satisfied.

Sledgehammer Charlie's - lots to eat.

While in Blowing Rock we made a stop at the “fancy gas station”.  The building had a nice brick exterior and gas pumps out front, not completely unexpected.  But inside was a huge wine display, complete with $189 bottles of Dom Perignon.  We browsed around the store, looking at gourmet snacks and eclectic hot sauces.  I stumbled upon a selection of Uncle Mike’s Beef Jerky, made in Apple Creek, OH, complete with an Amish buggy pictured on the package.  Funny.

As we pulled back into the campground we stopped to pickup the Wi-Fi signal and check the weather.  Once again the forecast included precipitation tomorrow, pretty much the same forecast as today.  We figured there were answered prayers this morning so we will pray for the same tomorrow.

2010 Boone Trip - #3 Thursday

It was a good choice to wear long underwear, fleece pants, heavy socks, a hooded sweatshirt, and a stocking cap to bed.  The overnight low was 41 degrees but I stayed warm thanks to being fully dressed inside my sleeping bag.

Boone camp setup.

Promptly upon crawling out of the tent we lit up the stove to boil water for coffee.  The air was chilly but the skies were blue and sunny.  With the coffee brewing in our coffee presses we redirected the stove’s output to making French toast and pepper bacon.  The homemade bread Katie baked for us transformed into excellent French toast.

No artificial, high fructose corn syrup here.

After breakfast we pulled out the maps and guidebook.  Using a photocopy of the map, we highlighted the route for the Snake Mountain loop.  The start and finish of the ride was a parking area south of Todd, which looked easy enough to find.  Todd is about 10 miles northeast of Boone.

We took our time cleaning up breakfast dishes, filling water bottles and getting dressed for the ride.  Long sleeves and knee warmers were the plan given the temperatures in the mid to upper 50’s.

Havin' fun, but not smiling at the moment.

On the way out of Boone we stopped at the local bike shop Boone Bike & Velo.  It was a very nice shop, selling mostly mid to upper end bikes.  The shop was located just south of the Appalachian State University campus and there seemed to be a good stream of customers while we were there. 

We met Shaw, the owner of the shop, who I had talked to on the phone several months ago about our upcoming trip.  He gave me some good info about weather, camping, and routes when we talked.  Later I discovered one of the routes in the guidebook was credited to Shaw.

Shaw asked about our plans for the day and we said Snake Mountain was on our radar.  He said it was a good day for it, and he said the guidebook author was not exaggerating about the climb, it is steep.

Looking back down the Snake Mountain climb.

After two wrong turns we found the parking area south of Todd.  It was becoming routine for us to require multiple attempts to find places while driving in the Boone area. We ate some lunch and assembled the bikes before setting our sights on Snake Mountain.

Prior to reaching the big climb we warmed up the legs with some switchbacks and climbing on the way to Meat Camp.  Yes, the name of a town along the way is Meat Camp and the actual climb up to the pass near Snake Mountain is on Meat Camp Road.

The climb began innocently enough with a left hand shift to the small chain ring.  I recall a couple long straight-aways at modest grade and then the road steepened.  At one point I thought it was time for another downshift but I was already in my biggest cog.  I remember grinding for a little bit before deciding the rest of the climb would be out of the saddle.  It was steep, that’s for sure.  We reached the top of the pass and turned back around for some pictures of where we had just been.  The view down to the valley from which we had just pedaled was pretty nice.

A nice view to the south.

What goes up must come down and we enjoyed a long downhill with Snake Mountain at our backs.  It was easy to go 40 miles per hour without pedaling.  Eventually the road flattened and we continued the loop around some tall mountains, including one 5000 footer named The Peak. 

Somewhere along the way I saw a sign for Brew Bikes, a custom frame builder I’ve read about on the web.  He offers hands on classes where you can build your own frame.  I had to stop for a picture of his sign.  I have to say it would be pretty neat to take a frame building class and end up with my own, custom built frame.

Brew Bikes, do a Google search.

There were at least a couple more good climbs on the way bike to the start, neither as steep as Snake Mountain but still good climbs that made us work for it.  The roads were really low traffic and we commented on how many drivers waved at us.  For a while it seemed as though every driver of an oncoming car we encountered would wave.

A typical view up the road.

Back at the parking area we ate some food and took our time getting back in the truck.  It was nice to be on a lackadaisical schedule.  On the way back to Boone we blasted the first Creed CD and enjoyed the short drive.

After a couple large pieces of lasagna and salad for dinner we logged into weather.com with the wireless connection at the campground.  The forecast for the next several days was not looking good.  Scattered showers thunderstorms were predicted for each day.  It was disheartening to see the forecast, we drove too far for just a couple rides.  Tomorrow morning the chance of rain was 30% through about lunch time when it increases to 80% or 90% by the afternoon.

With the aid of a lantern and headlamp we marked up a map for a ride tomorrow morning.  We will try to do the Beech Ball loop, the route Shaw contributed to the guide book.  The route starts and ends in Valle Crucis, circumnavigates Beech Mountain, and crosses over Georges Gap.  Some of the climbs on this route were featured in the Tour du Pont in years past.

Our camp at night.

We'll be turning in for the night, praying for good weather tomorrow.

2010 Boone Trip - #2 Wednesday

Opening my eyes to the brightly lit interior of the tent, I heard a wood pecker pounding away.  I unzipped the tent, stepped over Ryan, and was greeted by a sunny morning.  Knowing Ryan had been up early the previous morning I figured he would be sleeping a little longer.

After a trip to the restroom I talked to another guy staying in the campground.  Turns out he is a tree planter working at the coal mine south of the forest.  Along with his crew, he walks the landscape carrying saplings to plant.  He described the work as “almost athletic”, carrying heavy backpacks of trees across steep terrain.

Breakfast before packing back into the truck.

With coffee and cereal consumed we packed up and pulled out of the campground.  The tree planter told me about a short cut to US77 that involved a winding dirt road through the southern end of the state forest.  He was right, it was a shortcut and it was certainly winding as well.

About four hours after leaving the campground we were driving west on 422, following the signs to Boone.  The mountains began to appear on the horizon and we began to talk about the upcoming rides we would do.

 Mountains growing as we approach Boone.

Boone greeted us with road construction and road confusion.  I was surprised at the amount of traffic, maybe it was the tail end of lunch hour.  After a couple wrong turns and scrutinizing my printed Google maps we found Poplar Grove Rd. and twisted our way to the Honeybear Campground.

On our second attempt at a campsite we found a suitable site.  My only complaint about the campground was how closely together the sites were situated.  From one gravel parking pad to the next was a single step away.  Fortunately their were only about four occupied sites in the whole campground, we setup our camp and became the fifth.

The skies were a little overcast and the temperature was in the mid 50’s.  We donned our OCC wool sweaters and knee warmers to head out on a ride.

 Pedaling on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

From the campground to the Blue Ridge Parkway is a 6 to 8 mile ride and there are a couple moderate climbs along the way.  We were good and warmed up by the time we reached the Parkway.  The destination for the ride was the Linn Cove Viaduct to the south.  It’s a prominent concrete bridge on the shoulder of Grandfather Mountain.

Approaching Grandfather Mountain.

Near the entrance to the Parkway we noticed a cyclist stopped alongside the road.  At first I thought he was having mechanical problems but as we rode closer I realized he was just chillin’ for a moment.  I also realized he was wearing a Bissell kit and riding what looked to be a team issue Pinarello race bike.  Eric, as it turns out, is a rider for the Bissell development team and his team has been training in the Boone area for the past five days.  He gave us some good information about the area, including showing us a map purchased from a gas station that is helpful for getting around the area on a bike.

Together with Eric we hopped on the Parkway and began heading south.  After several miles of chatting and riding Eric turned around to continue his ride.  Ryan and I climbed on the Parkway to reach the Viaduct, stopping a couple times along the way to take pictures with the beautiful mountain scenery.  After crossing the Viaduct we turned around and enjoyed some fast downhill riding back to where we entered the parkway.

Ryan sporting OCC colors on the Parkway.
(The Viaduct is in the upper left.)

On the way out to the Parkway, at the top of one of the climbs, I thought I had seen a bike transformed into a lawn ornament.  It was a cruiser style bike with flowers in the basket, only something was different… I think it had polka dots on it.  As we returned back to the campground on the same route I kept my eye out for the bike.  Turns out the bike was at the top of the first climb we had done and it did indeed have polka dots on it.  More specifically, it was a white bike with red polka dots.  It was a Tour de France King of the Mountains motif, appropriately placed at the top of a climb.

 KOM bike, appropriately placed.

Back at the campground we finished setting up our camp and began to think about dinner.  After nice, hot showers we fired up the Coleman stove to heat some white chicken chilli that Ryan’s wife made for us.  It was very good, eaten from a bread bowl.

I talked to Katie on the phone and learned the weather forecast was not looking good at all.  Tomorrow should be good but showers and storms are forecasted for the following days.  Apparently the radar map was showing a large system centered over the country that was due to move our way in another day. 

With the new weather information in mind we looked through the guidebook for a good route to do tomorrow.  We are going to fall asleep thinking about a climb up Snake Mountain and a section described in the guide book as “cry to your mama steep.”

2010 Boone Trip - #1 Tuesday

The truck is riding a couple inches lower.  Last night I packed it full of cycling gear, camping gear and food in preparation for leaving on our trip right after work today.  Everything fit in the truck pretty much as expected.  There’s a place for everything and I hoped everything was in its place.

 Two bikes, camping gear and food all in its place.

About 15:30 I made my exit from work and drove to Ryan’s house.  We added his gear to the truck and headed south.  We were on the road a little before 17:00.  It was a nice day for driving and before long we were crossing into West Virginia.  About 19:00 we stopped for a five dollar footlong dinner before continuing on to Charleston.

Just south of the West Virginia state capital is Kanawha State Forest, it’s a sizable green blob on the map.  We twisted our way through some neighborhoods before reaching the entrance to the state forest and shortly later we found the campground.  It was nearly dark as we setup the tent for the first time of the trip.

 Camping at Kanawha State Forest, WV.

The overnight low was supposed to be 51degrees which sounded like good sleeping bag weather to me.  As I read the Cycling the Blue Ridge High Country guide book in the tent by headlamp I heard two different owls calling out in the darkness.  I wondered if one of them lives in the hollowed out tree adjacent to our campsite?

 The wood peckers are active around here.

Truck Construction

In a little more than a week Ryan and I will be loading the truck up with bikes and camping gear to drive down to Boone, NC for five days of cycling and camping.  Last week I began work on a shelf and storage system for the back of the truck to accomodate all our stuff.  This is where the purchase of the truck cap last fall comes to fruition (LINK).

The goal is to have the bikes travel safely and securely inside the truck bed, with the protection of the truck cap.  It would be easier to simply use my hitch mounted bike rack, but I like the idea of having the bikes inside the vehicle.  The challenge becomes fitting two bikes and all our camping gear in the back end of the truck.  For several months I've been planning a shelf and storage system for this trip.  Today it gets installed.

First, I attached a cleat to the driver's side bed rail with three bolts, and I attached a cleat across the front, floor of the bed with some threaded rod I bent into j-bolts.  These cleats will allow a shelf unit to be secured to the truck.  The shelf unit consists of two shelves between inner and outer sides.  The outer side is notched to fit over the wheel well and snug to the side of the bed.  I skeletonized the sides to save a little bit of weight and provide access to items stored forward on the shelves.

The lowest "shelf" is the bed fo the truck.  The heavy popup canopy, tent, and water jugs will be stored down here.  The first shelf will hold three plastic storage tubs end to end.  These container are for food, cooking equipment, and general camp stuff.  The top shelf will hold sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and perahaps another storage tub.

To the right of the shelf unit two cots will stand up with a 5' plastic table.  These are secured to the shelf unit with a ratchet strap.

The remaining 25", on the passenger side of the bed, will contain the bikes.  At this point it became a puzzle to figure out how to store two bikes in such a narrow space.  I built stands to hold the front wheels independantly of the bikes and I already had some front fork locks built for a previous trip.  In the basement I laid these out on a piece of plywood and attempted to come up with a configuration where both bikes and wheels would fit in the alotted space.  It took a couple tries but I ended up with a workable setup.

The plywood piece was cut to size and I added a bracket to lock the plywood in place once it's slid into the truck.  It turns out there's enough room between the tailgate and end of the plywood for a cooler.

There are more tweaks to be added before the trip but most of the work is done.  We will store our clothes and cycling gear in the extended cab of the truck.  I might try to whip up a shelf for the extended cab, this would be better than just piling stuff back there.

I'm sure there will be more pictures to come later of the system in action.

Now I need to do a brake job to get rid of my warped rotors and an oil change before our trip.  I've been living with a pulsing brake pedal on the short trips around home but I'm sure this would get old on the longer trip.

North Before East

Based on the wind prediction yesterday, Ryan and I planned to ride northwest this morning.  The climb out of Overton on Smithville Western was part of our plan.  We figured it would be a good uphill in preparation for our trip to Boone.

Upon checking the weather this morning I notice the wind direction was not meeting the prediction of the day before.  Instead of coming from the northeast the wind was coming from the east.  I fired up TopoUSA to do a reroute but had to left the Smithville Western climb on our route.

We ended up doing the climb and then riding back south to Angling Road before heading west into Ashland County.  We turned south just before reaching Hayesville and made a loop back home via Shreve Lake.

Headin' south, just west of the county line.

The sun was shining the whole ride and we enjoyed temperatures in the upper 50's.  Just like nearly every ride so far this spring, it was a windy ride.  Oh well, I guess the headwind simulated steeper roads.

In a week and a half Ryan and I will be headed to Boone, NC for five days of riding!  Lots to do between now and then to get ready for the trip.  I'll probably work on the truck bed shelf system tomorrow.

New tubes... oh, and new tires too!

At lunch today I made a trip to the friendly neighborhood bike shop and picked up several tubes, a box of CO2 cartridges and a handful of GUs.  Tonight's project was to install a new pair of tires I received as a Christmas gift a couple years ago. 

Daniel helped me get the job done in the basement, though he seemed more interested in walking off with my tire levers.  Apparently tire levers are the perfect thing to slam dunk in a Little Tikes basketball hoop.  Who would've thought, except an almost two year old.

New treads mounted.

The new tires are the Hutchinson Fusion 2.  They are relatively light weight and I hope to like them as well as the Vittoria Rubino Pro Slicks that I rode for a couple years.

Over the winter I had a pair of inexpensive Performance Forte GT2 Kevlar tires on the Litespeed.  I posted about them here.  My overall thought on these cheapies is pretty negative.  They rode horribly harsh.  I had to run them at 90 to 95 psi to tolerate the ride.  Plus, they were very, very difficult to get on and off my wheels.  But I guess they served the purpose of being a low cost tire I could run on the rollers or take outside on winter rides when the roads were snow free but covered with junk.

Expired tubes?

Well, let's replay my statement from two days ago:

Come to think of it, in my seven years of riding I can only recall three flat tires, including the one today.

And replace it with a new statement for today:
In my past three days of riding I've had two flat tires, including one today.

On the way home from work I was taking my usual short cut through the Boy's Village parking lot when I received a jarring shock from my rear wheel.  I looked back to see what I had hit and really didn't see anything. 

Hmmm... I paid attention to the bike for the next 30 seconds or so as I rolled along but all seemed well.  That is until I went to clip in after stopping at Back Orrville Road while on Geyers Chapel.  Apparently my rear tire had gone flat as I waited for traffic.  I slowly pedaled across Back Orrville Road on the rear rim and found a happy place alongside the road to swap tubes.

After thinking about how I had just made a blog post regarding my minimal experience with flat tires, I had to pause the tube replacement for a picture.

T

Temporary workshop on the SW corner of Back Orrville and Geyers Chapel.

So now I'm wondering if my current batch of tubes has passed their expiration date?  No matter, I'm out of tubes now anyhow and will have to restock!

Wind & Gravel & Wind & Wind

The day started off in the basement very shortly after breakfast.  Yesterday I partially disassembled my bike for a good cleaning and I only partially reassembled it.  I just finished reinstalling the crankset, chain and rear wheel when it was time to leave with KT and Daniel for an Easter egg hunt.

Daniel enjoyed the egg hunt and also enjoyed "eating" chocolate in the backseat of the car on the way home.  One Hershey Kiss can cover a large surface area in the hands of a 20 month old little boy.

Melts in your hands, and around your mouth.

On the way home from the egg hunt we passed a handful of guys making it back to town on the Saturday morning ride with the Parlor group.  Given the forecast for the afternoon it was better to ride in the morning today, it you didn't have the entertainment of watching a bunch of little kids chase around for plastic eggs.

Thirty minutes after arriving home I was out the driveway with the bike on the back of the car, headed for Ryan's house.  The forecast for the day called increasing winds from the south.  By mid afternoon, 25mph wind was expected.  Yikes.  Last night I mapped a route before reading the forecast.  Thankfully the route had us riding south on the way out and a clockwise loop before coming back.  So I got lucky and had made a good route for the wind direction.

On the road and heading south we got our first taste of strong wind gusts.  Before long we had left Wayne County and, appropriately enough, entered Holmes County on a gravel road.  We had been on the same road a couple weeks ago but this time we turned west instead of east.

Quick stop for a picture, shortly after entering Holmes County.

We found some more gravel roads and made our way south of Holmesville.  Just before crossing SR83 to continue west, and after coming down a gravel strewn descent, I started thinking the road was feeling pretty rough all of a sudden.  We stopped at SR83 and reached back to discover my rear tire was holding steady at zero psi.  Ryan and I agreed that in all our miles of riding together neither of us had experienced a flat tire until today.  Come to think of it, in my seven years of riding I can only recall three flat tires, including the one today.

No, it's not someone's driveway.  This gravel, Holmes County

road passed within inches of the shed on the right.

Having crossed over the state route we turned north and here a new fun began.  The wind was really cranked up by now and it was thankfully at our backs.  At one point Ryan yelled out "this is crazy we are going 30 miles per hour on an uphill and hardly pedaling!"  I remember a flat to slightly downhill section were I could just feel myself being pushed along by the wind.  Sometimes a gust would hit us from behind and I'd actually spin out a gear because of the wind's boost.

An unfortunate aspect of the wind was the dust and dirt blowing around.  It stung our legs and my freshly cleaned bike was being peppered with debris.

We met Wayne County on County Line Road and made the legs work as we climbed Harrison Road up and over to Fredericksburg.  I thought my legs were going to crack on the final climb on Harrison but things held together.  From there it was back to Ryan's via the gradual climb on Cutter.

The wind continued to blast well after our ride but now it's calm as can be.  For not having a long ride we enjoyed some remote roads.  Gravel roads always add to the charm of road ride.  As Ryan said, it was an adventurous route.