Saturday, July 8th 2000
Cherokee, NC to Asheville, NC; 87.3 miles, 11,000’ climbing
by Arend-Jan Koning
At 6.00 am a true PAC Tour style breakfast is served in the parking lot of the Best Western in Cherokee with the riders full of anticipation of what lies ahead.
Today will be the first day of the 4 days that we will ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which stretches for about 465 miles from Cherokee to Waynesboro. It not only marks the start of some serious mountainous climbing but also the beginning of beautiful scenery. In contrast to yesterday, traffic will be much less, since no commercial traffic is allowed on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This means that the motel truck will be going along another route straight to the next motel in Asheville, without using the Blue Ridge Parkway. The minivan of Roberta and Bill Fisher will be used instead to serve the second sag stop.
Only after 0.9 miles into the ride, we already start on the Blue Ridge Parkway, with a long ascent lasting 10 miles, getting us from 2,000 to 5,150 feet. It’s superb; stories had been going around that it was going to be beautiful and they turned out to be right. All forests, with many overlooks showing layer after layer of mountains, all in varying shades of haze; it’s the true picture postcard scenery. Since it is a ridge, one time we have a view on the right side, another time on the left side and at times even on both sides. Our bliss is even enhanced by the almost total lack of cars early in the morning; the first 1.5 hours only 3 cars go past. As long as we don’t mind the climbing (we signed up for the Eastern Mountains, remember), we’re having the time of our life. The weather is in our favour as well, with temperatures around 70’s to begin with in the morning.
Before we find our first sag stop, we face another climb from 4,340 to 6,000 feet, making a total of 5,000 feet of climbing. The first six riders miss the first stop because the allocated pull off area is not good enough and the van has to backtrack. The police are checking us out, asking for the permits and asking many questions. On our route sheet the rules are laid out, so everyone knows how to act. Because of the many tunnels on the Parkway and the possible misty conditions, everyone had their lights installed the day before. In many tunnels the headlights didn’t seem to have much effect to see, but at least you were sure you would get seen.
All this beauty went on for miles on end, with much to climb and slightly less to go downhill, but these downhills were of the kind that didn’t require any braking, at times giving us the opportunity to get close to the speed limit of 45 mph.
Lunch was served along the road at 73 miles, after which it was only another 15 miles to the Super-8 motel in Asheville, most of it going downhill.
With 11,000 feet of climbing we had a pretty tough day, but almost everyone thought the ride was absolutely terrific and we are looking forward to some more of the same….