Ride

My Blue Ridge Campground Ride Report

SUMMARY

Glorious dry, sunny and just-right warm weather made for a great weekend in the mountains with many folks covering 500 miles over the weekend.  Lots of BMWs at the campground, including a group from the Alabama BMW club.

FRIDAY

Ian F led Joe B, Jim B, Rudy B and Chuck G from Dahlonega as planned Friday.  Maybe he’ll chip in with some details.

Jonathan S and I started later and rode a different route on mostly secondary roads.  Left Commerce RaceTrac late morning on a northeast track.  First via Toccoa to Mountain Rest, short joggle south, then northeast again on SC107 to the overlook on Wigington Road.  Stopped to view Lake Jocassee and beyond.  Joined US64 at Sapphire Country Store.  Traffic on US64 was light, but roadworks delayed us near Toxaway Falls.  Lunch from the Blue Smoke BBQ food truck at Headwaters Outfitters.  Then turned north on Parkway Road to US276 at Jukebox Junction.  Short detour confirmed that the once favorite Italian restaurant just west of the junction is now closed.  Reversed route back to the junction and onto the campground with a quick stop at Franks Grocery (BP) to top up with gas.  Arrived just after 4:00PM.  Total of 202 miles and 4 hours 20 minutes ride time for me.  Probably similar for Jonathan.

For dinner, a six-man posse rode to Boojum Brewing in Waynesville.  Decent food and beverage, but a 30-minute wait to get seated and then an even longer wait to get our food cast a shadow over the experience.

SATURDAY

Some ideas for rides were shelved due to concerns that the great weather and resurfacing works would combine to make progress along the Blue Ridge Parkway unusually slow.  My choice, along with eight others, was a lazy 116-mile loop of largely twisties to the north that targeted a lunch stop in Marshall.  

Nine started out.  Soon became eight.  Jim B was struggling with the gear shift mechanism on his ‘bike.  It had been damaged the day before.  He returned to camp where wrenching help from the staff provided a fix that would allow him to ride some more and get home on Sunday under his own steam.  The main group waited in Waynesville until it was clear that Jim had a plan which would not leave him stranded.

Group then rode US276 north of Waynesville, cut across on Rabbit Skin Road to NC209 and onto the first planned stop at Ferguson Supply for snacks, refreshments, honey, and a group photograph.  Rudy B left the group here.  The riding dynamics of navigating twisties had aggravated a lower back injury and he sought out a less lively return route to the campground than was the plan for the rest of us.  Zig-zagged northeast along winding roads with lots of elevation changes to Marshall via “The Rattler,” NC63 and Meadow Town Road – new roads for many in the group.  Nice quiet sandwich lunch at Zuma Coffee in Marshall – becoming a club regular.  Quick five-mile diversion along US25 to avoid the bridge works over Ivy Creek on the river road, then southwest at Alexander on Lower Flat Creek Road past Eric Simpson’s daylilies store.  Kept to a general southwest track via Leicester and Newfound to Canton where Joe B peeled off towards the ABC store.  The rest of us carried on south to US276 at Jukebox Junction then back to the campground, many choosing a gas stop at Franks Grocery.  Total ride time of 3 hours 5 minutes.

Dinner for most, including some club members who had ridden-up during the day, was either the trout or chicken that the campground prepared.  Big thanks to Jonathan S as on a successful scouting mission for local beer he also brought back a stack of enchiladas, rice, beans and chips as dinner for him and me.

SUNDAY

Folks trickled home in various groups.   Of those I know about, Ian F left long before I was awake, and Jim B and Rudy B left soon after breakfast on a route that basically reversed the Friday ride.  Paul E, Jonathan S and I headed south to Brevard then southwest on US64 to the Sapphire Country Store.  Somehow Jonathan managed to get us some free breakfast sandwiches from the store, and while we were eating these Joe B and Chuck G joined us.  They’d planned to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Asheville and beyond but alerted by the tire pressure warning system on his bike Chuck had identified that he’d picked up a nail in a tire, so they were cutting their plans short.  All but Paul E had to get back to the Atlanta area, so while we all continued on a fairly main-road track south he turned off as we passed Whitewater Falls to take a less direct route home.  The McDonalds in Toccoa provided a welcome air-conditioned restroom and snack break for the rest of us, after which we continued to head southwest.  Joe and Chuck tacked over to their homes in the Marietta area while Jonathan and I continued to our inside-perimeter homes.  190 miles and 3 hours 55 minutes of riding for me.

Mark
1993 R100R

Thanks for putting that beautiful ride together and leading Mark. Really nice day.

Ian Feinberg

Looking forward to meeting up with folks at the Blue Ridge Motorcycle Campground in Cruso this weekend.

Sharing the attached GPX which is a collection of some of routes that I’ve been contemplating to ride on the Saturday.  While the screenshot map below of the routes is messy it does provide a general outline.  The summary chart should help to unpick some of the details.  There are plenty of other ideas in the Ride Library.

When I first pulled my collection together I thought that I‘d probably ride one of either the Little Switzerland or the Flag Pond/19W routes.  Thinking now that I might opt for a slighter shorter route.  Current favorite being the 154-mile Maggie Valley, Marshall, Leicester route (yellow) or a variation thereof.  This takes in part of The Rattler and the last time I rode this section with the club the ride leader pulled over to help a turtle across the road and made us stop for some mountain honey at Ferguson Supply on Hwy 209….

Happy trails.

Mark
1993 R100R