Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway - Tour 2

Saturday, July 4th    Day 0 of Tour Two    We start tomorrow

Our group of 10 are in Front Royal, VA (about 60 miles due west of Washington, D.C.) to begin our seven-day tour. The photo shows Chuck checking our six bikes in his truck this morning in Cincinnati.

Skyline Drive and then the Blue Ridge Parkway are a continuous road heading generally south for about 610 miles ending in North Carolina, almost in the Great Smokey Mtns. The interesting part is that there is about 65,000 feet of elevation gain. The road is never flat -- you're either climbing or descending the entire way.

Eight of us drove in two vehicles from Cincinnati, leaving at 8 am this morning. The other two riders were already here. One had just arrived here by bike, riding the entire tour in the opposite direction. Now he will turn around and do it again, but this time he won't have to carry all of his gear. He rode here UNsupported, carrying about 70 lbs of stuff. Now he will let the two vehicles carry all of his things.

Tomorrow's ride will be the entire 105-mile length of Skyline Drive, through the Shenandoah National Park, and ending in Waynesboro. We will climb almost 11,000 feet. The weather looks like it will be pretty good. (Then on Monday we begin the Blue Ridge Parkway.)

We have three riders from the Cincinnati area - Chuck, Bryan, and me. Chuck's wife Suzette will be one of the vehicle drivers (a support van, or "SAG" van). We have three riders from the East Bay area of San Francisco Bay - Jeff, Mark, and Terry. Terry's wife Carol will be the other SAG driver. Alvin and Jill are from Washington, NC.

 Here we were this morning all ready to close up and roll off on our all-day drive to Virginia.

This tour will be a reunion for me, since I rode the Blue Ridge Parkway in Sept, 2008. As most of you know, that ride confirmed my triumphant recovery from my broken neck, as described in my book, Head Over Wheels. I am looking forward to riding it again and remembering the emotions I felt when I realized so many years ago that I had successfully "beaten" my near-death accident.

I have ridden only a small portion of Skyline Drive, however, so most of it will be a new experience for me.

Here we are getting final instructions for tomorrow morning's schedule. It's not a good picture, so I will get better ones tomorrow so you can see my nine friends up closer. Left to right: Terry, Jeff, Mark, Chuck, Jill, Suzette, Carol.