I love spring. The spirit of rebirth and renewal is just amazing. For me, a lot of that comes when the bike can come off of the winter trainer and get back on the road. My first favorite spring ritual is to lose my socks when the weather is good enough to not need them for warmth. That happened a few weeks ago. Next, is my first trip up to the mountains for a little hill action. That happened last weekend.
I live in North Carolina and just love the Appalachian Mountains, where I grew up. My first big mountain of the year is always up and over Brushy Mountain just south of North Wilkesboro. About 6 miles up and down and then up and down again to get back to the cars to go home. 24 miles of just beautiful spring countryside coupled with another 25 to get to the mountain and back. North Wilkesboro happens to be the home of Meadows Mills, which has made the overwhelming majority of the flour mills in our bakeries. They also teach a master milling class at a local community college that I hope to take this July.
After getting rid of the winter rust in my legs, the next big rite of spring passage for me on the bike is to go ride from Marion, NC to the Blue Ridge Parkway and up to the top of Mount Mitchell, the highest point in North America east of Denver at over 6,000 feet. Truly a blast and scheduled for mid April. It takes me just under 4 hours to get from my car to the peak (26 miles and all steeply uphill) and then just over an hour to come back down. I once hit 62 mph on the steepest part of the descent coming off of the peak. I have since realized I am human and that isn't such a good idea any more...
A few years ago, in honor of my 50th birthday, some friends and I took a tour with Black Bear Adventures called the Blue Ridge Epic. In 5 days we rode the entire parkway from end to end. All 469 miles and close to 50,000 feet of climbing. The most amazing vacation I have ever taken.
The parkway is a real testament to someone's vision to preserve the natural beauty of our country. It is the longest national park
in our system and is frequently only a couple of hundred yards wide. But, it secures the top ridge of one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in America for all time. It also includes one of the greatest feats of high roadway architecture in the world in the Linville Cove Viaduct. The parkway was unfinished for about 50 years while engineers figured out how to, literally, get around Grandfather Mountain while not destroying its beauty. The result is beauty in and of itself.
Black Bear Adventures is owned and operated by Paul Wood, who became a good friend in the process of allowing us to torture ourselves. At the end of each Epic, he gives people that rode the entire 469 miles a special finishers t-shirt. I didn't quite make it
and ended up in the car for about 10% of the week. That has bugged me so this September some of us from that trip are having a mini reunion and joining Paul for some piece of madness called the Epic +. It is the original Epic with the Skyline Drive thrown in for added measure. That takes the week to 6 days, 600 miles and 60,000 feet of climbing. No one ever said I was sane ;-) My finisher's shirt may be the most expensive t-shirt in the history of the world.
Paul has no idea I am writing this but what the heck. If you ever want to take an active cycling vacation, I can't imagine a better group to do it with. First class all the way. All you have to do is show up and ride. He takes care of you in luxurious fashion the rest of the way with a charm and wit that are contagious. And, you don't have to be crazy or in North Carolina. Paul runs tours all over North America and most are not pain fests.
Happy cycling...
