Blue Ridge Roadies

Saturday, I took Little Miss Sunshine and we headed to the mountains. Instead of taking our mountain bikes, we decided some roadie action was in order. While I don’t really care much for the road bike, it can be fun when there is beautiful scenery. The plan was to ride from Moses Cone Memorial Park to Linville Falls. You might remember that I did this same ride last year with the Dirty Party Cycle and Mr. Shepherd, but this would be Little Miss Sunshine’s first crack at it.



We got there around lunchtime, ready to ride. I warned her that there would be lots of climbing at first, but I also told her we could stop whenever we wanted. It wasn’t a time trial or anything, and we could take all day if we needed to. We headed south on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the little lady was excited.



We rode a small downhill section for a bit, and found a little reservoir that turned out to be a prime picture-taking spot. Too bad I stood there looking like an asshole, instead of enjoying the view.



After that little break, we climbed. According to my little GPS app on my phone, it was around two and a half miles of climbing, with almost 1000 feet of elevation gain. It was tough, but Little Miss Sunshine got through it.



We would occasionally stop at some of the overlooks, and ask random people to take our photo.



Our next goal was Grandfather Mountain, which we could see in the distance.



After a little more climbing, it was right there in plain view.



We stopped again for another picture taking opportunity, and got a good look at the Linn Cove Viaduct. Little Miss Sunshine took a seat as we talked about the rest of our ride.



Just as I was trying to setup the camera on the wall to take our photo (using the timer function), a couple of roadies heading the other way stopped and offered to take our photo.



Next up was the viaduct, which is basically a bridge on the side of Grandfather Mountain. The view are incredible, so we made sure to get lots of photos.





After crossing the viaduct, it was all downhill. I looked down and saw that I was going 44 miles per hour, and I tried my best to double that speed so I could catch Doc Brown and get back to 1985. That didn’t happen, we we did find another overlook with a view of the mountain again.



We didn’t have very far to go, but there was still neat stuff to see. Little Miss Sunshine grabbed the camera and got a photo of me going under a cool little bridge.



It wasn’t long before we took a turn off of the Parkway and headed towards the Linville Falls Visitor Center. With only a little more than a mile to go, we were almost done.



Little Miss Sunshine wasn’t too tired, and she was still enjoying the ride (and being in the mountains.)



Road riding is usually a pain for me, and I hardly enjoy it. However, when you get to ride in the Blue Ridge Mountains and see such beautiful sights, it kinda makes up for the monotony of riding on skinny tires. You may be like me and not really care for road riding, but this ride is worth it. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Oh yeah, we had some beer afterwards.



Of course we did.