Messages

1

Routes / Re: Blue Ridge Parkway / Skyline Drive input

« on: May 11, 2013, 07:12:52 am »

Here is a suggestion that took me a few days to figure out. Place the items you will need during the day such as snack food, rain coat, cameras in the panniers on the west side of your trip. The items that you won't be needing in the east side. The majority of the overlooks are facing the east. This way you can roll into an overlook, lean your bike against the railing in the same direction you are traveling and your stuff that you want isn't on the wrong side of the bicycle.

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Routes / Re: Blue Ridge Parkway / Skyline Drive input

« on: May 08, 2013, 01:52:04 pm »

For a south bound traveler who is camping, it appears the last good camping option before entering the difficult stretch going over Craggy Gardens is Bear Den campground at 324.8 (www.bear-den.com). As mentioned above, there is multiple motel, hotel, inn options at Little Switzerland at 334 to stay at.

The problem with staying at Mount Mitchell (355.4) is that it is a five mile climb off of the parkway with a degree of difficulty greater than what the parkway offers. The turn off for Mount Mitchell is 1000 feet below the summit of Mount Mitchell and most of the climbing will be done in the first three miles of the access road. Just depends on where you are in your day before you make this an option, and there is only 12 camping sights here I believe so make sure you have one reserved before you go up there.

Depending on where I was in my trip I wouldn't rule out staying at Mount Mitchell. It's just that I don't know it would be the thing to do to push on beyond Little Switzerland late in the day with 40 or 50 miles already in my legs for the day. It is ten miles from Little Switzerland to where the difficult climbing starts. And from there it is 38 miles to the US 70 intersection in Asheville before you have any options at all other than Mount Mitchell. You will be climbing from the Highway 80 intersection at 344 to Craggy Gardens at 364, that could easily take 4 hours to do.

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Routes / Re: Looking For Route Recommendations

« on: May 05, 2013, 11:26:53 am »

You could ride the C&O Canal Towpath and GAP Trail combination. It is about 325 miles without any automobile shared usage.

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Gear Talk / Re: Rack mounted tail lights

« on: April 07, 2013, 06:12:08 am »

I use the Rack Blinky 5 from Planet Bike. Purchased mine at REI.

http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3018_1.html

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Routes / Re: Connecting to TransAm from Waynesville/Asheville NC area

« on: April 04, 2013, 08:45:28 am »

I would suggest taking the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Doughton Park/ Sparta, NC area where the Parkway intersects with NC Bike Route 4. Follow bicycle route 4 west where it will end at the Va state line near Mouth of Wilson, Va and US 58, it's about 1000 yards from the VA border to the US 58 intersection. Follow US 58 west for about 40 miles and you will be in Damascus, Va. Somewhere before you get to Damascus the Trans Am route will join US 58.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is difficult but a wonderful place to ride. Bike Route 4 maps are available from the NC DOT: http://www.ncdot.gov/travel/mappubs/bikemaps/default.html and the routes are usually signed but signs can be missing.

US 58 is very rural in this area and if you wish you could follow the Virginia Creeper Trail, a rail trail conversion at Green Cove, VA and follow it into Damascus.

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General Discussion / Re: Guide to Poor Woman's Cycling

« on: March 28, 2013, 09:03:33 am »

Being young with no money and wanting to hit the road with your dog, sounds like Svein Tuft all over again to me. He did this very thing and ended up with several national championships and a medal at worlds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/sports/othersports/08cycling.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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Routes / Re: Blue Ridge Parkway / Skyline Drive input

« on: March 26, 2013, 06:18:51 am »

The 2013 schedule released by the National Park Service released March 15th shows that the Otter Creek, Roanoke and Crabtree Meadows campgrounds will be closed for the season. This is a result of the budget sequester cut backs. This will make for some difficulty in planning as the distances between open campgrounds will now be quite long in some cases.

http://www.nps.gov/blri/parknews/blue-ridge-parkway-releases-2013-season-opening-schedule.htm

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Gear Talk / Re: Camping Gas/stove

« on: March 19, 2013, 10:56:35 am »

Stoves are one of those personal choices where everyone has their own solution. Everyone comes at it with their own experience and perspective and no solution is better or worse really than another.

The isobutane/propane canisters are popular in many areas of the US, but are not universally easy to find. You can bring your stove from Europe and if it uses the threaded canisters the canisters you will find here will work just fine with it. The French style Camping Gaz cylinders without a thread are now about impossible to find in the US. If you have a Camping Gaz stove you will have no luck finding those. The canister stoves can come from many manufacturers. The fuel canisters can be found in Wal-Mart stores usually, camping stores and when in very rural areas I can sometimes find them in hunting, fishing bait shop type stores. However, there are many areas of the country where they are hard to find. I like my canister stove for trips of a week or less where I can bring all the fuel with me that I will need.

Therefore, you will find the white gas stoves might be an easier stove to find fuel for here. I prefer the MSR Whisperlite. White Gas is mainly normal gasoline which has not been formulated for using in automobile engines. It is more filtered and generally purer than what you get out of a gasoline pump. It is called by several names in camping stores such as Coleman Fuel, Crown Camping Fuel, and MSR Fuel. It can be sold in 1 gallon cans and in 1 quart bottles or cans. The big stores such as Wal-mart will have the gallon can and sometimes the quart bottle. Camping stores often have the quart bottles or will sell you a quart out of an open gallon can at the store. Often, you can buy a quart off of someone at the campgrounds that has a gallon can with them, they are the people with the big RV rigs.

The MSR stoves come without fuel bottles and need to purchase those in addition to your stove. I like to carry two of the 20 oz fuel bottles. That way I can carry refill with the 1 quart bottles when needed. Airlines are particular about allowing you to carry the fuel bottles. They are cheap enough to abandon at the end of your trip if you need to leave them behind to board the plane.

Since white gas is essentially automobile gasoline you can just fill from any auto gas pump as needed if you have to. The stove will burn dirtier and will require more service, so buy a repair kit with your stove when you buy it. It is not hard to clean it and you will not have to clean it that often anyhow. It is easier to clean the stove a couple of times in your trip than it will be to fool with multi fuel stoves that burn diesel fuel, etc. So I look for fuel in quart bottles either at Wal-Mart, camping stores or hunting fishing stores as I travel or will try to buy it from someone at the campgrounds. Otherwise, I buy a quart at the gas station.

What the fellows in the other posts that will talk about alcohol stoves say is true. That's a popular choice and there is nothing wrong with what they are saying. It comes down to what someone likes. I prefer more cooking power that a white gas stove provides.

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GPS Discussion / Re: best way to get use a Garmin 800 for cc trip

« on: December 31, 2012, 07:21:33 am »

For bicycle touring, I say leave your 800 at home and get either an eTrex 20 or 30 or one of the other handhelds. On tour, I prefer that they operate off of AA batteries which can be purchased anywhere and means you don't have to carry another charger. I usually get three days operation off of a pair of AA. There is a nice handlebar mount for the etrex that sits it on top of the stem, but I find it slips into the map pocket of my handlebar bag just fine.

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GPS Discussion / Re: Topo US 100K loads slow to computer & SD card

« on: December 08, 2012, 04:25:12 am »

My impression of loading maps on a micro SD card for Garmin is, and I will not warrant this to be true but is my impression is that the USB port on the Garmin units is probably USB 1.0 speed. This is probably done to keep cost down or some technical reason. If you put your micro SD card in a card reader like you would use for photo transfers which has a USB 2.0 or 3.0 connection it will go much faster. I loaded the Open Street Maps for my state in about 10 minutes using the card reader.

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Gear Talk / Re: shifters

« on: November 29, 2012, 05:55:11 am »

Why not just use friction shifters on the down tube if you don't want barcons or STI brake shifters.

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General Discussion / Re: New Touring Bike Suggestions

« on: November 03, 2012, 10:55:38 am »

The touring bicycles my wife and I use to have had different size wheels, and it made things more difficult. We each had to have our own tubes and spare tires packed for the trip and could not rely on the others supply.

Tire selection in smaller size frames is usually a matter of fit. My suggestion is choose a bike that fits your wife whether it has 26" or 700C wheels, just make sure that it has the proper fit for her. Then you as the hubby should get a bike with the same size tires. Then when you tour you will only need one size of tube and one size of spare. It makes life easier.

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General Discussion / Re: Camping on the Blue Ridge Parkway (between mile marker 270 and 376.6)

« on: October 10, 2012, 11:07:53 am »

Julian Price and Crabtree Meadows are both on the BRP and are operated by the National Park Service. You will not miss them. Crabtree Meadows has a nice climb to do to get into the campground and it feels worse than it is because it's the last thing you have to do that day.

You may also be interested in Bear Den campground located at 324.8. This campground is a privately operated and nice campground accessible from the parkway, but there is no sign for it since advertising is not allowed on the parkway. This would be about 15 miles before Crabtree Meadows. They would have showers if you would prefer that.

Typically, climbs on the side roads going to the parkway are steeper than anything on the actual parkway. The parkway has long grades more so than steep ones, but they can be very long. You will face a difficult climb after Crabtree Meadows going south over Craggy Gardens.

When you get on the parkway at 270 you will in general be gaining elevation as you travel south until you pass Craggy Gardens. It is then an 18 mile downhill run into Asheville. Milepost 376 is Town Mountain Road and is the best route into downtown Asheville. If you stay on the parkway until MP 382 the parkway crosses US70, there is a grocery store there and several motels to the east within a mile.

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Routes / Re: Outter Banks direction of travel

« on: September 14, 2012, 01:48:20 pm »

I agree that the general consensus is north to south is the better way to ride it. Winds seem to be out of the northeast usually. However, if a weather system blows through it can be a difficult day of riding or a layover day.

If the wind is really difficult, I will hitchhike over the Oregon Inlet bridge rather then be exposed to the wind going across that thing.

Good luck, you will enjoy it.

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General Discussion / Re: Traveling transamerica trail next year, need advice!!!

« on: August 29, 2012, 08:58:05 am »

I would think the departure date is based upon when high school finishes up for the year.