The last block of sunshine and blue sky days had me frustrated working on the bikes front brakes.
Then a little winter came early with sub zero nights and cold, grey, windy days.
This week Wednesday was to be the day with a promise of 60F and clear blue skies.
A quick ride to the UPS store to return an Amazon crap space heater. Here's a photo of the UPS store
And the temperature.
Then a short ride on the 4 lane to the nearest Blue Ridge Parkway entrance.
I'd checked the Parkway web site to check which sections were Closed/Open. However the web site isn't always up to date so I was very pleased to see the barriers pushed back allowing access.
I turned south headed to the highest point.
As the elevation increased so the frequency of damp, black patches of shaded road in turn increased. Some of the BRP gets no sun all year and in the colder months there's always a threat of patches of ice formed by water run off from the road side rockfaces.
I'd forgotten about Pinnacle Ridge Tunnel which is one of the longest tunnels on the BRP. A long 860ft curve. If you look at the street view on Google Earth and the entrance / exit to the tunnel you can see the patch of water that's always there. I knew that the water was going to be frozen so I slowed down and kept as far left as i could and slowed way down making sure to keep a very steady throttle and speed.
Phew. Back into sunlight. There are more and more damp patches and some have areas of frost/ice but I can get by them.
Realizing that the BRP ahead of me had many more sections of shaded road I reversed course and tiptired back through Pinnacle Ridge tunnel.
Now I'm headed towards the Maggie Valley BRP entrance.
The view from Waterrock Knob.
The parking lot was busy with Thanksgiving holiday visitors and one small group caught my eyes.
A family gathering of native Americans had set up a chair for Grandfather so he had the sun slightly at an angle in his face and he was surrounded by his grandchildren. The clear blue sky and mountain peaks made a beautiful background.
South of Waterrock Knob there's more ice on the exposed rock faces and more damp black patches of road.
I saw a long section of ice wall and pulled into the overlook opposite.
Getting back on my bike I then noticed that the road next to the ice wall was covered in a fine sheen of ice. Something I hadn't noticed because I was too busy looking at the ice wall. If I hadn't pulled into the overlook I shudder to think of what may have happened.
There's a clear section of road at the overlook exit so I'm able to safely get on my way.
My next destination is the Mile High Overlook. I'm not going to go further past the turn to the Overlook.
There are 5 more tunnels and I've had enough tunnel fun today.
It turns out I would have had no choice about the tunnels.
Mile High Overlook
Then home and a ride of 60 miles.
Once again it's the quality not the quantity of miles ridden.
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