Wednesday 12th September 2012 Bristol – Boone NC – Blue Ridge Parkway – Jackson TN 603 miles

Wednesday 12th September 2012    Bristol – Boone NC – Blue Ridge Parkway – Jackson TN 603 miles

Another great riding day dawned, and so I decided to carry on with the plan, and set out just after 7AM for Boone NC, and then onto the Blue Ridge Parkway to continue southwards. As I set out, the sun rose, a huge red and orange ball. However, with the cold nights, fog soon appeared on my route, especially in the lower elevations. It was quite thick in places, and the scenery was quite spectacular at times, with a view of the fog layers when I was riding above it, but then it became a pain when I descended. Altogether a scenic ride to Boone, and I actually passed from Virginia, into Tennessee, then North Carolina. Once I was on the Parkway, I was above the fog layers, and it started off as yesterday, riding through an avenue of trees. The road surface for the first 30 miles or so was excellent, obviously some serious resurfacing had been done. The views from the ‘outlooks’ was somewhat restricted by the fog, but later on it did rise, creating large cloud banks around the mountains. I thought at first the road was fairly flat, with little twisties, but later on that changed, with some serious curves as we ascended then descended various mountains, eventually topping out at about 6100 feet just past Ridge Junction.  The road was bordered by evergreens at times at the higher elevations. It was then a descent to where I cut off to Ashville, and onto I40 to head west to Knoxville, and Nashville Tennessee. 

Foggy views from the Parkway:

Linn Cove Viaduct:

More views:

For me, the latter part of the Parkway was far more scenic than the northern part, with many bridges and tunnels. It seemed to be more a mountain road, and crossing the Linn Cove Viaduct was cool. The whole area is obviously an outdoor recreation area, with camping, and hiking. Riding it is an experience, although it can become a bit boring from a scenic perspective. Judging by the number of bikes out again to-day, it is obviously very popular, most of the traffic being riders and cyclists. I think the latter is because of the hill challenges. Compared to say the North Cascade Highway, or H101, it is different, mainly deciduous forests. Maybe  I am biased, but the rides in Washington beat it hands down, although if you need practice taking twisties, it is a place to work out the kinks. Overall nearly 600 miles of them.

So onto I40 for a while heading west for a change. Crossing the Smokey Mountains was scenic, I didn’t realize eastern Tennessee was so rugged, but once through them the road becomes just a highway. Passing through Nashville was no problem, the highways are great, and the downtown area looked very modern with some cool looking buildings. As I picked up an hour (no signs on the highway – I saw a clock passing through Nashville), I am now on Central Time, I pushed on to Jackson, about 70 miles from Memphis. I’ll head in tomorrow, and check out Graceland.