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From: Marion NC / Lake Norman NC / Panama City Fla
I am lucky as Little Switzerland and parts of the BRP can be seen from my back porch. I often ride a loop by entering the BRP at 221 then heading north to Boone or south toward Asheville or Cherokee, then taking back roads to get home. It’s no wonder I have north of 35k miles on my 2022 bike. 😎
As for the OP. My guess is you can make it past Boone and into VA in a day of lolly gagging looking at sites and stopping at the visitors center.
Skyline Drive and the BRP in the fall is my dream ride Love to spend about three weeks chasing the Fall colours
Done this ride a few times and it's one of our favorite rides (east of the Missouri River) but the last time we (the wife and I) attempted it back 10-12 years ago (heading south on the SLD) we got caught in a storm an due to the wind, rain and fog, plus a fresh layer of gravel and deer standing on, and walking across the road it took us FIVE and ONE-HALF hours to get from Front Royal, VA to Waynesboro, VA!
The rain just wouldn't stop so we headed east and took the freeway (in pouring rain) down to Gastonia. NC then the rain FINALLLY stopped!
If you don't have motel reservations it may be a good idea to start looking for lodging earlier in the afternoon (3-4:00PM) during the vacation season
^^^ I have been "fogged in" down there in the middle of the day ... Pretty freaky ^^^
I KNEW that it was time to stop when I found myself inadvertently in one of the "pull-off's" qith my wife saying that she had lost sight of my taillight !
Blue Ridge parkway is a great ride, although there are many great rides in north Ga. I recently rode from. Cleveland Ga to Blue Ridge, all on back roads. Lots of twisties and elevation changes. Great part of the country for riding.
With all the wildfires out west had me thinking about this as back up plan. But was also concerned I am to much of a wuss and was wondering if miserable temps
Everybody gets excited about the Tail of the Dragon, and while its certainly worthwhile, there are dozens of other great routes in the area. Ive been experimenting with a web based app called Route Trippers. Just like snap software, you plug in the starting and ending spots and then tell it what kinds of things youd like to see given a distance from your projected route. Fives miles, ten miles, whatever from your centerline of route. Ive found a ton of cool stuff on my trips using this method. 😁
A nice perk of living in the Raleigh Area the VA section of the parkway is a "short" 3 hour ride north.
I rolled out around 7 AM, and by 10:30 I stopped at Peaks of Otter for a quick picnic lunch.
I eased along the BRP for about 3 hours stopping for a few photos.
There were pockets of deer EVERYWHERE, but I was just cruising/enjoying the day.
I got to Tuggle's Gap, and headed for home.
I COULD have just taken US-58 towards home, but I took more back roads, further distance AND longer time.
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