Tour de Smokies - An Unplanned Adventure
I’ve become enamored with the concept of leaving home on my bike and going far to somewhere I want to explore. My adventurous mindset and minimalist attitude allow me to fully enjoy the places thing things I experience along the way.
This trip I took from my home up through Pisgah to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then down into Waynesville eventually ended in the Great Smokey Mountains and later Hot Springs, NC. Nothing went as planned if plans had been made. I winged this whole trip hoping to get lucky along the way. For the most part, it was amazing in hindsight vision, but at the moment, it was not.
I reached Brevard and started up a gravel climb that then connected me eventually to a road climb and then the Blue Ridge Parkway. On my way up to the parkway, the weather was pleasant, although I did see a motorcyclist crash out on a turn just ahead of me. Once reaching the parkway, I found little traffic, and it was very pleasant until I reached the top of the climb, the highest peak on the Parkway at 6053 feet. Upon reaching the apex of the climb, I had a massive descent down into Waynesville, which turned out to be not nearly as enjoyable as the climb due to torrential rainfall bombarding me all the way down into town, where I later found a small supper and a beer.
After finishing some tacos and a beer, and continued looking for a campsite. Unfortunatly I did not find one and was forced to stealth camp off a rather rough old road I found in the Cataloochee area of the Smokeys. It rained most of the night, and in the morning, I had to continue on in the rain without breakfast for a while. Once I looped back around into familiar territory near Waterville, I learned that my legs were not doing so well, most likely due to the massive day I had put in previously. I took this as a sign and called my wife, letting her know I was bailing in Hot Springs just up the road, and we could enjoy dinner and a brew there before heading home.
The trip was far from perfect, but enjoyable just the same. Sometimes running with an idea works and some times it does not.
