Blue Ridge Trail

[bonehead]

It sounds like a big adventure ride!

[Skinny-J]

Day 5: Wednesday- we woke and hit the continental breakfast at the hotel, this was a nice new treat previously not experienced on this trip with our other cheap motels. We then made our way over to the BRP and started our trip north. Now everyone knows the speed limit on the parkway is 45 but I had “heard” that the Feds were trying to crack down on the speeders and issuing some pretty steep tickets that could only be contested in Federal court. Given that all previous “transgressions” on this trip had gone un-noticed I was determined to TRY and be good and keep things at a reasonable speed. This was the story for most of the morning as we mortored north; mostly running around 55 with only the occasional blurp up to 65 or 70 to pass the one or two or three pokey cars all stacked up behind each other; this was reasonable right? At one point I was half asleep when Sam came flying pass me. WTH, he about scared the crap out of me as my M.O. had bee looking for cars in front of me to pass, not getting passed my self by old guys on 250’s. He then pulled into the next pull off and I followed him in and was told the engine light on his WR was on. Hmmm? It was running o.k., maybe it was an emissions thing with the fuel injection? We scratched our heads some more. Ok, let’s just check the basics and go from there? Was it missing or stalling?; NO. Was it over heating or showing high temps?, NO. Did it have oil?, NO. Did it; wait, it doesn’t have any oil? That might be a problem… Now for anyone who has ridden with Sam you know he is not real “gentle” with his bikes, translated; he is not afraid to run the living sh*t out of them. And his WR250 is no different as it takes a certain willingness to constantly bounce off the rev-limiter in order to make a 250 keep up with 400 and 650 bikes and I suspect the last 5 days, this life style had caused a “little” oil consumption in his bike. Fortunately for Sam I happened to have a quart of oil on my bike and we poured it in and at least got some oil showing back in the site glass (I recall Sam saying the thing only holds like a quart in total so I think she was pretty low). We climbed back aboard and motored on and soon some 150 clicks were showing on the trip meter and it was time to start looking for some gas. Coming up on where Rt 43 crosses the BRP I stopped and suggested we dive down the mountain to Buchannan as I knew there was gas there from previous COG rides; but that was going to be 7 miles off the route, one way. Sam asked what lay ahead of us on the BRP and I told him we were about 15 miles south of Peaks of Otter and Sam said he thought there was gas at the main lodge there. I said I didn’t think so and a quick check in the GPS found nothing as well; therefore, wth, we were off to Peaks of Otter to find gas. Arriving at Peaks of Otter produced my suspected outcome; no gas at the lodge. Now it was my turn to send us on a ghost hunt for gas; I told Sam I thought I remembered a gas station just off of Rt. 130, another 15 miles north up by Otter Creek so we set off to find that one. Back on the BRP we soon crossed the James River and jumped off the Parkway onto Rt 130 and ran up to the top of the hill where I thought there was a gas station. Well technically I was right, there was a gas station there but it was closed and looked like it had been closed for a few years. Fuk; at this point Sam’s low fuel light has been on for the last hour and I am on reserve with my trip meter showing close to 180 miles. We started searching through the GPS for other gas stations and Sam’s found one back in the other direction at Big Island off of Rt 501. For what comes next you have to picture a big capital letter “A”; the right leg is Rt 130, the left leg is RT 501 and the horizontal cross bar is the BRP running north as it crosses both of these roads and with the James river running smack through the middle of both legs as well. We were at the foot of the right hand leg (130) and needed to get to the foot of the left hand leg (501). Since Sam’s GPS found the station, we set off with him leading; in a typical Sam pace, i.e. bouncing off the rev limiter. When we came to the turn off of 130 to get on the BRP, Sam keeps going. From behind, I waved my arm as I pulled off at the turn to see if I could get Sam’s attention in his mirror as I knew the BRP was the quickest way to get to 501. Surely he will notice I am not behind him and turn around; right? Some time went by but no Sam. Now ordinarily, I would have sat at that turn until he came as that is the rule; you always go back to the last place you saw the guy you lost. However, I knew Sam was extremely low on gas and I started thinking maybe he ran out trying to get back to find me. O.k., I guess I should motor on down. I ride the 5 or 6 miles to where 130 and 501 meet (the top of the “A”) and still no SAM; WTH!. He certainly would not have made a turn off of 130 without checking to see if I was still behind him. Hmmm. O.k. maybe the gas station he was talking about was off of 130 another 12 miles ahead in Glasgow and he just went straight and still has not noticed I am NOT behind him. I decide that must be the case and continue on 130 all the way to Glasgow and pull into the first gas station I see; no Sam, WTH. I get gas and back track on 130 to 501, fortunately 130 happens to be a fabulous twisty road so I was not too up set that I had to ride it, twice. At the 130/501 intersection I surmise that Sam must have made this turn off earlier and even not having me behind him, rode down 501 to Big Island, it was the only option left. I ride down 501 all the way to Big Island and pull into the first gas station; no Sam, now really WTH!! O.k., before this whole cluster fuk to find gas began, we had been discussing eating lunch at the restaurant at Otter Creek back on the BRP so I decide to go there to see if Sam is waiting there. The whole time I am thinking to my self if he is not there, I don’t know where else to look; I guess I will just have lunch and see if he shows up… I jump back on the BRP and ride north to Otter Creek and as I pull into the restaurant, discover that the park service has closed it for 2012. Sh*t, no lunch; but there, just getting ready to pull out of the parking lot is Sam. As I pull up to him I can see he has a large container in his lap filed with gas. Turns out when I had earlier waived my hand trying to get his attention as I pulled off at the turn to get on the BRP, the car behind me had seen this. Sam eventually got to the turn off for 501 and he stopped and waited for me (while I was waiting for him back at the BRP) and this same car stopped and told him that I had waived then pulled over. Sam therefore assumed I had ran out of gas but being very low him self decided NOT to turn back and instead go to the gas station at Big Island (thus he was not waiting at the 501 turn off when I eventually rode up looking for him) Once at Big Island he convinced the waitress at the local restaurant to give him a cooking-oil container and he filed it with gas and rode all the way back with it in his lap but I was gone. Being re-united felt great and I really appreciated the effort he had gone through with the gas, but it was unbelievable to me how the last hour had been spent running around and that I almost lost my last riding partner in the same manner that we lost Gene back on day 1.

[Skinny-J]

Day 5: (continued) We grabbed lunch back at Big Island (again) and finally had full tanks and bellies. We then cranked on up the BRP a little further when the GPS announced it was time to put some dirt back under our tires with a left onto Enchanted Creek Fire road. This was a real gem and a blast to ride as it roller coastered up and down and back and forth. At one point I though to my self that it was simply amazing that in the 20 or so times I have ran up and down the BRP, I never noticed the obscure little entrance off of the BRP to this hidden treasure. At one point, Enchanted Creek dove under the BRP through this cool tunnel.

The road:


The Tunnel:




Enchanted Creek eventually dumped us into some more gravel roads that we rode for the next few hours trying to find our GRAND FINALE. From other BRT ride reports I had read about this one fire road called "Shoe Creek" which was described as "a really rough jeep road that you should not ride alone"; well we had to find that! This road was not in my GPS maps so we were again relying on track logs to find it and it took us a little while but we eventually did; and right away it did not disappoint and lived up to its description. We were definitely riding it from the bottom of a mountain to the top as over all we were constantly going up hill. At first it had a few stream crossing with little gnarly banks to get up on each side and then it mostly turned into a rocky up hill climb. I found that the faster you went the easier the rocks became and then the water breaks started; which at the top of second gear would produce a sweet little jump of 3 to 4 feet; it was a GREAT way to end the off road portion of our trip.

Not a picture of the real gnarly parts but a little stream crossing on Shoe Creek while we were taking a break:


Shoe Creek dumped us out near Montebello where we picked up some more gravel roads to take us to the BRP almost at its end. We pulled into our only “tourist” stop on the BRP and snapped the compulsory picture from the pull off.





We looked up a motel in the GPS and dove down into Waynesboro to find the Supper 8. As we pulled into the Supper 8, it happened to have a fast-track go-cart place next to it which I could just see Sam and I trading paint on the carts later. Unfortunately, by the time we got cleaned up and had dinner at the Applebee’s across the street, the go-cart place had closed. And that was the end of day 5 on the BRT…

Day 6: Thursday we motored on home; I won’t bore you with the details...

After thoughts – This trip was so great because it had the exacting ratios of two very important ingredients. First, the route was simply fantastic. Departing from Baltimore and driving through remote areas like we did is simply a treat. I never realize it at the time but always when coming home from a trip like this, the difference hits me at the end; from the start to the end of the BRT if we passed 100 cars the whole week compared to the 100 cars I see in the first hour of approaching the densely populated area of Baltimore is always a shock. The second very important ingredient is the people you shared the experience with and I could not have asked for better group of guys on this trip. Every one was a very competent, self-sufficient rider who had no problems helping someone else out if they needed it. You get in certain situations on a trip like this where you have to keep a good sense of humor about things and it is the laughter that I remember as much as the roads.

While we did cut out the equivalent of a day’s route by combining Burkes Garden and Mt. Rogers into one day, I still feel like we conquered the BRT. For me round trip it was almost 1,300 miles in 6 days which is pretty big considering the nature of a lot of the small dirt roads we were on. IMHO my Honda XR650L was perfect for a trip like this and I love it even more every minute I spend on it. The report I have received from Paul is that the KLR has not fully recovered from its dunking and that it continues to protest with coughs and misses but he managed to make it home o.k. His solution to his problem is that he has decided to sell the KLR and this past weekend, he went and purchased the WR450 that Jdoan had for sale on the DAMN board; there, that fixed it!

My "big" trip next year is going to be something back out West again. Maybe the CDT or the Tour of Idaho. It will be this same time next year so mark your calendars and we can have some new adventures and antics to write about!

Skinny-J

[Skinny-J]

Looks like all I did was the sissy section on day one !! The more Jay writes the more I might have made the right choice ? Doesn't sound much like a ameuture ride .

Gene,

You would have been fine. In fact, you probably would have beaten us to the motel every time just like on day 1!

See you at Michaux this weekend.

Jay

[Gene-TW200]

Sounds like the next big adventure needs bike to bike radio's and new gps's with bluetooth to avoid the few only real glitches on a great trip ! The 3 guys I normally street ride with we all run FRS radio's and Zumo's connected to our phones and when the radio's die we just make a conference call on the go and it really adds alot to the trip enjoyment as long as you don't take along a chatty Kathy type !

[bonehead]

I say compass and sundials instead

[mdubya]

Great report Jay!

Thanks for sharing!

[zamobro9]

maybe next year I can join you J

[Gene-TW200]

Jay of this trip,how much do you think would need to be avoided by a competent rider on a Tenure and overgrown kid on a little kids bike ? and if yo ran the western part south to north would it make a difference ?

[Skinny-J]

Jay of this trip,how much do you think would need to be avoided by a competent rider on a Tenure and overgrown kid on a little kids bike ? and if yo ran the western part south to north would it make a difference ?

Gene,

The rider makes all the difference. But the Tenere would be a handful if the conditions were similar to the mud we encountered. You would definitely want to out fit it with some for real knobbies, not seudo adventure tires. However there are still a few places that I would not dream about taking my Tiger through no matter what the conditions. Not because I don’t think I could get through on it, but because it would be bashed to pieces if I did. Shoe Creek for example had rocks that rival Michaux. If you did ride Shoe Creek on a big bike I would consider going North to South so you are at least going down hill the entire time. And the single track around Mt. Rogers, it wasn’t that hard, it’s that a big bike just plain won’t fit on the skinny little trail very well. If you really wanted to run this with a Tenere I would be happy to go through the route and make notes on places to be concerned about. I think you would be fine on 80% of the route, but you would have your work cut out for you on the other 20% …