Blue Ridge Parkway Motorcycle Trip

James - I had a lot of fun this past weekend. It all started out Wednesday afternoon when I was able to sign out from work and head North. Alabama is not known for it's fun motorcycle roads. For the most part they are boring and unimaginative. At least that's what I thought until I headed up US29 and AL49. The road got twisty, especially toward the end of AL49 as I got closer to Cheaha State Park, which happens to be the highest point in Alabama at 2400 feet.


The views from the park were amazing. They had a fairly large campground as well as a hotel and a swimming pool. Hiking trails went all over the mountain and they even had a lake toward the bottom of the park.


I found my camp and set things up for the night. I decided to have a tinfoil dinner with steak, potatoes, and onion. As I get older I find that I like onions a lot more.

I woke up early the next morning, had breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate, then I took down my campsite. I took a quick swim at the lake and had a shower before heading off for the day. I was a bit disappointed in the park facilities. They were old and run down and seemed like they had not been taken care of. Everything to see and do were great, but the bathrooms and showers were primitive.


Here are some other pictures of the park:


The second day had me heading through the top of Alabama, Georgia, into the corner of Tennessee, and finally into North Carolina. I remember the day being very hot, but the scenery was great.


I really liked being around mountains again, and as I got close to the Parkway the temperature started to drop.


The Parkway itself was awesome. I saw very few vehicles on my ride up to my campground, and most that I did see were motorcycles. Roads were twisty and I could have fun without breaking the speed limit.

The campground at Balsam mountain was very nice. I was upset that they didn't have any firewood for sale and I had to go partway back down the mountain to get some. I was very impressed with their facilities. They were very clean, but they didn't have showers, and you could only wash dishes in one place. They have a bear problem so they keep all the trash that stuff in a centralized location away from campsites.


Dinner was some steak and onions fried in a skillet over the fire. I also roasted some corn. Just leave the corn in the husk and put it on the grill. Rotate it and in a few minutes take off the husk and it's ready to eat. I should mentions that all the food that I ate I had to buy before I got to my campsite. I didn't carry anything with me except for some oatmeal and hot chocolate. I had no way to keep anything cold.

It was much cooler up at this temperature and it was really nice to stay out of the heat. I actually had to get into my sleeping bag this night. I did hear some big things moving through the brush behind my tent in the middle of the night, at least they sounded big. I have no idea if they were bears or not.

Day three brought some modifications to my plan. I intended to ride up the parkway and explore the area, staying for a second night at Balsam Mountain. Instead I got onto the interstate and rode hard to get to my cousins house in Virginia. It had been 10-12 years I had spent any time with my cousin Alayne (since I was in high school) and I'm glad I took the chance I had to spend time with her and her family. They put me up for the night and I got to relax with a hot shower and I didn't have to worry about bugs and spiders.

I forgot to take any pictures from that point on. I road down through the middle of Virgina and North Carolina. Initially I found some really good roads. They really challenged my riding abilities and were a lot of fun. I stopped for lunch on the border of VA and NC. I tried to get into a tank museum in Danville, but they wanted to charge me for it and I knew I would only spend a few minutes inside.

At this point I was mostly trying to get miles under me because I was heading home so I didn't get to see much in the way of scenery. At Greenville, South Carolina I stayed at Paris Mountain State Park. It seemed like it was in the middle of the city, but as soon as you entered the park the city disappeared and I was out in the wild again. The lake closed before I had a chance to swim, and it wouldn't open before I left in the morning so I was disappointed, but they did have hot showers and nice bathrooms. In that regard they were probably the best campsite I stayed at. They even had water AND electricity at each campsite.

The bugs really came out that night. There were a few during the day, but as soon as the sun went down I was attacked, even though I had plenty of bug spray on. I saw lots and lots of spiders. At times I imagined that the entire ground was moving. If I left my food on the table for just a second something would get into it.

I tried tinfoil dinners again that last night, but I added some pineapple to see what it would do. I don't suggest trying it. Pineapple is good by itself or on pizza, but it doesn't mix with garlic salt too well.

The last day of riding started out well. The miles seemed to fly by and before I knew it I was back in Alabama. Five days of riding had my backside pretty sore and I was ready for the ride to be over. In the end I traveled for five days, through six states, and almost 1,800 miles. I added 4 new states to my map. It was pretty cheap vacation. I spent $114 on gas, $82 on food and lodging. I used 40 gallons of gas and I got around 45 miles to a gallon. Total cost was just under $200 if you don't count the cost of equipment like tents and such.

Most people don't think that you can carry that much on a motorcycle. I estimate that I carried over 100 extra pounds of gear. I had everything I needed to include an air mattress, stool, pillow, and my laptop.