With the new paving done, I’ve been using the Blue Ridge Parkway more often for my motorcycle touring rides north. It’s actually about as quick as taking any other route if you’re heading for areas between Asheville and Boone, NC, and even if it takes a tad longer, it’s usually so much nicer to go that way. Today though, I hit it at the wrong time.

This line of cars much have stretched for a mile waiting on the tree clearing crews to let us pass.

I needed to make a run up to Craggy Gardens for a photo. If you’ve been to Craggy Gardens on your motorcycle vacation you know why it makes a good photo spot, if not, I can be confident you’ll stop there if you pass that way and take your own. It’s the first Visitor Center location north of Asheville, though it’s the views people come for, not the facilities.

I had expected the traffic from the work crews would be tapering off. I was proven wrong today and I’ll need to explore a bit further to find out why.  I just plain didn’t have the time this morning.  As soon as I got on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville I found myself behind a dump truck. I was shortly joined by a string of motorcycle riders as we putted along behind said truck for creeping uphill mile after mile. Just as the truck managed to pick up speed it caught up to another.

The Craggy Gardens Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway

I don’t know where the trucks were headed, the last work I saw was near Mt. Mitchell State Park. If they are working on the stretch of road north of there, more power to them and I have no complaints. It needs some attention, though not as severely as that south of Craggy Gardens. The hold up today was the tree clearing crews. I waited for 1/2 and hour to pass. Must be the same slow crews which worked through Asheville last week.

I was looking for and got a nice photo at the Craggy Pinnacle Tunnel for a new "The Best Rides North and South of Asheville, NC" map cover.

Anyway, be aware there are still delays through this section and take it in stride on your motorcycle vacation plans. Spend a little more time at the overlooks, appreciate the improvements to the road, and remember there are  few places better to have to pause and wait. I’ll be at the north end of the Parkway in Virginia next week to update what’s going on there.

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Wayne Busch - Cartographer