The first wave of snow has come and gone. After a couple days confined to the cabin, the roads cleared enough so we could get out, get some fresh air and exercise, and restock the pantry before the whopper of storms blows in shortly.
About a foot of snow on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Soco Gap and we had to break our own trail.
With the storm coming we’re likely to be snowed in for the next few days. We should see somewhere around another foot at my house, though things could get pretty deep up on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Jackie glides by - it's not rare to see her off her BMW motorcycle when the weather gets cold
We’re grateful for the opportunity to get out. Cabin fever sets in pretty fast, especially when you are used to being outdoors. We start climbing the walls after 3 days.
Just aim the pointy ends down hill and relax - looking over the edge of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The drops can be substantial.
So long as the power stays on, and it usually does, we’ll be fine. There are folks further north who would be glad to swap places.
The parkway is not our exclusive winter playground. It's rare to have it all to yourself any time of year. We meet a snow shoer, then more skiers.
I’ll spend the next few days squirreled away in my office revising another one of my Smoky Mountains motorcycle ride maps. It’s easier to get the tedium accomplished when there’s nothing else you can go do.
View from about a mile up the parkway. You're looking towards Cherokee though I never saw the casino. From higher up, at Waterrock Knob, you can't miss the huge buildings.
The reason I bother to post something like skiing the Blue Ridge Parkway is that it happens less often than you might think. There are only a few times each year the conditions are just right. They could have been better today, but it was good enough. It was a lot of work busting trail uphill. The downhills were not too bad at all.
The four of us packed down a nice trail to follow when we turned about for the downhill run. The dogs could barely keep up.
It’s hard to believe I was out on my motorcycle mapping the best rides in the Smoky Mountains just a few days ago. With any luck I’ll be out again by the end of next week. But for now, it’s hunker down time.
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- Wayne Busch – Cartographer
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Your going to have to drive it sooner or laettr anyways so just take it easy on the way home, maybe even take a different way home if you are worried. If you have driven on the same road and the same traffic before in a car, I wouldn’t worry at all about being on a bike, you already know how to deal with it. Remember on a bike more people will pull out in front of you than with a car simply because bikes are smaller and harder to see.