Bike Virgina Day 1 Skyline Drive

As I have mentioned on some previous post I am heading to Bike Virgina. I have know a lot of people who have done it and thought it was one of the best organized ride they have done so it has been on my list of things to do for a few years.

This years Bike Virgina ride was in the towns of Abingdon and Kingsport. Abingdon is in central Virgina about 15 miles north of the border of Tennessee so it is quite a drive. I decide to break up the drive with stop on Skyline Drive for a quick ride. Laura, Ron and I meet in Bordentown at 7:30 am on Thursday and headed south. By noon we were in the town of Front Royal which is the start of Skyline drive. The weather forecast for our 4 day trip was not promising with a good chance of rain every day. Even though it was lightly raining we looked at the radar and decide to go up to Skyline Drive anyway since it looked like it would pass.

I'm glad we did because the rain passed quickly and although it was not super clear the view was still impressive.

After eating lunch at the visitor center and taking a few pictures we headed out for an out and back ride along Skyline Drive. The plan was to do about 20 miles and stop along the way to see the view. Skyline Drive runs along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a hilly road with some long climbs but with reasonable grades.

We went up and down a few times enjoying the view along the way. One of the climbs we did seemed to last forever. When we got to the top there was construction, (road paving) and we had to stop and wait for traffic. As we continued on the road got hotter and we saw the paving equipment. I want to go up to the top of the next ridge a few miles away but with new hot pavement collecting on our tires we decided to turn around.

Going down the long hill from we had just come up was one of the best downhills I have done. It felt like it would never end. Now I knew why the climb felt so long. When I check the millage I saw it was only 2.5 miles but it felt like twice that on the downhill. After the long down hill we had one more climb to get back to our start. By that time it has started to rain but is was light enough that it wasn't a problem.

Once back in the cars we headed down Skyline drive where we had rode and beyond to get back to Interstate 81. On the way there we passed Luray Caverns a popular tourist attraction in the area. A few hours later we were Roanoke Virgina and at a Motel 6 for the night before.

I'm glad we took the detour to Skyline Drive. I hadn't been in this area in a bout 15 years and had forgot how nice it was. It was a good way to break up the long trip.