Ride Report: Blue Ridge Parkway, Oct 9-11, 2010 - Page 2

Trip · 10-12-2010, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonesaw

I return to camp and know that I have to sleep well tonight, so I take a couple Benadryl and wash it down with a beer. We talk some more, and are interrupted by a dog running through our camp site. This is shortly followed by a somewhat distant female voice saying “I swear, your only job was to was to watch her! You can’t even do that right! Go find her!”

A man appears shortly and I say, “Your dog is down there,” pointing in the general direction of the dog’s path. Later, the same man asks if we have any extra “fire starters.” I tell him that we used pine needles, which are abundant all around our campsites. He replies with “Well, good God, I’m not a woodsman!” I am instantly disappointed with his manliness. We later see, what I presume to be, his son spraying some kind of flammable aerosol on their fire and saying “I GOT IT STARTED!” Way to go kid.

After this excitement, I go to bed. I toss and turn all night, and my face is cold throughout the night. I may have gotten 6 hours of sleep, but I am constantly woken up by the campsite noises. I wake up the next morning with back pain and a headache.

I got to add that the woodsman decided to have a conversation with his wife and two people who showed up at like 1am so loud the entire campsite heard them. They were literally 3 feet from my tent when they did this too. The two women in the group had the most annoying laughs. After about 2 mins of this, some redneck somewhere far away in the campground yells out "WHAT PART OF IT'S QUIET TIME DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!" Fred didn't tell us til the next morning, but you sign something saying you will be quiet after like 10 or 11 when you check in. Well they spend 5 minutes debating if he is talking to them in hushed voices and then proceed with their conversation about bullshit. After about 15 minutes of this I am getting pissed and about to yell something at them when the same redneck makes sure they understand his point by yelling at them again. They thank god decide to go to bed. About 3am, someone lost a dog that was going ape shit and it ran by my tent and they chased them through the campground yelling "shhhhhh!" At about 4 am, some kid decided it would be a good time to start screaming and it took awhile to shut the little bastard up. At about 5-6, some people started waking up, so I didn't get much sleep. I am a light sleeper.

The second night was worse though, it was really windy that night and we slept under trees. The leaves/acorns were falling all night and a big branch landed right on top my tent and scared the ever living shit out of me.

Mr Lefty · 10-12-2010, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trip

I got to add that the woodsman decided to have a conversation with his wife and two people who showed up at like 1am so loud the entire campsite heard them. They were literally 3 feet from my tent when they did this too. The two women in the group had the most annoying laughs. After about 2 mins of this, some redneck somewhere far away in the campground yells out "WHAT PART OF IT'S QUIET TIME DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!" Fred didn't tell us til the next morning, but you sign something saying you will be quiet after like 10 or 11 when you check in. Well they spend 5 minutes debating if he is talking to them in hushed voices and then proceed with their conversation about bullshit. After about 15 minutes of this I am getting pissed and about to yell something at them when the same redneck makes sure they understand his point by yelling at them again. They thank god decide to go to bed. About 3am, someone lost a dog that was going ape shit and it ran by my tent and they chased them through the campground yelling "shhhhhh!" At about 4 am, some kid decided it would be a good time to start screaming and it took awhile to shut the little bastard up. At about 5-6, some people started waking up, so I didn't get much sleep. I am a light sleeper.

The second night was worse though, it was really windy that night and we slept under trees. The leaves/acorns were falling all night and a big branch landed right on top my tent and scared the ever living shit out of me.

this is EXACTLY why I like primitive camping in random locations not at camp grounds... when I want sleep... I want SLEEP!

though KOA's are very good about keeping people quiet

Trip · 10-13-2010, 12:13 PM

Here is my report:

I made a plan to do the BRP over the Columbus Day Holiday weekend and camp along the way. All 469 miles from Waynesboro, VA to Cherokee, NC. I needed to do this as a test trip for my 2011 California Adventure. I enlisted two friends to come along with me. One would ride with me from Knoxville and do the whole trip and another from Maryland would meet us at the first campground and ride halfway with us and then go home.

Me and Kyle left from Lenoir City early on 10-9 and traveled up Interstate 75 to 81. We had to make a bunch more stops than needed for me because the FZ1 Kyle was riding was far more limited in range. Here is us stopped in Wytheville, VA because the FZ1 needed gas and it's rider had to poop.

All that Virginia interstate riding was terrible, luckily we were using the Sena SMX 10 headsets that I purchased and had a good time entertaining ourselves with the usual male banter and berating cagers we passed. We finally made it to I-64 and into Waynesboro and finally the start of our real trip, the BRP.

As you can see I was super excited to be here.

It started out with some sweepers and it was much more enjoyable than the stupid interstate, we had a good time making fun of a lot of the signs along the way, the BRP has some hilarious names for places and signs for our immature brains. We got our first real treat of scenery and ravens roost not far from the start. So we stopped and got a few "oh pretty pics."

Don't want to fall off of it. It might hurt.

Well we get back on the bikes and make our way to MM 27 and down the road to Montebello Campground where we will spend the first night.

Yes, it is that full and yes it was loud all night.

It was nice to be under trees instead of being in a hotel though.

We decided to hold a rave for all the rednecks.

It was a loud night though. We had our neighbors start having a domestic dispute with the woman yelling at the man and then the man telling us it's always his fault. They were a lot of fun. He didn't know how to start a campfire and so he asked us and we told him to use pine needles and twigs as kindling and he promptly told us "he is not a woodsman." They also started having a long conversation at 1AM, 3 feet from my tent. Luckily a fellow redneck somewhere in the campground screamed at them a few times telling them "WHAT PART OF QUIET TIME DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!" til they went to sleep. They lost their dog at 3AM and chased it through my tent area too. They were great people. There was also kids screaming for no reason all night. I do not recommend this campground. Only positive I got to say is I got a hot shower this night, because the food sure did suck.

Yeah, we made eggs in the same dutch oven we burnt some bacon in. They look nasty, but weren't too bad.

We took off out of that redneck nightmare early on 10-10 and were treated to this view not far down the BRP.

It all started blending together after awhile though.

We saw a sign for the natural bridge (we were bombarded with this all the way up interstate 81) and thought we would check it out. There was a nice twisty asphalt road to the natural bridge, so it wasn't too bad of a detour. We found this guy waiting on us when we got there, he looked like he meant business.

We didn't go to the natural bridge, it cost money and we were not interested after seeing the prices and the line to get in.

On the way back to the brp, I tried to take a different route to get back on, but it led right into a gravel road. It was a great little surprise find that was twisty and fun.

Kyle on the FZ1 with PP 2CTs was not amused.

We got back on the BRP and it sort of leveled out and was kinda boring Virgina roads and we didn't really stop much or see anything great in this lower section of Virginia. So I don't really have pics of it. Eventually the FZ1 needed gas again, so we made a little pitstop in Floyd, VA.

We stopped in the dumpy section, apparently there was a much nicer part if we would of kept going a little bit as we found out on the way back to the BRP.

Mr Lefty · 10-11-2010, 09:54 PM

thats a lot of writing... moar pitchers

Switch · 10-11-2010, 10:10 PM

i paint pictures with words

derf · 10-11-2010, 10:24 PM

I wrote this for KLR650.net

I ran the BRP this past weekend with some buddies from TN. I superslabbed it to the begining of the BRP to get a campsite, they came up 81 from knoxville to meet me saturday night, the plan was to camp both nights, ride 1/2 down the parkway into NC, and split up this morning, with them finishing the ride south to Deals Gap and follow 129 home, and me taking 81, 64, and 95 back up to MD.

I showed at the campsite a few hours before them so after setting up camp and finding myself with a tent taht was in really bad shape (should have checked that) I ran out to grab a 12 pack of beer and a new tent. i was told walmart was just a few minutes up the road, a few minutes turned into an hour in each direction, but there were some cool tight twisties that lead to it, and some great views.

I show up and they are there, set up and fire started

The next morning we made some great bacon, and used the same pot to cook the eggs, which wound up tasting like bacon

Every few miles on the BRP is a scenic overlook, we didnt stop at too many of them, but some were just too cool to pass up

Eventually we came to a sign for the Natural Bridge which was supposed to be some big draw that has billboards plastering 81 both directions. Yeh it turned out to be a big mistake, although the cowboy riding the velociraptor out front almost made it worth the detour (me and Kyle, the board we know each other from is pretty childish and it carries over to real life)

Getting back to the BRP took us through an 8 mile single track two way dirt road with switchbacks up the mountain. The GS and the KLR had no problem, but the FZ1 really wasn't meant for it.

Continued down the BRP at a pretty good clip, pretty much maintaining a 60mph average except for some heavy patches of cars which we blew past at each opportunity. The GS and FZ1 had no problem powering past 5 or 6 cars but I really had to plan my passes with the seriously underpowered thumper, times like that I wish I was on my CBR. Thank god for headset communications, the term for passing is now shitville MAN! I watched a squirel try and kill itself with the GS, it ran right up to the back wheel, stopped then made a mad dash in front of the FZ1, neither of them stopped or swerved which must have really spooked the squirel pretty bad because we didnt see another one the rest of the trip.

Stopped for gas and an ass break after 100 miles. VA really has some dumpy places, in the 15 minutes we were there a dozen or so folks bought a case of naddy ice, the nastiest beer ever

Stopped and set up camp at Doughton Park, which i don't recommend, no showers or hot water, and expensive wood, other than that, its a normal primitive camp ground. There is a campground 8 miles down the road that has facilities and $5 for all the wood you can carry, which is enough to load down 2 bikes. They also sell beer there, and mustard.

FIRE!

Just need to watch out for those axe wielding KLR riders who are jealous of the passing power of the GS. Damn you BMW!!!

Woke up the next morning, skipped breakfast after the previous morning escapades and some big miles we all needed to do. Rode to the next overlook where we split up.

and trip humping my bike again

After they split away from em I shot back up the BRP into VA, took a good picture of myself with the bike at an overlook, and one at the NC/VA to add to my state line photo collection.

After that I just shot on the highway and bought some bad gas that almost left me stranded on the side of the road, changed out the spark plug and rebuilt the petcock on the side of the road before I realized the gas was a very thick shade of brown. Dumped the fuel and filled up with some fresh stuff and the bike ran fine for the next 130 miles until I rolled back into my garage.

Mr Lefty · 10-11-2010, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonesaw

i paint pictures with words

yes you do...

Switch · 10-11-2010, 10:32 PM

I wouldn't say the FZ1 had a problem on the gravel road road... just the tires.

derf · 10-11-2010, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonesaw

I wouldn't say the FZ1 had a problem on the gravel road road... just the tires.

Agreed

101lifts2 · 10-12-2010, 03:06 AM

Nice writeups...looks like you boys had fun.

Derf...u is a tad hanzy. lol

10-11-2010, 10:10 PM	#5
Switch dadbod Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: East TN Posts: 1,215	i paint pictures with words __________________ It's fine.

10-11-2010, 10:24 PM	#6
derf token jewboy Join Date: Nov 2008 Moto: CBR 900, KLR ugly ass duckling, Gas Man Posts: 10,799	I wrote this for KLR650.net I ran the BRP this past weekend with some buddies from TN. I superslabbed it to the begining of the BRP to get a campsite, they came up 81 from knoxville to meet me saturday night, the plan was to camp both nights, ride 1/2 down the parkway into NC, and split up this morning, with them finishing the ride south to Deals Gap and follow 129 home, and me taking 81, 64, and 95 back up to MD. I showed at the campsite a few hours before them so after setting up camp and finding myself with a tent taht was in really bad shape (should have checked that) I ran out to grab a 12 pack of beer and a new tent. i was told walmart was just a few minutes up the road, a few minutes turned into an hour in each direction, but there were some cool tight twisties that lead to it, and some great views. I show up and they are there, set up and fire started The next morning we made some great bacon, and used the same pot to cook the eggs, which wound up tasting like bacon Every few miles on the BRP is a scenic overlook, we didnt stop at too many of them, but some were just too cool to pass up Eventually we came to a sign for the Natural Bridge which was supposed to be some big draw that has billboards plastering 81 both directions. Yeh it turned out to be a big mistake, although the cowboy riding the velociraptor out front almost made it worth the detour (me and Kyle, the board we know each other from is pretty childish and it carries over to real life) Getting back to the BRP took us through an 8 mile single track two way dirt road with switchbacks up the mountain. The GS and the KLR had no problem, but the FZ1 really wasn't meant for it. Continued down the BRP at a pretty good clip, pretty much maintaining a 60mph average except for some heavy patches of cars which we blew past at each opportunity. The GS and FZ1 had no problem powering past 5 or 6 cars but I really had to plan my passes with the seriously underpowered thumper, times like that I wish I was on my CBR. Thank god for headset communications, the term for passing is now shitville MAN! I watched a squirel try and kill itself with the GS, it ran right up to the back wheel, stopped then made a mad dash in front of the FZ1, neither of them stopped or swerved which must have really spooked the squirel pretty bad because we didnt see another one the rest of the trip. Stopped for gas and an ass break after 100 miles. VA really has some dumpy places, in the 15 minutes we were there a dozen or so folks bought a case of naddy ice, the nastiest beer ever Stopped and set up camp at Doughton Park, which i don't recommend, no showers or hot water, and expensive wood, other than that, its a normal primitive camp ground. There is a campground 8 miles down the road that has facilities and $5 for all the wood you can carry, which is enough to load down 2 bikes. They also sell beer there, and mustard. FIRE! Just need to watch out for those axe wielding KLR riders who are jealous of the passing power of the GS. Damn you BMW!!! Woke up the next morning, skipped breakfast after the previous morning escapades and some big miles we all needed to do. Rode to the next overlook where we split up. and trip humping my bike again After they split away from em I shot back up the BRP into VA, took a good picture of myself with the bike at an overlook, and one at the NC/VA to add to my state line photo collection. After that I just shot on the highway and bought some bad gas that almost left me stranded on the side of the road, changed out the spark plug and rebuilt the petcock on the side of the road before I realized the gas was a very thick shade of brown. Dumped the fuel and filled up with some fresh stuff and the bike ran fine for the next 130 miles until I rolled back into my garage. __________________

10-11-2010, 10:32 PM	#8
Switch dadbod Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: East TN Posts: 1,215	I wouldn't say the FZ1 had a problem on the gravel road road... just the tires. __________________ It's fine.

10-12-2010, 03:06 AM	#10
101lifts2 WSB Champion Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Anaheim, CA Moto: 2009 Kawi ZX6R Posts: 5,570	Nice writeups...looks like you boys had fun. Derf...u is a tad hanzy. lol __________________ Train Hard Ron Paul - 2012 Mark of Excellence GM

10-13-2010, 12:13 PM	#3
Trip Hold mah beer! Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: 80 Miles South of Moto Heaven Moto: 08 R1200GS Posts: 23,268	Here is my report: I made a plan to do the BRP over the Columbus Day Holiday weekend and camp along the way. All 469 miles from Waynesboro, VA to Cherokee, NC. I needed to do this as a test trip for my 2011 California Adventure. I enlisted two friends to come along with me. One would ride with me from Knoxville and do the whole trip and another from Maryland would meet us at the first campground and ride halfway with us and then go home. Me and Kyle left from Lenoir City early on 10-9 and traveled up Interstate 75 to 81. We had to make a bunch more stops than needed for me because the FZ1 Kyle was riding was far more limited in range. Here is us stopped in Wytheville, VA because the FZ1 needed gas and it's rider had to poop. All that Virginia interstate riding was terrible, luckily we were using the Sena SMX 10 headsets that I purchased and had a good time entertaining ourselves with the usual male banter and berating cagers we passed. We finally made it to I-64 and into Waynesboro and finally the start of our real trip, the BRP. As you can see I was super excited to be here. It started out with some sweepers and it was much more enjoyable than the stupid interstate, we had a good time making fun of a lot of the signs along the way, the BRP has some hilarious names for places and signs for our immature brains. We got our first real treat of scenery and ravens roost not far from the start. So we stopped and got a few "oh pretty pics." Don't want to fall off of it. It might hurt. Well we get back on the bikes and make our way to MM 27 and down the road to Montebello Campground where we will spend the first night. Yes, it is that full and yes it was loud all night. It was nice to be under trees instead of being in a hotel though. We decided to hold a rave for all the rednecks. It was a loud night though. We had our neighbors start having a domestic dispute with the woman yelling at the man and then the man telling us it's always his fault. They were a lot of fun. He didn't know how to start a campfire and so he asked us and we told him to use pine needles and twigs as kindling and he promptly told us "he is not a woodsman." They also started having a long conversation at 1AM, 3 feet from my tent. Luckily a fellow redneck somewhere in the campground screamed at them a few times telling them "WHAT PART OF QUIET TIME DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!" til they went to sleep. They lost their dog at 3AM and chased it through my tent area too. They were great people. There was also kids screaming for no reason all night. I do not recommend this campground. Only positive I got to say is I got a hot shower this night, because the food sure did suck. Yeah, we made eggs in the same dutch oven we burnt some bacon in. They look nasty, but weren't too bad. We took off out of that redneck nightmare early on 10-10 and were treated to this view not far down the BRP. It all started blending together after awhile though. We saw a sign for the natural bridge (we were bombarded with this all the way up interstate 81) and thought we would check it out. There was a nice twisty asphalt road to the natural bridge, so it wasn't too bad of a detour. We found this guy waiting on us when we got there, he looked like he meant business. We didn't go to the natural bridge, it cost money and we were not interested after seeing the prices and the line to get in. On the way back to the brp, I tried to take a different route to get back on, but it led right into a gravel road. It was a great little surprise find that was twisty and fun. Kyle on the FZ1 with PP 2CTs was not amused. We got back on the BRP and it sort of leveled out and was kinda boring Virgina roads and we didn't really stop much or see anything great in this lower section of Virginia. So I don't really have pics of it. Eventually the FZ1 needed gas again, so we made a little pitstop in Floyd, VA. We stopped in the dumpy section, apparently there was a much nicer part if we would of kept going a little bit as we found out on the way back to the BRP.

10-11-2010, 09:54 PM	#4
Mr Lefty TWFix Legend Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Denver CO Moto: 01 BMW F650GS Dakar Posts: 15,677	thats a lot of writing... moar pitchers