Fancy Gap - Day 4
My final full day here at Fancy Gap and I want to get in a lot of riding. The past two days have been great. Totally different areas, roads, and scenery. Today I have no official map/plan but I will be heading north and towards Roanoke. My plan is to just start taking roads with a destination for lunch. Then do the same back except on the way to camp, I have to make two stops (I need to incorporate those in).
After eating breakfast, I left camp about 9:45 and headed on the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Roanoke. After a few miles, I hopped off and started to watch the maps and just started taking many of the smaller roads. I did happen to hit a bit a gravel and dirt. Many of the roads I took went down and then I found another that took me back up and across the Blue Ridge Parkway and down the other side. This went on most of the morning until I was getting hungry. Then I hit the Blue Ridge Parkway for a quick jaunt over to the Treehouse Tavern for lunch.
No idea why I picked this place but it is kind of in the middle of nowhere, had beer, and a good selection of food. I opted for the Tavern Burger, fries, and PBR. I must admit, this was a good burger. Not pink, not dry, and very juicy. The fries were home but with skin on AND they were skinny. I wish they would have been cooked a bit harder but they were delicious.
After lunch, I looked at the map and wanted to take back roads over to a moto campground called Crooked Mountain. Again, I put the campground as the destination and then just kept taking left and right turns on roads that seemed interesting. Some were quite good while others a bust (have to turn around).
I eventually made it to the campground. I pulled up and noticed tape across the road to block folks from entering. I stopped at the registration office and come to find out they are closed until Nov 7th. I was getting ready to get back on the bike when the owners walked up. I introduced myself and said I was just stopping by to have a look since I have heard some folks talk about this place.
Both of them were very nice and he got out the UTV to show me the property. This was their second season. They keep improving it each year are talking about having at least two rallies next year. I hope that is true and am looking forward to staying there.
From there, I needed to get to an ABC store for some bourbon. I found one fairly close and set it as my destination. Doing the same pattern as earlier, I eventually made it there without too much fanfare. I got my bourbon and then headed back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I did not actually get on the parkway but followed a road that seems to parallel it - well sort of. The nice part is that this road is sometimes curvy and tight, sometimes gravel, sometimes dirt, and sometimes just a normal road. It was slow going but a ton of fun and you still get great views. I was worried about deer as this road is less traveled and my thoughts were correct. I saw deer on three different occasions (which means there was probably another 3 I never saw). One deer actually darted in front of me. Nothing too close but enough to keep you on your toes.
I finally got back to camp about 5:45. I unpacked the bike and took a shower, Once back, I covered the bike, made dinner, and ate on the porch. It was such a beautiful day, I wanted to keep enjoying it. Once it got dark, I finally headed inside to start packing for my departure tomorrow.
I am not sure what route I will take tomorrow. I would love to do the Highway 52 downhill again (which I am sure I will). After that, not sure but I will try to make it as fun as possible.