In Search of Cooler Weather

Ok, so the title is a bit better. This is actually the VERY FIRST ride we have taken together on our new Tigers other than around town. This is also the VERY FIRST ride that Kirk has taken on his Tiger where we do some off road driving (he was out of town for a week the day after purchasing his new bike).

We wanted to get in a nice long ride and decided to head up to the mountains. We also want to spend a lot of miles on our bikes to get comfortable with them. No plan, just ride some winding roads, find some off roads, and get into some cooler weather. We managed to accomplish ALL 3 (especially the weather as at one point, we were riding and it was 57 degrees).

We were not going to spend the night but do a around trip. We got started early in the morning and met for dinner (back home) at 8pm. This is the trip summary:

This was a long day but such a blast. We set the destination as Little Switzerland and took backroads up there. Once we got away from the city, the roads were less crowded. The weather was perfect (about 75 degrees) when we headed out. After an hour or so, we could see the mountains and before we knew it, we were heading uphill on curvy roads. When we arrived to Little Switzerland, it was very crowded so we decided to explore the Blue Ridge parkway.

This part of our trip began to feel like Ground Hog Day (the movie). Once we were on the Blue Ridge, we found some gravel roads and started to explore. We followed it until the gravel ended then followed that road and ended up in Little Switzerland again. This time we took a different road out (a very cool road that was tight and uphill) of the small town. We ended up back at our gravel road and eventually back at Little Switzerland again. Let just say that we explored the area around Little Switzerland VERY WELL. We jumped back on the Blue Ridge and headed to Mount Mitchel. Along the way, we stopped at few overlooks.

We checked out some more side roads and found another nice run that included another stream crossing. The bikes were handling very well (considering our current tires) and were very happy running them up and down the hills.

We arrived at Mount Mitchel and began our ascent to the top. We actually had to zip up our jackets as the weather was getting VERY cool. The only issue was a lot of cloud cover over the mountain. We were afraid we would get the top and see nothing but clouds. Driving up, we went thru patches of drifting clouds...very cool. At the top, we hiked to the overlook but only the view to the west was clear.

From there we followed the Blue Ridge more until we needed to get gas and start to head home. At the gas station, we did have a helmet malfunction and luckily the store had a paper clip (remember, keep a paper clip in your bag to reset a stuck Sena helmet).

The ride home was uneventful as we took the interstate in order to make it to dinner on time. FYI, we had Asian and it was delicious. We were both exhausted but very happy with this ride. Next time, we will spend the night.