November and late fall bring new challenges, new searches and fresh trips to keep everything exciting. After a long spring and summer of not only racing but squeezing in big ride after big ride, big event after big event and two grand tours an escape from town up to the mountain tops was a welcomed break. This was to be my first tour and I almost backed out of my commitment to the group and bailed on the tour. With a little friendly encouragement from friends and the promise of a quick and cheap tour I signed on again last minute. In the end, our bike tour turned into a BIKE tour. During which we spent very little time touring and bundles of time biking. Four and a half days turned out to be a little short to make it from Harrisonburg to Asheville via the Blue Ridge Parkway with full loaded bikes. Despite the 2-3 hours of riding in the dark each night the tour was a smashing success.

I think that the Parkway may be one of the best places in the country if not in the world to take a bike tour. 450 miles of beautifully paved road all encompassed within a linear national park. Low speed limit, very little traffic, relatively gentle road grades considering the terrain and a road that constantly winds around rather than over mountain tops to enhance the view. Road grades and pavement that made touring with my Fisher Superfly and Bob trailer a treat. I cannot say enough about the section of the parkway from Boone to Asheville, truly spectacular

Touring was a entirely new and refreshing experience. To only ride the bike all day and look around at where you are going rather than head down stomping through the woods is yet another amazing bicycle experience. Throughout our tour I could not stop thinking about the many uses of the bicycle. After many years of serious biking I still had never embarked on a tour. Touring and commuting are two of the great equalizers in the world of bicycling. Either one can be undertaken by any average human. No need to have cat like reflexes to negotiate technically challenging rock lines nor the raging fitness needed to hang with the peloton during a road race. Everyone can ride a bike to work or slowly pedal a loaded bike from one point to another, with enough patience, persistence and a good attitude touring is accessible to nearly anyone. Even though our group of 3 had a relatively high fitness level and we covered many miles each day I could have been equally happy riding a mere quarter of the distance a taking the extra time to soak in the views or go on a hike. The cooler weather and our time frame did not allow for this luxury but all in all we had one mechanical and zero rain except the on the night of our one house stay in Boone. I can’t wait to venture into more touring, perhaps some off road touring with a mountain bike.