Blue Ridge Parkway And Deal's Gap

[jch82]

Made a last minute decision to take a three-day weekend and head out to ride a bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway and swing through Deal's Gap. Also decided that I would pop my motorcycle camping cherry and give that a go instead of staying in hotels along the way. I just have to get through work tomorrow morning and then I'll be heading south!
 

Josh

[Anden]

Just came through in the car. Looks good enjoy.

[Rctaylor]

Where are you camping at?

[Connie14]

Did the same thing earlier this summer. That is a beautiful part of the country. If you come back through VA, watch your speed. Have fun!

[Bad324]

Good Luck and safe journey. I'm rediculously jealous!!

[blue-yamaR6s]

Nice bike!!!  Enjoy and be safe.

[jch82]

Where are you camping at?

I marked off Kanawha State Forest near Charleston and Mt Mitchell on my GPS as possible campgrounds. The plan is to head east along the Ohio river today and get a few hundred miles in. Then head south and catch up with the Parkway. I would like to stop somewhere just south of the Dragon on Sunday night, so I can hit it Monday morning before slabbing back to Cincinnati. I am open to suggestions as the route is definitely not set in stone.

[jch82]

Finally got home from work and finished loading everything on the bike and was able to get on the road shortly after 2pm. More than likely I had packed entirely WAY TO MUCH STUFF... That's normally how it goes though. My original plan was to shoot out to Hillsboro real quick and stop at a BBQ joint I had been to before, make my way south to the river and follow that until I found a campground. As luck would have it, the little BBQ place was no more and I settled on a quick stop at McDonald's. Boy was that a great idea .

http://youtu.be/LDZIARCRQJ0

The stretch of road in the video was about 10 minutes before the McDonald's experience, It is on Evans Rd, which is about a lane and a half wide through cornfields. It must have been a dirt road in a previous life and at some point, a bunch of asphalt was dumped on it...

 

Anyway, the start of the video shows a van rolling by and it was at that point, I thought of the head on collision that I may have just avoided by stopping to get the camera rolling. To continue the story, I'm riding pretty cautiously through this little stretch of road (the van fresh in my mind) and about halfway through, I encounter another car moving along at an alarming rate. There is always that moment when everything moves in slow motion. The reaction on the kid's face that was driving tells me he knew flying down that little road could have been one of the worst mistakes he had made in his short life so far. I guess the same could be said about me choosing to take that road too.

 

Next stop = McDonald's

[jch82]

 

Walking into McDonald's, I was greeted by hundreds of children and what seemed like every Wal-mart shopper I have ever encountered in my life... No problem, I'll just grab my food, eat real quick and get back on the road. I sit down at a table near the window so I can keep an eye on my bike while I eat. At the table behind me, there are a couple old guys (let's call them Bob and Jim) and they seem to be talking about the news. I am overhearing bits and pieces of their conversation and every story seems to be about someone dying or getting killed.

 

One story that sticks out most has to do with a motorcycle helmet. Bob asks Jim; "Did you hear about the guy that got his face shot off at the convenience store?" Of course he hadn't heard the story, so Bob says "Yeah, this guy on a motorcycle stops at a convenience store and doesn't take his full-face helmet off when he goes inside..." "He walks up to the counter to pay and the clerk thinks he is going to rob the place, pulls out a gun and shoots him in the face." There is silence for a moment, and the next thing I hear is Jim and he says, "What's a full-face helmet?"

 

At this point, I knew what was coming next, Bob says (I assume he is pointing at my helmet sitting on the table) "It's just like the one that guy over there has."I now have two options, continue eating as if I didn't hear a thing or turn and strike up a conversation. I decided the latter, since it was too early in the trip to be dealing with strange people already. I finished eating and got on the road as I was excited to hit OH-247 and get down to the river.

 

 

[John]

the guy with the helmet getting shot was in cincinnati:

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130805/NEWS/308050024/Police-Clerk-victim-knew-each-other

[jch82]

I know all of you have these shots when you are getting your camera ready!

 

 

A few shots rolling down OH-247

 

Out of my way van!

Corner of OH-247 and CR-2

[blue-yamaR6s]

Great job on the write up so far...subscribed.

[jch82]

Sorry, but you chose the former... not the latter.

 

Nice write up, so far. Looking forward to reading more.

Best part about that is I actually thought about how to write that for a few minutes... 50/50 shot and I blew it!

[jch82]

My original destination was going to be Kanawha State Forest and then I realized it was at least another hour and a half away and it was already 7pm. As i said in my first post, this was my first time camping off the motorcycle, so I had no idea what I was doing and didn't want to be setting up in the dark. I saw one of those signs off the road that said "camping", took the exit and followed the signs to Wolford's Landing Campground.

Words cannot describe the check-in process. The little old lady I talked to was so nice and at the same time she was yelling at her husband (in a sweet old lady voice) to make sure my site was ready. She made me come up on the porch, sit next to her on the porch swing and fill out the paperwork. I hand her my MasterCard and she, at first says it is cash only. I tell her "no problem" and that I can run down the road and get cash.

She hesitates a moment and says she has a credit card machine in her trailer, she has only used it one other time and if I can operate it, then I won't need to go get cash. Luckily, I have worked in retail for the last 13 years, so using one of these machines was easy enough.

After this is done, she leads me back outside and says her husband is going to show me to my site. The problem is that her husband is now nowhere to be found. She begins walking through the campground and says she will just show me herself, but she needs to walk slow because of her back. I tell her that isn't necessary but she persists and tells me to get on my bike and follow her.

I am now pretty much pushing my bike through the park following behind this little old lady, who by the way is still trying to have a conversation with me. Thankfully we don't travel very far at this pace and she points at her husband who was doing what he was told and standing at my site. I thank her and make my way to the site.

Ed, her husband begins telling me his life story as I am unpacking and setting up my tent. He is a fairly thin guy, probably in his 70's. He is wearing some beaded tribal necklace and has a walking stick with a bunch of intricate carvings. I didn't think anything of it until he tells me that he is a Great Cherokee Indian Chief and his Indian name is Protective Bear. Now, maybe someone can enlighten me on Indian Chief's, but Ed didn't look like he was part of any Indian tribe.

Ed finally wanders off and I can now concentrate on getting everything setup and situated before it gets dark out. I must also say that I was the only tent in the entire campground, so I definitely drew a lot of attention amongst all of the big campers and RVs.

[jch82]

About 10 minutes after Ed wanders off, this lady comes over to chat.

She brought that white fan with her (you didn't actually think I packed that on the bike, did you?). She told me it was going to be hot that night and that I would need it. I gave in (kept the fan), thanked her and she was on her way.

At this point, I was looking for a little solitude so I could focus on finishing things up. About the time I was setup, it was dark and everyone in the campground was either sitting around a fire or inside their camper. Finally some peace and quiet! I got a fire going, cooked a little food and relaxed for a while before going to bed.

[Mary#17]

Good write up. How nice that she brought you the fan. That's very thoughtful!

 

Mary

[Bad324]

That settles that. I am planning my first motorcycle camping trip now. I want to stay near Deals Gap. I will for sure be checking onto this little slice of American Dream. Thanks or sharing. Looking forward to more.

 

yea im not buying it

[Bad324]

Not buying what? I'm going motorcycle camping, but I'm going solo. Unless like-minded riders want to tag along. I'm riding to DGish area, setting up camp and riding my ass off for a couple days and heading home. I'm thinking leave Friday early, ride Sat/Sun, head home on Monday.

 

you camping. I'm probably remembering it wrong but I thought you hated camping as much as Jewbacca

[jch82]

Here is a possible camping option.... and it's FREE!

http://freecampsites.net/#!%2834.988003703040825,%20-85.21569439531254%29

 

I ran across the free campsite/roadside camping stuff just a few days before I left. It would definitely be possible and I definitely thought about it, but I wanted to try and keep the first motorcycle camping trip pretty easy and basic.

 

On another note, you meet all sorts of interesting people when you travel by yourself. People seem more inclined to talk when you are alone, rather than with a friend or group of people. I was definitely riding solo, but nearly every stop I made, there was some kind of character there...

[jch82]

Good write up. How nice that she brought you the fan. That's very thoughtful!

 

Mary

Yes it was very nice of her. It ended up being in the low 60's by morning though so the fan didn't see any use. I just told her the fan worked out very good.

[jch82]

http://youtu.be/rzeHLjkI-oQ

 

Luckily I didn't hear this all night! I'm not sure what or if there is a train schedule, but I was heating up some water for instant cappuccino and oatmeal around 8am and this clamors past the campground. Other than the train, the morning went off without incident and several of the people I had talked to the night before stopped by to say hi and wish me luck. What I really think though, is they wanted to see if I survived the night in that little tent!

 

 

 

[blue-yamaR6s]

it was the little white fan wasn't it with the little old ladies?

[ScubaCinci]

Taking the 135i convertible down there tomorrow...wish I could throw the bike in the trunk

[jch82]

it was the little white fan wasn't it with the little old ladies?

Lol yeah

[jch82]

Breakfast

 

The burner setup is an MSR Pocket Rocket and Jetboil fuel canister. The mug is 20oz and stainless steel. I tried to keep the camp food pretty basic to just things I could make with hot water. Time to finish packing up and get back on the road.

My favorite road trip food! I have stopped at many Taco Bell's across the country and this one in West Virginia has been the cheapest of them all. This was just shortly after 11am, so I had the whole joint to myself. As you can see, I have another window seat. I can't imagine I'm the only one that parks their bike near a window seat?