Yeah, so we didn’t exactly beat up a mountain, but I did come close to beating up a guy in a white pickup truck that decided to half run us off the road. The traffic is murder, and the ride from Craggy Garden’s Visitor Center to the top of Mount Mitchell is predominately and unforgivingly uphill, but hey there’s only one dark tunnel of death and you get to brag that you made it to the top of Mount Mitchell, which the spandex crowd treats as a pilgrimage site and holy grail. On your unassuming small tire folding grocery getter.
How you get there: If you want manageable mileage (because you have to pedal here – most riders will find 750 watts or less insufficient to throttle to the top of the mountain) I highly recommend parking at the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, or you can go through the tunnel and park at the parking lot for the Craggy Garden’s summit trail. Both have lots of parking but are extremely popular.
Time for the ride: 13.8 miles one way on an out and back to the top of the mountain. Once you make the turn to go up to Mount Mitchell off the parkway it is unforgivingly and continually up. The ride to this point is up and down. Be aware that on two attempts at this ride we saw a total of 3 bears on the side of the road, 2 on the parkway and 1 on the road up to Mount Mitchell. Bring bear spray and know how to use it – you can’t run away effectively on an electric bike in heavy traffic and going up hill! Bears are more common in the morning and evenings than during midday.
Best season to do this ride: A week day before the peak summer and fall seasons but after the parkway reopens after the winter is ideal.
Route to Ride
You start out at Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, land of the tourists, and go up hill to the only tunnel on the route, which is also one of those rare tunnels on the parkway that doesn’t have much of a shoulder inside (most of them do). The traffic here is heavy, and while most people are on vacation and not keen to interrupt the good vibes with manslaughter, be mindful of anyone distracted by the scenery. There is no shoulder on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the general consensus is that it is a car road – if you ride a bike you are doing so at your own risk. The park service has a grumpy web page about it and everything.
All that being said, so far I haven’t had to many problems, and this ride was no exception. You get through the tunnel, go up hill, and pass a couple of overlooks. The most interesting is Glassmine Falls Overlook, and the falls when active is on that teenie tiny rock face on the far side of the valley. Unfortunately, if it hasn’t rained in a while there isn’t much to see. However, if you’re riding this area in June Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell are both known for their rhododendron blooms, which are perfuse and gorgeous this time of year. There are also native azaleas and a number of less showy native wildflowers like Jack in the Pulpits to spot and since you’re on a bike and can easily pull over, photograph.
The one exception to this is that as you ride and climb into the basalms you’re entering the Asheville Watershed, where the local water authority would prefer you not stop, especially to relieve yourself :). However, your patience will be rewarded with a spectacular view of the distant Burnett Reservoir, which provides the city of Asheville with its drinking water. This will be your last big hurrah as you continue through more spectacular scenery arriving at last at the turn up to Mount Mitchell. The gate here is hard to get around or under and it closes around 7:30 pm, so if you’re night riding to the top realize you will literally have to shove your bike under this big hulking wood gate (there’s a small gap) and then crawl under or over yourself. Very annoying, and combined with this mountain being a bear hell I would suggest just going during regular visiting hours.
Of course, the downside of regular visiting hours on the weekend, as you’ll experience as you start up the unrelenting uphill to the summit, is all the cars. So, so many cars. There’s even less of a edge to this road than the vanishingly small edge on the parkway and people stop off at this summit on their way to somewhere else so they are decidedly less than patient. The first point of interest is the ranger station, which comes up on your right, then the restaurant (which is lately not often open but does have a bike rack), followed by ranger housing and the very popular and generally booked up campground. I can however highly recommend the campground for those looking to stay overnight – it is gorgeous during the rhododendron bloom.
The road continues past, and keeps climbing including up and around the hairpin turn, until you reach the large parking area at the summit. There are no great views from the parking area. To reach the actual final summit you’ll have to dismount, chain the bike to a post (there was no bike rack for some reason despite the popularity of this assault) and walk 300 yards up hill on a paved surface to the viewing platform. Worth the walk, but if you aren’t keen to leave your bike a bit of an annoyance. Instead, if you want to stay in view of that expense ride of yours, there’s a picnic area with a fake log cabin picnic shelter at the bottom of the parking lot you can roll down to and take some okay photos. So get your obligatory evidence photograph and then it’s time to go back – though despite being on the highest peak in NC you will find the way back is not in fact all downhill.
Craggy Mountain Tunnel
Glassmine Falls Overlook – though no falls visible at the moment
Riding on the parkway
Obligatory proof of arrival photo
The sole bike rack on the mountain!
Path up to the top
View from the top of Mount Mitchell
At the top parking lot – unfortunately the nice lady who tried to take a photo for us was unable to get my phone to work properly. She doesn’t know how to coax its internal gremlins into not wreaking havoc for a few minutes.
In sum: I fully intend to tell everyone I’ve ridden to the top of Mount Mitchell. I don’t intend to tell them where I started :). Though I’ll probably mention the bears.
packgoats 