Back in the saddle again…

I had been talking to my friend Steve about it for a couple of years… “We should do a short weekend tour”. He had been gearing up for it the whole time – buying a touring bike, refining his camping equipment, buying the latest and greatest in GPS navigation equipment. So, it was time.

We decided to do a 3 day, 2 night tour. I had picked out a route starting from home and riding to the French Broad river the first day, then to Hot Springs, then home. It happened to be the beginning of April, and who would have thunk that spring breakers would be filling up every campground around. Not being able to find a campsite, I changed course. Go south below Asheville and start at a friends in Mills River, ride through Hendersonville, past Saluda, and camp at a local campground near the Green River Gorge. The next day we would ride along the Green River for about 15 miles before climbing 1000′ out of the gorge and heading back to Mills River. Needing another night camping, there was a sweet national forest campground in North Mills River… and a site was actually available on the weekend! It has been my experience that America has gone camping crazy during the pandemic and it is very hard, if not impossible, to find a campsite on weekends on short or even long notice.

Originally planning on leaving on Friday morning, we postponed a day because temperatures were forecast to be in the low 20’s that night. So, the next day, after dropping my pup Sherpa off at the kennel, we got an early start driving down to our friend Sunny’s house. Skies were blue and the sun was bright as we suited up and loaded up the bikes to begin. After customary pictures, off we went towards Hendersonville. As can be expected, start of trip glitches arise. My Garmin was wanting to navigate to the start, not to our destination. Switching over to my phone RWGPS app allowed us to make the turns and be on our way. A good portion of the route to Saluda was on a heavily trafficked road, so I was glad that I had discovered the pool noodle. The pool noodle sticks out into traffic about 2 feet, is pink, and is a gentle reminder to motorists to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!

After a stop in Saluda at a local bike shop to get a derailleur adjustment (Thanks Chris!) we rode along a scenic valley, seeing several other cyclists out for the day. The campground for the night was the Silver Creek Campground, which had many seasonal sites with 5th wheels and some small cabins. The sites were pretty barren, so their solution was to anchor a 15×15 foot piece of astroturf for pitching your tent on. Actually not a bad idea.

The next day we were off by 10 and enjoying a beautiful morning riding along the Green River. Lots of seasonal cabins and campers, the occasional resort and big house. Then the fun ended. We knew we would be climbing out of the gorge and the time had come. Fortunately, the grade was manageable except on the switchbacks where I recorded 38% incline! Passing cars would slow down and the drivers would hang their head out the window and shout “Good job!” At the top, it was a slow grind back through Saluda and Hendersonville to get to the beer. Yes, to the beer. A musician friend just happened to be playing at Mills River Brewery, so there we were! Bikes and beer, they just seem to go together. Our friend Sunny also had planned to be there, as well as a sizeable contingent of Burnsvillians. After partaking in the music, food and drink, Steve and I got back in the saddle for the 8 miles to the campground. For dinner it was another round of Knorr Swiss rice a roni washed down with the remaining Fireball whiskey.

In the morning we rode some quaint country backroads – some twice since we missed a turn off. After arriving at Sunny’s, we headed towards Asheville and stopped for BBQ and ice cream. Good food and sweet reward for a fun little weekend adventure!