Bikes Galore

.
Yesterday, I went out for a ride as usual.  I picked a route that is similar to one I rode last year with a buddy.  Up US-178 and NC-215, onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, to the visitor center just north of Asheville North Carolina, then wandered back on too-busy roads through Fletcher, and back down US-276 through Caesars Head and back to Easley.

Like this:

View Larger Map

It was a great day to ride.  A little cool -- 41 degrees -- to start, but warming up nicely to around 77 later in the day, with low humidity.  Of course, the temperatures are lower at the higher elevation of the Parkway, so it was just about perfect weather to ride in God's country. 

There were some spots where gravel had washed across the road, and another place where matted leaves had washed across the road and created what looked like little brown mounds stuck to the road.

I managed to negotiate all these with minimal problems.  Once, on NC-215, two touring bikes coming the other way were on my side of the road as I came up on them.  They had crossed the center line to avoid some gravel, but the way they did it was not good: They should have steered a straight path through the gravel, staying in their own lane, as it was a straight section of road. 

There was something else in evidence on my ride, too.  Bikers.  Lots of them.  Dozens, no hundreds.  Maybe thousands coming south on 178 at I was headed north.  You will recall that in my last post, Wiggly Roads Nearby, I referenced the number of maniacal and not so maniacal bikers of all kinds who enjoy this section of US-178. 

They are certainly out in spades today!  More than I have ever seen through here. 

The bikers today were clad somewhat differently than the way I dress for a ride. 

Take a look: 

Yep.  Bicycles.

This is on an uphill section for them.  Their spandex-clad bodies looking fit, but struggling to get up the grade.  Earlier, I had encountered the leaders of the pack going downhill, south of here.

Courageous, they.  As they coasted and sometimes pedaled to go even faster downhill, they were rounding the curves faster than I can ride comfortably on the Ninja.  And they were in packs.  If any of them had faltered, many of them would have crashed.  What a mess of injuries would result!  That spandex doesn't have any cushion and wouldn't last more than a foot or two sliding along the tarmac. 

Makes me feel much more comfortable in my ATGATT. 

Those tiny bicycle tires were certainly doing their best to keep some 200 pounds of bike and rider on the right track.  I didn't get any pictures of their downhill plunge.  I'm not sure my shutter speed is fast enough to capture their passage at speed. 

Whatever the occasion, there were certainly a bunch of cyclists participating.  As a result, traffic had to go slow while passing them, for their safety and ours.

Later in the day, I encountered another group on US-276 as I passed Caesars Head.  Might have been the same group or another one, but it was an organized ride, too.  I didn't see nearly as many of them on this road.

They must have some significant stamina to take on the hills in this neck of the woods.

I might add, that I a saw a surprising number of people with gray hair sticking wildly out of their helmets.  Wow.  I get tired riding the motorcycle up and down these hills at my advanced age!

Anyway, they sure did have a nice day for their ride.

Edit: I later determined that I had encountered the Assault on the Carolinas rides, an annual fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Pisgah Forest.  The AOTC includes three route options--100k, 60k, and 40k. The 100k route goes through North Carolina and South Carolina mountains and valleys and up a challenging 6 mile climb to Ceasar's Head State Park. The 40k and 60k routes go through the river valleys of Scenic Transylvania County.  The ride starts and finishes in downtown Brevard North Carolina.  The longest ride is 65.6 miles, with an elevation gain of 5,567ft. 

My motorcycle ride was also very pleasant.  I didn't stop very often, just enjoyed the roads.  A total of 174 miles, racked up pretty quickly.  It seemed like only a hundred or so when I got home.  I must have been enjoying it! 

On the way home, I snapped this shot at Edens Garden, the little rest stop I wrote about at the corner of SC-8 and SC-135. 

 

Pretty, don't you think?  And patriotic. 

You bicyclists, a tip of my helmet to you, tackling the challenge of these hilly roads. 
.


.

Wiggly Roads Nearby

.
Well, I'd just finished doing my taxes, so I went out for a ride Saturday.  I needed something to get my mind off of other people spending my heard-earned money!

Some of the motorcycle forum posters have been posting of late about a couple of roads in the nearby mountains, so I decided to renew my acquaintance with a few of these roads.

I start out in temperatures in the mid-30s, from home in Easley South Carolina, and go over to Pickens via. a nice but featureless road.  I pick up US-178 in Pickens, and the curves start in.  First some sweepers, that include a perfect curve.  A few of the sweepers are back to back the closer you get to SC-11 near the Holly Springs Country Store, a place where bikers of all shapes and sizes stop to link up for rides in the area.  It is also a place to gas up and grab a breakfast or snack.  I reach the store there are no others there, so I move along, across SC-11, and get to the curvier section of this highway.

 This is a favorite section for maniacal and not so maniacal bikers ranging from bicycles, to scooters and giant cruisers.  The road surface is in pretty good shape -- and clean today, but watch the advisory signs, as there are a couple of tight bends -- for me down to 2nd or 3rd gear.  The road straightens out about half way to the North Carolina state line, but tightens up again further north. 

Lets look at the map. 

View a larger map of these wiggly roads
 
We've been talking about the sections between Pickens at the bottom, and Pushpin B near the top. 

Click the link to see a larger version of the map, and move around by holding down your mouse button.  Zoom in by selecting the + box.

Just after Pushpin B, lies Rosman North Carolina.  You can get gas there to continue your journey if you need it. You can continue north on NC-215 and reach the Blue Ridge Parkway (as we did on this ride) and beyond.  

Today, I seek out a gentle road I have not been on for a while.  I make my way on it over to Pushpin D, at US-276.  If you follow 276 toward the south, you pass Dupont Forest and Caesars Head before descending the Blue Ridge Escarpment.  If you go north, you find some almost straight roads to Brevard North Carolina, then some nice twists and turns and great scenery further north, to the Blue Ridge Parkway, passing Looking Glass Falls and the Cradle of Forestry on the way. 

Be certain to keep your eyes peeled at Pushpin C.  Watch especially for some wildlife advisory signs on the north side of the road.  I don't think you will ever have seen such signs anywhere else. 

Also, watch for two very tight right handers just before Pushpin D.  Neither is marked. 

Just a mile down US-276, stop at Pushpin E, Connestee Falls.  There is a small parking lot and a picnic table.

A two minute walkway lads to an overlook where you can see two falls converging from almost right below your feet and from across the valley.  On the map:


View Larger Map

Picturesque.

 

I eat a snack and drink some water here.  After another mile and half, I turn onto East Fork Road, at Pushpin F.  Except for a few tight bends, this is mostly sweepers, and the road surface is a nice, mostly uniform color and surface texture.  ...and there are not very many driveways along here.  Watch for some part-lane patching, though there are no major edge traps. 

The tightest turns come at Big Hill, marked at an advisory 10 MPH.  Of course, you can go faster than that on the bike.  Unfortunately I am coming down the hill, so it is not as much fun as going up.  I use a little of the downhill rear brake technique I learned a while back.  I helps you feel more in control, but don't forget that it works safely only when you are also applying power. 

Just below Big Hill are the bears and the yellow arthropod with a very hard exoskeleton. 

We will follow East Fork past the point where we will eventually turn sharply left onto Glady Fork Road to head toward home.  This stretch, toward Pushpin G, intersects with US-178 just below Rosman.  I travel there, then back to Glady Fork Road.  Be very careful along here, as the turns are tighter than on the previous part of the road, and there are several sharp 90-degree turns that are unmarked.  East Fork Road follows the East Fork (surprise!) of the French Broad River most of the way.  For a sedate change of pace, there is good fly fishing in this stream. 

I turn around and go back the other way on East Fork.  It is a different ride, but watch for the tight turns again.  This time, I bear right onto Glady Fork Road.  This has a good surface and not many driveways, too.  There is a series of small waterfalls on the left side along here. 

Soon enough, I reach the stop sign where the road to the highest point in South Carolina, Sassafras Mountain, is easily accessible.  I turn left and find the newly-paved road to the top.  There is no center line, so watch for slaloming cars coming the other way.

At the top, Pushpin H, I park and note that the new observation platform they erected in 2010 is gone, replaced by an ugly, expensive, out-of-place monstrosity.  This is the old new one: 

 This is the new new one. 

I'll bet your hard earned tax dollars went to tear out the old new one and put this in.  What a waste.  Oh, by the way, it isn't for handicap accessibility either.  The old new overlook was at ground level for smooth wheeling.  The new new one is about a foot off the ground at the start.  Convenient, eh? 

My just-finished tax returns flash to mind again.  Darn, I was just starting to get over that.  Why does our government do this to us?

I spend a few minutes looking at the scenery, then head back down.   Except for one hairpin, the road is pretty mild.

I turn left onto F. Van Clayton Highway and wend my way back to US-178 at Rocky Bottom, Pushpin I.  From there, I head back down the hill toward SC-11, and then to Pickens and home. 

I have only traveled about a hundred miles, but almost every mile was enjoyable. The temperature has warmed up to about seventy, and the sun has made God's creation scenic. 

Come along next time, and see these sights with me.

....and see if you can spot those interesting signs I mentioned.


Edit: find an update on Sassafras Mountain here.  

.

 .

PARI, Placed in Perspective

.
Way back in April of 2009, just when I had reached 10,000 miles on my bike, I wrote about visiting the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, or PARI for short.  This impressive facility is located only a little over forty miles from home, but it is truly out of this world in appearance.

If you remember, as quoted from the PARI website:

"The facility, then called the Rosman Research Station, was a NASA site used during the 1960s and 1970s for tracking manned and unmanned space flights. It was the nation’s primary east coast satellite-tracking facility. In 1981, the facility was transferred to the Department of Defense for use as an intelligence gathering facility for U.S. defense and satellite communications. In 1995, the Department of Defense closed the facility, and turned the site over to the U.S. Forest Service.

"In 1999, the site was purchased from the U.S. Forest Service and given to PARI for use as an astronomical research and educational facility."

PARI hosts homeschool days, public tours on Wednesday afternoons, and Evenings at PARI held once a month to hear about and view the Heavens.

Anyway, I was riding on Saturday November 5 up NC-215 north of Rosman North Carolina on the way to somewhere else, when I turned down Macedonia Church Road toward PARI on a whim.  The facility is usually closed on Saturdays, so I really didn't expect to be able to go in.  I was surprised to see that the gates were open, so I went on in.

As it turns out, the site was hosting TEDxKatuah: The Art of Discovery.

For you who are not well informed, the TED website says that TED and Katuah are: 

...a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

Katuah is a name often used to reference the bioregion that includes the mountain areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and northern Georgia.  A bioregion is defined by physical, environmental, and cultural features, which mirrors the interdisciplinary nature of this event, TEDxKatuah. 

It is said that the word “Katuah” was adopted from a Cherokee name for the mother town, Kituwah or Kituhwa. Although the exact origins surrounding the use of Katuah as a name for the bioregion are murky, the name may have been coined by Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann in the 1970s.

Oh.   Now we know. 

The event was organized by TEDxAsheville and featured speakers, exhibits, performances and interactive events.

Well, I had blundered into the middle of it, and was rubbernecking the big dishes and other things around.  I didn't stay, though they invited me provided I register, but I did snap a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the magnitude of one of the two largest dishes on the property.

Front view.

Rear view. 

This dish has a diameter of eighty-five feet.  BIG. 

Makes me feel small.  Just think of what this dish may have seen through its electronic eye while looking heavenward.  

Go visit some time.  For five bucks, they will give you a great two-hour tour. 

.

 .

Ride to Mt. Mitchell -- Highest Point East of the Mississippi

.
Our church riding group planned a trip to the highest point east of the Mississippi, Mt. Mitchell, in North Carolina. Though I had never been there, the roads on the way there were somewhat familiar, including the previously-reported-on US-178 and a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is to be our longest ride thus far, so we start out an hour earlier than usual, at 8:30.

We are gratified that four new guys show up to join us for the ride. They are all from Easley, and have been interested in riding with us but never had the chance to get away on the days we scheduled previously. Even so, today they have not allocated enough time to do the entire ride, so they decide that they would break off part way through and return home.

The weather report has predicted rain chances for several days, but the latest report gives only a 30% chance, so we prepare to get started.

An aside:

I continue to be surprised at how little protective gear most riders wear. Nearly all of the riders I see in town have very little protective equipment in evidence. In the mountains, a higher percentage wear it, but even there it is, many times, not complete. A few are well protected. So I am in the minority as far as dressing for the ride is concerned.

As you recall, I never throw a leg over the bike unless I am fully geared up. For me, this is a leather suit, hard armor, motorcycle boots, gloves, and full face helmet. For most others, the protective gear consists only of a helmet and gloves. Sometimes the helmet is not included if they are not riding outside of South Carolina. Tee shirts, jeans, and light jackets in the summer time are the rule. We strongly urge our riders to dress for the fall rather than for the ride, but few actually do.

I recently purchased some new CE-rated hard armor for my white Fieldsheer one-piece leather suit. The modern armor is sold by Fieldsheer, and fit this old suit very well: The suit is about 17 years old. I bought it from a guy about thirty years my junior (Whew, I'm getting old!) who raced an '86 Honda VFR 750. Amazingly, the suit is very good condition for its age. I always wear my VelocityGear back protector under the suit as well.

I have become even more of a gear preacher since last weekend when a fellow rider went down while we were riding together. He ended up with his bike wedged under a guardrail, and sustained a broken wrist and other injuries. If he had not been wearing a leather jacket, leather pants, motorcycle boots, gloves, and a full-face helmet, his injuries could have been much worse. He will be hurting for some weeks, but he is alive to tell about it.

Anyway, back to the day's ride.

There is a bit of mist at the start, but it soon gives way to partly cloudy skies and comfortable temperatures.

We have our usual pre-ride briefing. I think this is important, so everyone knows where we are going, the pace we will be riding, where we will stop and gas up, what the road conditions are likely to be, etc. One of the most important instructions is to ride your own ride -- don't try to keep up if your fear level is rising or you are making mistakes. Easy advice to give, but sometimes hard to follow, since there is a marked tendency to be more confident than your level of experience should dictate.

Oh, and we say a prayer before leaving for protection, enjoyment, fellowship, and a chance to talk with someone about our faith.

Today, we are following this route:


View Larger Map

We make our way to Pickens and US-178. This road is moderately curvy south of SC-11. As usual, we stop at the Holly Springs Country Store for a quick break. As I have previously posted, this is a meeting spot for motorcyclists of all types. Today is no exception, and I see two of the students from the Collision Avoidance Class held at the church a couple of weeks ago. They cannot ride with us today, lacking the time to go as far as we plan. They happen to be heading the same way we are to start, and they leap frog us on their way, having left after we did from the store.

US-178 becomes quite technical in places north of SC-11 until you reach Rosman, NC. All of the riders today make it through in about the same time.

Interestingly, our ages range from mid-forties to late sixties for this ride. I am about the least experienced in riding, and the only one on a sporty bike. I am the leader today, since I worked out the route.

I note that I am less tense on this road the more times I ride it. Perhaps I am becoming more adept at negotiating the curves and trusting the bike. I have certainly not memorized it like many of the more experienced riders here. I have to read each curve as it comes, though I have begun to recognize two or three especially tight turns ahead of time. Lest you think that I am burning up the road, I'll tell you that I am slower than many who tackle this route.

We stop in Rosman to hydrate, since there is only one more place to do so until we reach Asheville, NC. The four guys who joined us at the start must turn off here, as they have not planned to be out for the entire day. They will go east on US-64 and return to Easley via. US-276, SC-8, and SC-135. Bon voyage, gentlemen!

Next for us is a very short stretch of US-64, then on to NC-215. The latter is not as twisty, and is not in as good a condition as 178, but holds no major hazards, just some bumps and patches in the pavement.

The entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway is quite unobtrusive, in keeping with the non-commercial nature of the road. Only a couple of small signs mark the turn. The rock overpass that you pass through before this entrance is another clue. Back in the thirties, the Parkway was a make-work project, and many construction techniques requiring hours of manual labor were specified to make the project provide more jobs. As a result, things like this overpass are quite attractive and of a type of craftsmanship not often seen today because of its cost.

We enter the Parkway at milepost 430 and go to the north. I have gone this way several times before, so am familiar with it. There are many overlooks along the way (about twenty-two between here and Mt. Mitchell), with vistas popping up on both sides of the road. This is possible because the highway traverses the highest points in many areas, so either way you look is downhill.

There are twenty-five tunnels all together on the Parkway, with several in this stretch at the mileposts listed.

• 422.1 Devils Courthouse Tunnel 650 ft long.
• 410.1 Frying Pan Tunnel 275 ft long.
• 407.4 Buck Springs Tunnel 380 ft long.
• 406.9 Little Pisgah Tunnel 500 ft long.
• 403.9 Fort Mountain Tunnel 350 ft long.
• 401.5 Ferrin Knob Tunnel No. 3 230 ft long.
• 401.3 Ferrin Knob Tunnel No. 2 310 ft long.
• 400.9 Ferrin Knob Tunnel No. 1, Trace Ridge 60 ft. long.
• 365.5 Craggy Flats Tunnel 335 ft long.
• 364.4 Craggy Pinnacle Tunnel 176 ft long.

It is wise to slow down through these tunnels, as many of them are long and some are curved so the sight distance is limited. It is easy to miss seeing a stopped or slow vehicle. In the cooler part of the year, ice can form in the tunnels, so extra care is needed then. Bicycles use this road extensively as well, and they are not easy to see.

We go along at the speed limit of 45 MPH, occasionally stopping to look or take a picture. We pass the US-276 entrance, milepost 411.8, where we exited the last time the group rode here. We next pass the Mt. Pisgah Inn where we had lunch that time through.

We gas up at a station near the NC-191 entrance. The North Carolina Arboretum is located here as well -- another good place for us to visit in future.

Once we get back on the Parkway, we continue north and start through the Biltmore Forest. This is land that was owned by Mr. George Washington Vanderbilt, who erected the largest private residence in the United States not far from the road. Vanderbilt was keenly interested in forestry, and had a good portion of the trees and other vegetation planted on his land, much of which had been logged out. The mansion is privately owned and is open for tours. It takes no government funds, so the price is higher than some other attractions, but it is well worth visiting.

There is also an interesting place to visit back on US-276 south of the Parkway called the Cradle of Forestry. It has both indoor and outdoor displays about forestry development. Early foresters got their start in this area of North Carolina. I went there last October for the annual Forest Festival Day and Intercollegiate Woodsmen's Meet. Teams of college students compete in log rolling, cross cutting, pole climbing, and such. It was interesting to watch.

From the Cradle of Forestry website:

"The 6,500-acre Cradle of Forestry Historic Site...contains the first official school for forestry in America – the Biltmore Forest School. After purchasing land in the Asheville, NC area in the mid to late 1800's, George Vanderbilt was prompted by Frederick Law Olmsted to hire a forester to maintain his property. Vanderbilt selected Gifford Pinchot to restore and manage his massive expanse of lands. It was during this time that Forestry in America began....

"These events paved the way for Dr. Carl Schenck to open the Biltmore Forest School in 1898. For 15 years, the students practiced the science and business of forestry and eventually produced over 300 foresters who began the profession of forestry in the United States."

This Biltmore Forest section of the Parkway has only a few overlooks and the curves are generally more sweeping than the section we have just left. It is noticeably cooler through here, too. The road is almost canopied in many places by the tall trees. The road is smooth and I enjoy the ride. There is a busy section south of Asheville, NC, where I suppose local traffic uses the Parkway for commuting. After that, it is again lightly traveled.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center is next up, at milepost 384. This visitor center, opened in April of 2008, covers the entire length of the Parkway. Displays inside show the history and features of the Parkway and surrounding territory.



Two of our bikes enjoying a rest while we look around.












The design of the Parkway was carefully engineered, down to the types of plantings to be installed.










You can get this key fob at the Destination Center. It is a reminder that the road is beautiful, but can be dangerous because of drivers taking in the views instead of watching the traffic, and because of the curving nature of the road.


I bought the zipper pull shown below. It depicts an actual sign on the Parkway, though not in the section we are riding today. I am not sure that a descending radius curve is the correct term, but decreasing radius certainly is, and there are some of those.

Here is a picture of a guy I know posing next to the real thing.

[photo courtesy of Ryan]

Precious children playing with bubbles outside the Destination Center.


After this, we head out again toward Mt. Mitchell.

Near Craggy Gardens, around milepost 364, the road is under construction. There had been a rockslide here in March of 2008, and they have been repairing it ever since. The road has only just reopened in the last few months. The pavement here is pocked where the top layer has come away. There is even one section where it is one lane with a traffic signal to regulate traffic coming from opposite directions. This is the only traffic light on the Parkway, and fortunately, it is only temporary until they get the pavement down again.

We arrive at the road to Mt. Mitchell, NC-128. This is an interesting road because it does not touch any other state highway. Rather it is a spur off the Blue Ridge Parkway. There is a twisty road advisory sign, but I am surprised how easy the turns are on the way to the highest point in this half of the country. Except for one moderate hairpin, the road is quite manageable.


[photo from http://www.state-ends.com/]

We pass the restaurant -- we will come back there in a little while for lunch -- and arrive at the large parking area near the peak. We find a place amongst the many open slots. There are lots of motorcycles and cars as well as bicycles here waiting for us. Some of the bicyclists are no spring chickens, either. There are a few who look to be in their fifties. Rugged, fit individuals, these.

It is noticeably cooler here at the top of Mt. Mitchell -- about 60 degrees, just a bit cooler than comfortable on the bike. Once we start our walk to the observation tower -- all uphill of course -- my leathers provide about the right amount of insulation for comfort with the exertion. The elevation at the top is 6684 feet above sea level. Easley is at 1079 feet, so we have climbed over a mile so far today, not counting the hundreds of other ups and downs between here and home.

From Wikipedia:

"The mountain was named after Elisha Mitchell, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who determined its height in 1835 and fell to his death at nearby Mitchell Falls in 1857, having returned to verify his earlier measurements. [O]n the summit is the tomb of Dr. Mitchell."

The view is fairly good, considering the cloudy conditions. Though we cannot see that far today, some of the most distant points that can be seen are eighty-some miles away.



The sky almost looks like a painting, doesn't it?












Did you notice how variable the lighting is today in the pictures above? One minute it is bright and sunny, and the next it is overcast and gloomy.

After we have gawked at the surrounding country, we head back toward the small visitor center and souvenir shop. There are displays inside describing the mountain, the weather, and the flora and fauna. An interesting fact is that the climate here is about the same as that in Canada, due to the elevation. Hikers who are ignorant of this have spent nights unprepared for the low temperatures and high winds.

When we have looked at the displays, we mount our steeds and motor back down to the restaurant. It is in a nice building, and the menu has a good selection. I order a $7.00 smoked turkey sandwich, envisioning a pile of succulent meat with some tasty garnishes. Alas, the sandwich has only two thin layers of turkey, one leaf of lettuce, and a greenish-red Styrofoam-textured tomato slice. Well, the scenery out the window is pretty anyway.


[photo from Romantic Asheville website]

We spend a little while in the restaurant, but decide to start on our way back so it would not be too late when we get home. The return is the same as the roads in here until we reach NC-191 again, south of Asheville. The Parkway is a bit clogged at the construction area. We have to wait, so I snap a picture of the lone traffic light.



At 191, we reluctantly exit the Parkway and head toward I-26. We stop for a few minutes to gas up again, and I survey the sky and comment that we have avoided rain all day long and that there is no chance of getting wet now. How fortunate we have been!

The superslab is busy and we watch traffic for an opening to merge into. I do not have a lot of experience riding on expressways, but it goes OK. The pavement is grooved through here to reduce hydroplaning, and the grooves cause the bike to weave and wander a bit. If you don't panic and stiffen up on the bars, the bike finds its way without incident.

After some miles, we veer off onto US-25 and continue toward Greenville. About two minutes later, the Heavens open up without warning. Cats and dogs are swimming for their lives in mid-air. There is no place to stop and put on our rain gear, so we press onward. We fall in behind another rider and his passenger, and hunker down. The rain is cold, and after a short time I feel it pooling in my nether regions: Not a good feeling.

Just as quickly as we entered the downpour, it stops and the sun comes out about when we get to SC-11. We turn onto it and go toward SC-8, Pumpkintown, SC-135, and then Easley. By the time we are half way home, the sun and wind have mostly dried my leathers -- including the sensitive spot -- and I am warmed up again.

We break off and scatter to our homes. When I turn off the bike, I note that I have ridden 253.3 miles -- shy by only five miles of being the longest single day ride of my career. My longest ride was with a group of sportbikers into Georgia last February.

I pull the bike into the garage, and begin to put things away. My leathers are still damp, so I ask our son to apply a dressing of Lexol before I take off the suit. A coat of the same on my boots helps them as well.

I peel off my suit with new-found ease because I have that new armor I told you about earlier in the suit's pockets instead of the full VelocityGear armored shirt on under the suit. I don't need help getting out any more! Here is a picture of that suit.


[photo taken at Wigington Byway overlook, July 27, 2009]

I hang the suit on a padded hanger in the house so the air conditioning can dry it slowly. I made the padded hanger from a wooden coat hanger covered with a section of foam pool noodle. It is much cheaper than a ready-made soft hanger.



It has been a long day -- it is about 6:15 PM -- but I have enjoyed the trip very much. I find that I am not too tired because we stopped several times and went along at a relaxed pace most of the way.


If you go:

Some excellent, tank-bag-size, printable Blue Ridge Parkway maps are available on the Blue Ridge Parkway Association website.

The Blue Ridge Parkway by Virtual Blue Ridge website has panoramic photos of many of the overlooks. Click "Parkway Tour," then "Overlooks."

The WikiTravel website has a mile-by-mile listing of overlooks and entrances to the Parkway.

A very good book with many illustrations is Building the Blue Ridge Parkway By Karen J. Hall, Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Inc.

A website with some pictures taken along the Parkway is here.

Bon voyage!
.

More About Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI)

.
A few days ago, I posted about my visit to the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute [PARI] north of here. This is some more information about that trip.


The PARI tour for the general public is every Wednesday at 2:00 PM. I took the day off and started out earlier than I needed to, so I had some time to kill -- riding, of course!


View Larger Map

I enjoy going north on SC-135, so I start out that way. I turn right on SC-186, ride through Dacusville, then US-276 to Marietta, and Cleveland, SC. I turn left on SC-11 and ride to a side road whose name catches my eye: "OLD OLD HWY 11." Hmmm. It must be really, really old! Rather, I think the meaning is that Highway 11 has been relocated twice, resulting in Old Hwy 11 becoming Old Old Hwy 11. I'll have to do some research on this. There are the remains of a building on the corner, evidenced only by a standing chimney with a first floor and a second floor fireplace opening. There is also a stream across the road with a beaver dam visible from the road.





A little further on, I come to Wildcat Branch falls. You don't even have to dismount to see the lower falls. All you have to do is stop and look. The name of the falls is not marked, but there is a wide paved parking area on the north side of the road.


View Larger Map

There is also an upper falls that is a short walk up the hill and the remains -- only the fireplace and chimney -- of a cabin that once was there.



While I am stopped, I can see Table Rock, so I take its portrait.



And a closer up view.



After a few minutes, I continue on a few more miles to the Table Rock visitor center, a favorite place to stop and rest, hydrate, and see the scenery. Recall that the view of Table Rock is very good from this vantage point, as is Lake Oolenoy. The ranger there also points out Pinnacle Mountain to me, the highest peak entirely within South Carolina.




There is a higher peak, Sassafras Mountain not far away, but part of it is in North Carolina.

Some low-growing flowers in bloom.



Azalea.



Tulips.



All right, all right, cut the comments about the softer side of Bucky. You have to agree that the flowers are pretty to look at.

Once I leave Table Rock, I go further along SC-11 to the Holly Springs Store. I usually stop there to see if there are other bikers about. Today there are two. Tim, riding a vintage Honda V-twin, and one other fellow.



I chat with Tim a bit about his bike. He says the bike was in good original condition, but he has done considerable cosmetic work, and some mechanical work to get it into the fine shape it is. The only thing that he says had been repainted is the fuel tank. He speaks proudly about how well it came out and his joy in riding it now that it looks and runs almost like new. Good work, Tim.

Tim is on his way to a family gathering, so he doesn't have an answer to my query about the road condition into the mountains on US-178. Neither does the other rider who is having breakfast. Oh well, I'll just have to find out for myself whether there is any sand or washed gravel on the road.

It turns out that there is neither. I take it easy, though nonetheless. I don't want to wreck. One of the particularly tight turns just before entering North Carolina has a stone monument to Charles Henry Moorefield, a South Carolina state highway engineer between 1920 and 1935, who probably had a part in designing this road. It must certainly have been a task. Look again at a closeup of the route up the Blue Ridge Escarpment.


View Larger Map





I reach Rosman, NC and stop for a drink of water and to rest for a few minutes. PARI is only a few more miles, so I have a little extra time.

Once rested, I continue to US-64, turn left, then turn right on NC-215 where Headwaters Outfitters is located. They do canoe, kayak, and tubing trips on the French Broad River and have a store here.

NC-215 is the route that also goes up to meet the Blue Ridge Parkway about fifteen miles north of US-64, a great place to ride that I will report on in future. Today, however, I am going just six miles to a side road called Macedonia Church Road. The driveway for PARI is off this road.



I stop at the entrance and take note of this sign.



I ponder it for a minute, but conclude that I must have missed my engraved invitation in the mail. Actually, their Wednesday tours are well-publicized on the Internet. I go past both the sign and an unmanned guardhouse. A sign at the guardhouse says to park by the flagpole. I wander along for a few hundred yards gawking at the two huge telescope dishes and the many buildings before I find the flagpole. It is better that I look around while on foot: It is too easy to steer off the road when on the bike with such interesting stuff around. I park, take off my gloves and helmet, pull off my tank bag, set my alarm, and go in.



A young astronomer near the entrance.



They charge a whopping five dollars for a tour. I open my wallet to retrieve some cash. By the way, my "wallet" is a zip-lock bag that I use to keep my money and identification in when I ride. That keeps the documents and what little money there is from getting soggy with sweat (sorry to bring it up, but sweat does happen) and from rain.

I take off my jacket, armored shirt, and sweatshirt and stow them with my tank bag near the front desk. I meet a pleasant woman at the desk who, it turns out, will be one of our guides today. The official designation on her badge is docent, which means a "volunteer trained to give educational tours to visitors." I join the small tour group of four others in a multimedia room for an introductory movie. It describes the history and current use of the site. It started out as NASA satellite tracking station, then was used for cold war listening in on overflying spy satellites, and is now used for research and education.

The docents today are Bobbie and John. Bobbie, the woman at the front desk and a former employee of the NASA tracking station in its (and her) earlier days, was later a college science teacher at nearby Brevard College and elsewhere. John is a retired electrical engineer. Both are very knowledgeable and articulate, and were eager to answer our questions.

We are allowed to take pictures of anything we see. It makes me feel like I am a privileged visitor to a secret spy installation. And so I am that -- just a few years too late!

These two small buildings were used for high-level briefings during the satellite monitoring period at PARI. Officials would disembark from their vehicles under the canopy and walk beneath it to the buildings, so spy satellites could not identify them.



PARI is a great place to visit, but an even better place to learn about astronomy, physics, and other disciplines. They offer classes for kindergarten through post-graduate students.

There are many radio telescopes there including two with a dish diameter of twenty-six meters (eighty-five feet).


Above photo is from the PARI website.

These are not the largest such dishes, but they are quite impressive, especially up close. They can point in any direction down to the horizon of the bowl-shaped PARI site. They were once positioned by hydraulic drives for control and speed. Remember that a satellite directly overhead can have considerable velocity and the dish must keep up with it. Today, the hydraulic drives have been replaced with electric drives. These are suited for the current use of the dishes but are much slower in positioning capability.

There are many more radio and optical telescopes around too, some of which can be controlled and monitored by students over the Internet. The surroundings are also ideal for optical telescope viewing of the Heavens as it is quite far away from artificial lighting sources.


Above photo is from the PARI website.


Above photo is from the Wikipedia website.

One educational program for students involves their building a radio receiver -- nicknamed JOVE, a name for Jupitor -- in the 20.1 MHz range that connects to the audio card of a computer to display the received waves, mostly from the planet Jupiter and from the sun.



JOVE receiving antennas: Wire dipoles.



Another project for students is building an optical telescope using an eyepiece and objective lens held in position by sections of PVC pipe. This makes for an inexpensive, but functional and fairly rugged telescope.



We walk through an underground passage that comes out near one of the large dishes. The passage contains all of the control and data cables for the dish. John quips that this is the self-guided portion of the tour -- we couldn't go wrong here anyway, since there is only one way to go.

Once we emerge from the tunnel, I ask about the blue glazed brick evident on the exteriors of many of the buildings. John tells us that the brick is NASA blue, and was specified so that the buildings did not have to painted, and did not require periodic maintenance.



Some more information from the PARI website:

"The facility, then called the Rosman Research Station, was a NASA site used during the 1960s and 1970s for tracking manned and unmanned space flights. It was the nation’s primary east coast satellite-tracking facility. In 1981, the facility was transferred to the Department of Defense for use as an intelligence gathering facility for U.S. defense and satellite communications. In 1995, the Department of Defense closed the facility, and turned the site over to the U.S. Forest Service.

"In 1999, the site was purchased from the U.S. Forest Service and given to PARI for use as an astronomical research and educational facility.

"A key man who had the vision to start the institute was J. Donald Cline. He was born in Statesville, NC, and has lived in the state most of his life. He has lived in Greensboro since 1959 when he joined the technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories. In 1977, Don left Bell Labs with three other engineers and formed Micro Computer Systems (MCS). Following the sale of MCS to Harris Corporation in 1995, Don served as the president of MCS Operations at Harris for one year.

"In 1998, Don founded the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute and continues to serve as PARI’s president and board member."

PARI hosts homeschool days, public tours on Wednesday afternoons, and evenings at PARI held once a month to hear about and view the Heavens.






Above photo is from the PARI website.

PARI is also home to the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA), a site to help preserve some 80,000 astronomical photographic plates. These glass plates were the primary recording medium for astronomy data from the late 1800s until the 1980s. The plates are being scanned into computer files for more rapid access by astronomers around the world. The scanning is done by a very accurate scanner supported by a large precision granite block. The resolution of the scanner is one micron (0.00004 in). It takes about half a day to scan each plate, and they have great banks of hard disk storage space to hold all the data. This will be quite a job!



The tour ends about 4:00 PM, and I linger for a few minutes on the site looking again at the buildings and equipment. It is certainly an interesting place, especially for someone who is a student of astronomy and science. Already, I would like to come back again.

I put on all my gear, mount my bike, and start out for home. It doesn't seem quite as far on the way back. Maybe I am becoming more confident in my riding. Being mostly downhill on NC-215 and US-178, I use the technique of staying in third or fourth gear to control my speed around the turns. It seems to work fairly well, but I find that I still must tell myself at times -- frequently out loud -- not to let off the throttle abruptly, and that a given curve is no problem for me to negotiate. Even though I am getting more accustomed to the twisties, I am certainly not as confident of the bike's abilities as I know I could be.

I reach home safely, having clocked 121 miles on my route today. I have enjoyed my time out riding and sightseeing. ...and passing this milestone I wrote about previously.


Here are some neat photographs from the PARI website:







More information about PARI is available in Wikipedia.

More information about the JOVE receiver is available at The John Burroughs Earth & Space Science Club at State University of New York (SUNY), Ulster County Community College, Stone Ridge, New York, and at the NASA website.
.