Today was a beautiful, difficult day as we crossed parts of the Great Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains to end up in Asheville, NC, an area we got to know a couple of months ago on a trip with Black Bear Adventures. We actually rode today's route backwards in August.
It was a great time of year to be here-- all the fall colours have come in, and the mountains were just amazing. Several thousands of other people thought so, too, and the steep, narrow roads were clogged with cars. One lady stepped out of her car and told our fellow rider, Kelly, "I just hate you bikers," at which point our guide, Katie, replied, "Well, they hate you, too." Overall, not a very positive exchange because it's a lot safer if we get along. But there's no shoulder on these roads, and when there's this much traffic, I understand that the motorists might get frustrated when they can't pass a cyclist going uphill. But we get frustrated, too, when we can't pass them going downhill even though we can safely reach higher speeds then cars. Why can't we all just get along?!
Our guides, Dave and Matt, hard at work.
