Not too many pics today as we got a late start since I had to work this morning. But Scott and I still got out and did some riding and one of our crazy adventure hikes too. We headed up NC 226A (a favorite for all) up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took that over to Mount Mitchell State park. Walked up to the summit (highest point this side of the Mississippi) and hung out there for a bit...... thought this was kind of a cool pic, lol. It wasn't long before we were completely engulfed and couldn't see much of anything



Nice and clear when we got up there, but it's been crazy weather all day



Then went down to the Craggy Gardens visitors center again to check out one of the other trails. There's supposed to be a 60' waterfall in the woods that we wanted to find. Still foggy.... everywhere you went just couldn't get out of it



So long story short.... the markings on the trails were terrible. For the most part, there was none.... and there were multiple trails and nothing telling you which one went where or how far to anything. So we ended up deep in the woods, never did find the waterfall, and the sun was setting fast. As we were trying to make our way out walking through thick woods, we come around a corner and there's a clearing with a perfect view along the trail.... had to snap a pic then back into thick woods where we'd continue to get lost, lol






We were on the trail we thought went back to one of the parking lots, it got real close and we could hear cars and bikes going by not too far away, but it kept taking us east, parallel with the BRP. It was getting to be close to 8:30 pm and getting dark FAST, we were both getting kinda nervous and had to get out and this trail just kept going and going, and started going down again, so we had to choice but to blaze our own trail through the non-traveled woods straight in the direction we knew we needed to be going (thanks to a GPS and compass on my phone for that, lol). Up a steep steep hill for a good ways grabbing onto anything we could get ahold of, and finally popped out in a random spot on the BRP, where it was an easy walk back to the parking lot where our bikes were

Then the ride home... talk about nerve racking, lol. Rain + heavy fog + pitch black + extremely twisty roads = NOT fun, lol. Especially with a smoke visor, haha (oops!). So needless to say I was down to about 20 mph in a few spots... I simply couldn't see anything, and had to ride with my visor open and could still barely see the yellow lines on the road. Finally made it home... a little wet but oh well..... definitely an adventure of a day for sure, lol

Probably won't be doing much riding tomorrow as I have to track prep my bike and get headed up to Virginia tomorrow afternoon for the trackday at VIR monday

 

dang, i was just there at mt mitchell last fri after noon. i went to gatlinburg to a friends house from columbia,sc where i live on thurs and spent the night there in gatlinburg. we left gatlinburg fri morn, went through newport, bristol, into boone,nc then back down to ashville via the parkway. it is crazy weather there sometimes for sure. half the time i was riding in heavy rain but, these michelin road 3 tires are excellent in rain, even in the heaviest down poor they stick to the road like super glue!

 

not a big talker eh, guess im not cool enough or something,lol.

 

Or maybe I was gone up to Virginia all weekend for a trackday, got home exhausted at 11pm last night and had to work all day today. Sorry didn't realize I had a time limit I had to respond by, lol *facepalm*

But anyways sounds like a fun ride... and yea it's def been some crazy weather here lately, especially up around the parkway, but for the most part been pretty nice this summer overall with just one little stretch where it just kept raining