Spring Training Day 7 Blue Ridge Parkway

Sometimes you find a route that sounds so nice - Blue Ridge Parkway and Arboretum... And so you set out. First to find parking at the "start" was impossible (downtown Asheville = 2 hour max) so we "stick-handled around" and parked at the visitors center. Parked and started. Exiting Asheville was not easy. Busy roads, no bike lane, climbing... A bit of a triple threat, but we made it to the Blue Ridge Parkway on ramp 

The parkway has no commercial vehicles, which is nice, but also has no shoulder, and today it had lots of traffic.  We did a brief stop at the visitors centre and then took to the parkway, in our bright yellow, with our lights flashing. 

(Above is the only photo I got on the parkway, taken with my phone in its Quad Lock.  We were going up and I could just get Marc. Note, no shoulder) 

It was not an easy ride, the drivers were in more of a rush than we ever experienced on the Natchez Trace. But it was pretty, and as we crossed the French Broad River we took the off ramp to the Arboretum. 

We found a nice little bench by a creek to have a quick lunch (it was cold) and carry on. 

We realized after a few kilometers that this route was not for us. Lucky for me I travel with my personal "plan a new route on the spot" guy. We pulled off the busy 4 lane 45 mph road and found a quieter route back to the car. It was not that easy...

We made our way down down down to the French Broad River to find the greenbelt trail under construction. So we made our way up up up and a few miles closer to Asheville we found the open trail.  More kilometers and more climbing today than we set out to do 😏

But we eventually found Asheville.  They say Asheville is one of America's "most walkable cities." Ok maybe, but not so much for the cyclist.. (what does this sign even mean?)

Back to the car at last, and then we did some walking. For food, drinks and ice cream! 

The view from Asheville is very pretty and there are some lovely buildings and churches.  They take great pride that all their restaurants are local, no chains, and there are lots of lovely shops. 

Below is an indoor shopping building, three floors of pretty shops and cafes.

And Roger. The lion. 

Strava stats for the day. 

Thanks for following along with us!