Barrel
Member
PART 1:
Good day
We had given ourselves 10 years to make 3 great trips together in some of the places that interested us the most in North America!! We did portions of the US and Canadian Rockies in 2013, portions of Western US in 2016 and the Appalachian in 2018.
Under the same concept as our previous adventures, basically riding solo to get there to satisfy my adventurous side and ride some of the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Road (MABDR) as done on the COLORADO BDR and UTAH BDR, and ride a portion back home together (2up) focusing on more popular places .....
https://ridebdr.com/MABDR
The following is our RR of our last adventure in the MABDR, Nashville and the Appalachian with comments at the bottom of each photo. Thanks for the info and other RRs who helped us during our planning!!
Here is the draft of our itinerary, which is + -6,000 km or 3,800 miles across the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. In blue and black is my solo ride that cover most of the MABDR and return from Pittsburg, PA. In red is our ride together which includes such places as the Tail of the Dragon, Smokey Mountains, Blue Ridge Moutains/Parkway, Mount Mitchell, Skyline Drive which are part of the Appalachian Mountain Range which by the way extends from Newfoundland up to Alabama over more than 2,000 km / 1,200 miles.
After spending the night in Corning, which is near the border of the states of New York and Pennsylvania, I undertook the MABDR ... here is a typical gravel road of Northern Pennsylvania.
We could resume the MABDR as a series of mountain ranges and valleys ... generally well-groomed logging roads in the mountains and paved roads crossing the numerous valleys ... overall a nice and enjoyable ride !!!
Hundreds of km in this kind of nice forestry road. It is not difficult to get lost with many junctions and roads ..... glad to have bought a GPS from one of my friend !!!
... and what to say about the many curves, switchbacks, climbs and descents ... a real treat ...... I hardly met anyone in 4-5 days of BDR at this time of the year…(end of May)...
A single, slightly technical portion of a rock climb to the right that you can’t see on this photo which was taken near the summit ...
Beautiful view from one of the many summits...
Always impressive to see people working on the pipeline which I will cross several times along the BDR..
Another beautiful valley of Virginia ... a good portion of the MABDR runs along the border between the 2 Virginia…
Impressive to see this young farmer with 6 x workhorses!!!
I also enjoyed the Southern portions which I found a bit more scenic and challenging in some ways…
My favorite were the numbers 2 and 3 out of the 9 MABDR sections....
Some small obstacles caused by the storms of the day before .... I consider myself lucky as I was bypassing or going around numerous rain storms…
Kind of a small canyon just before Damascus..
The last few kms before arriving at Damascus ..... finally I traveled approximately 1,400 km / 900 miles on 1,700 km / 1,050 miles of the MABDR ...... a rather enjoyable and easy route much doable for most riders ... with a few more technical optional sections. Thanks to those who have established it because not obvious especially with the distances to cover, so many private lands and so close from high populated areas It is not the COBDR but still very much enjoyable!
I arrived in Nashville on June 02 and met with Nancy the same day who had flew from Ottawa. We stayed at the Nashville Hotel-Club Inn and Suites for 3 nights .... we had good discounts and the hotel offered shuttles to the airport and downtown which was very convenient…
http://www.clubhotelnashville.com/
We enjoyed our visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame ..... Oups...Nancy locked up in a huge guitar…
We enjoyed the many bars and country bands along Broadway road ...... but most bands and bartenders are not paid ... so you have to tip often ... and with $ 6.00 USD a beer, it could get pretty expensive ... well at the end of the day... a good 6 packs along with some rum-whiskey-wine by the pool was welcome…
We enjoyed our visit of the Nashville Pantheon which was built in 1897. It is an exact replica of the one in Athens that we have visited during our trip to Greece in 1994…
Good day
We had given ourselves 10 years to make 3 great trips together in some of the places that interested us the most in North America!! We did portions of the US and Canadian Rockies in 2013, portions of Western US in 2016 and the Appalachian in 2018.
Under the same concept as our previous adventures, basically riding solo to get there to satisfy my adventurous side and ride some of the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Road (MABDR) as done on the COLORADO BDR and UTAH BDR, and ride a portion back home together (2up) focusing on more popular places .....
https://ridebdr.com/MABDR
The following is our RR of our last adventure in the MABDR, Nashville and the Appalachian with comments at the bottom of each photo. Thanks for the info and other RRs who helped us during our planning!!
Here is the draft of our itinerary, which is + -6,000 km or 3,800 miles across the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. In blue and black is my solo ride that cover most of the MABDR and return from Pittsburg, PA. In red is our ride together which includes such places as the Tail of the Dragon, Smokey Mountains, Blue Ridge Moutains/Parkway, Mount Mitchell, Skyline Drive which are part of the Appalachian Mountain Range which by the way extends from Newfoundland up to Alabama over more than 2,000 km / 1,200 miles.
After spending the night in Corning, which is near the border of the states of New York and Pennsylvania, I undertook the MABDR ... here is a typical gravel road of Northern Pennsylvania.
We could resume the MABDR as a series of mountain ranges and valleys ... generally well-groomed logging roads in the mountains and paved roads crossing the numerous valleys ... overall a nice and enjoyable ride !!!
Hundreds of km in this kind of nice forestry road. It is not difficult to get lost with many junctions and roads ..... glad to have bought a GPS from one of my friend !!!
... and what to say about the many curves, switchbacks, climbs and descents ... a real treat ...... I hardly met anyone in 4-5 days of BDR at this time of the year…(end of May)...
A single, slightly technical portion of a rock climb to the right that you can’t see on this photo which was taken near the summit ...
Beautiful view from one of the many summits...
Always impressive to see people working on the pipeline which I will cross several times along the BDR..
Another beautiful valley of Virginia ... a good portion of the MABDR runs along the border between the 2 Virginia…
Impressive to see this young farmer with 6 x workhorses!!!
I also enjoyed the Southern portions which I found a bit more scenic and challenging in some ways…
My favorite were the numbers 2 and 3 out of the 9 MABDR sections....
Some small obstacles caused by the storms of the day before .... I consider myself lucky as I was bypassing or going around numerous rain storms…
Kind of a small canyon just before Damascus..
The last few kms before arriving at Damascus ..... finally I traveled approximately 1,400 km / 900 miles on 1,700 km / 1,050 miles of the MABDR ...... a rather enjoyable and easy route much doable for most riders ... with a few more technical optional sections. Thanks to those who have established it because not obvious especially with the distances to cover, so many private lands and so close from high populated areas It is not the COBDR but still very much enjoyable!
I arrived in Nashville on June 02 and met with Nancy the same day who had flew from Ottawa. We stayed at the Nashville Hotel-Club Inn and Suites for 3 nights .... we had good discounts and the hotel offered shuttles to the airport and downtown which was very convenient…
http://www.clubhotelnashville.com/
We enjoyed our visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame ..... Oups...Nancy locked up in a huge guitar…
We enjoyed the many bars and country bands along Broadway road ...... but most bands and bartenders are not paid ... so you have to tip often ... and with $ 6.00 USD a beer, it could get pretty expensive ... well at the end of the day... a good 6 packs along with some rum-whiskey-wine by the pool was welcome…
We enjoyed our visit of the Nashville Pantheon which was built in 1897. It is an exact replica of the one in Athens that we have visited during our trip to Greece in 1994…