Date: 07/09/2009 Thu
Destination: Fancy Gap, VA
Miles: 546
States: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia
What a day! Some really enjoyable parts, some not so enjoyable.
I left Cape May about 7am and headed the two miles to the Ferry terminal to catch a 7:30am boat ride across the Delaware Bay to Lewes, Delaware. The weather was beautiful and the bay quite calm. Once I purchased my ticket, I was treated to “Rock Star” boarding/parking. I was put at the front of the ferry so I’d be the 2nd or 3rd off the boat.
A local fishing boat headed out for the morning run
Rockstar parking
The trip over was nice, about an hour and a half for the 25 or so miles. Just as we were pulling into Lewes, I caught the tip of a couple dolphins headed to intercept us. You can almost make their tails out
Arrival at Lewes, DE. They too have the Fire Control towers
Once off the ferry, I made my way across Delaware. Delaware is much like the other farming communities mixed with the requisite dairy operations.
Clearing Delaware was only 30 minutes or so then on into Maryland which again, is much like Delaware.
The Monocacy River Valley where a big civil war battle was. I was amazed at the size of the battlefield, as small as it was
I came in at Annapolis and headed straight for Washington DC. Coming within a half a dozen miles, I skirted the city on the loop and then headed North on 270 until a little town where a local said “turn here if you want to see some good roads”. OK, so I did that and followed his directions that took me down into West Virginia with the little hook at Harpers Ferry. From there, on down to the beginning of Skyline Drive at Front Royal, Virginia.
At Harpers Ferry, I stopped in at a KOA and inquired about campsites down the road. The gal pulled out her book and we found one at Fancy Gap, Virginia to the South and she called to see if they had space which they did. I asked the girl if I could get there by 8pm, or six hours taking Skyline Drive and the Blueridge Parkway. She said “Sure, come on down”. OK, I took her word for it. Bad move.
The river at Harpers Ferry
I fueled up in Front Royal at 2pm and found the entrance to the Shenandoah National park and Skyline Drive, paid my ten buck entry fee good for a week and was off under cloudy skies to the maximum of 35MPH through the park. I’ve got to say, this was one VERY nice ride segment. Albeit fairly hazy and cloudy, these are about the best shots I could muster under the circumstances.
The beginning….
The park entrance
Well, 106 miles later and some three hours I was spit out on the bottom end of Skyline Drive and onto the Blueridge Parkway. Much like Skyline Drive, this road is a bit wider, doesn’t hug the mountain edges as much and has a 45MPH limit. Along the way, the skies began to lower and mist turned into rain where I stopped and geared up in the rainsuit. There were very few vehicles on the road approaching dusk, but the critters were out.
This has to be my favorite sign so far. (on the BRP)
Fuel was starting to play into the equation as there are limited gas stops along both the Skyline Drive and Blueridge. I figured the only way to get fuel was to duck off the parkway to the Interstate a dozen or so miles to the North. I was also doing the time/distance calculations and the gal at the KOA was WAY OFF base. Of the six hours planned, three of it was killed by Skyline leaving six for the 150 or so miles of BRP. After that nonsense, I ducked over to the Interstate fueled up and ran 120 miles down to the Fancy Gap KOA arriving about 10pm. So with the Interstate run, the trip was a full eight hours and 120 of that at 70mph in the dark rain. I can’t begin to imagine how long I would have been on the mountain.
Speaking of mountain, I started today at basically sea level and up through Skyline Drive topped out about 3350 feet above sea level. Needless to say, the elevation change brings temperature changes and out came the liner and switching of the heated grips between low and high as my gloves were wet from the rain.
In the end, I found Fancy Gap and made my way to setup camp under a heavy fog and called it a night.
Tomorrow is the balance of BRP and maybe SC/GA and the Dragon. I also hope to meetup with Rusty (Woodbutcher) if that works into our schedules.