2019 Ride the Blue Ridge for 3000 Miles to a Cure

[LarryOz]

Hi all here is my post from our first day.
Happy Saturday,
Well, the first day (and 60 of 471 miles) is "in the books" and it was a dousey! Beautiful day, and weather. Very windy up here at Mt. Pisgah, but will not complain about that. haha
The group left Cherokee around 7:40am this morning. We arrived at Pisgah Inn about 9 hours later. We stopped a lot to take in the sites, refresh ourselves, fellowship and tell anyone we could why we are doing this.
Total riding time just a little over 5 1/2 hours for me. There was an absurd amount of climbing, and steep climbing too. We climbed nearly 9000 vertical feet and most of it was 6-7% grade. I am very tired and my legs are super sore!
If was fun and a blessing to spend time with old friends (Jim & Maria Parker), and Alvin and Jill. (they are not "old" - I am the old one!) Also new friend Frank.
We have 3 recumbents and 3 upright bikes. We passed many other cyclists, hikers, and site-seers as today was Saturday and probably the nicest day of the year so far.
Below are some pics of the day, and also a screenshot of my Garmin data recording showing the path we took.
Thanks again for supporting me in this,
Larry

 

[LarryOz]

Here is my post from today - the 2nd day!
...
Hello everyone!
Today we left from Pisgah Inn and rode the 77 miles to Gillespie Gap.
Another beautiful day. A little quick rain shower at Mount Mitchell entrance (which was about 11:30) and it got pretty windy after that - but all in all another great day. Elevation Gain of about 7000' and a elevation loss of 8300' - rode a lot faster than the day before with elevation gain of about 9000' and loss of only 5500'. The climbing today was not as gruesome as yesterday and more split up. I actually rode harder and put out more power today on average than yesterday - which surprised me - as I was pretty wiped out at the end of the day yesterday!
We consumed the whole day riding and resting, with lots of down time regrouping with each other and lots of good food and fellowship.
We are staying at a quaint little place called Skyline Inn, and had a wonderful meal of Rib-eye steak and homemade crab-cakes, followed by the largest strawberry shortcake dessert I have ever eaten. The shortcake was like a pound-cake (and probably a whole pound -with ice-cream too! Had to be nearly the calories I burned on the ride today! Need to do some extra tomorrow!

Here are a few other pictures from the day:

Morning snack after 1st 10 miles

Pit stop (and wait for rain to end) at the entrance to Mount Mitchell. We did not go up to Mt. Mitchell. It is about a 15 mile round trip that would probably take 2 hours. Very very steep road!

Larry at Craggy Gardens Rest stop. We had lunch here

This is kind of weird and funny and yeah a little bit gross - but I just had to have a picture and explain: These are new top of the line commodes at Craggy Gardens bathroom. Whoever mounted them must have been really tall. I felt like a 6 year-old trying to reach the top lip. Had to stand on my toes! You need an inseam of at least 36" to be "safe". haha

Jim Parker's "S40" bike on the right and my "V20" bike on the left. These are both Cruzbikes. The S40 has a 40 degree seat angle, whereas the V20 has a 20.

Here is the route we took today

Thank you all for your support
Larry
p.s. You may wonder where Gayle is in all of this. She is enjoying herself with a week with her 2 sisters and her mother at her favorite place. If you know Gayle at all - Yup - she is at the beach. (Hi Honey!)
Remincer Note: We are riding for people with Brain Cancer and to fund research for this horrible disease, and covet your prayers for that - All 6 riders on this ride have each raised money for the charity "3000 Miles to a Cure". I once again that all of you that gave so generously upon my request of you. If you know of anyone that might like to donate, you have my permission send them this email and link: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/lawren-oslund

 

[super slim]

Here is my post from today - the 2nd day!
...
Hello everyone!
Today we left from Pisgah Inn and rode the 77 miles to Gillespie Gap.
Another beautiful day. A little quick rain shower at Mount Mitchell entrance (which was about 11:30) and it got pretty windy after that - but all in all another great day. Elevation Gain of about 7000' and a elevation loss of 8300' - rode a lot faster than the day before with elevation gain of about 9000' and loss of only 5500'. The climbing today was not as gruesome as yesterday and more split up. I actually rode harder and put out more power today on average than yesterday - which surprised me - as I was pretty wiped out at the end of the day yesterday!
We consumed the whole day riding and resting, with lots of down time regrouping with each other and lots of good food and fellowship.
We are staying at a quaint little place called Skyline Inn, and had a wonderful meal of Rib-eye steak and homemade crab-cakes, followed by the largest strawberry shortcake dessert I have ever eaten. The shortcake was like a pound-cake (and probably a whole pound -with ice-cream too! Had to be nearly the calories I burned on the ride today! Need to do some extra tomorrow!

Here are a few other pictures from the day:

Morning snack after 1st 10 miles

Pit stop (and wait for rain to end) at the entrance to Mount Mitchell. We did not go up to Mt. Mitchell. It is about a 15 mile round trip that would probably take 2 hours. Very very steep road!

Larry at Craggy Gardens Rest stop. We had lunch here

This is kind of weird and funny and yeah a little bit gross - but I just had to have a picture and explain: These are new top of the line commodes at Craggy Gardens bathroom. Whoever mounted them must have been really tall. I felt like a 6 year-old trying to reach the top lip. Had to stand on my toes! You need an inseam of at least 36" to be "safe". haha

Jim Parker's "S40" bike on the right and my "V20" bike on the left. These are both Cruzbikes. The S40 has a 40 degree seat angle, whereas the V20 has a 20.

Here is the route we took today

Thank you all for your support
Larry
p.s. You may wonder where Gayle is in all of this. She is enjoying herself with a week with her 2 sisters and her mother at her favorite place. If you know Gayle at all - Yup - she is at the beach. (Hi Honey!)
Remincer Note: We are riding for people with Brain Cancer and to fund research for this horrible disease, and covet your prayers for that - All 6 riders on this ride have each raised money for the charity "3000 Miles to a Cure". I once again that all of you that gave so generously upon my request of you. If you know of anyone that might like to donate, you have my permission send them this email and link: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/lawren-oslund

Great write up, but I can not see the photos! I only get a box with IMG next to it!
Do I need an Apple PC to see these, as I am using a good AUSSIE Win 10 PC and Google Chrome????

 

[Mathew Fy]

Great write up, but I can not see the photos! I only get a box with IMG next to it!
Do I need an Apple PC to see these????

I wonder why the photos aren't working here. As a donor, I'm receiving all the photos & text through in his daily email. I can see from the link that he's near his $3000 goal.

 

[benphyr]

@super slim @LarryOz
Slim you beat me to it. I can't see the pictures either. I'm using an iMac and Safari. Maybe we just need to be donors.

 

[super slim]

@super slim @LarryOz
Slim you beat me to it. I can't see the pictures either. I'm using an iMac and Safari. Maybe we just need to be donors.

I just donated, so I can see the photos!!! to go along with the great descriptions!!!

 

[DavidCH]

The best way of minimising cancer is two fold... reduce stress in the work force by employing artificial intelligence with robotics and by cleaning the air we breath by driving more ev's. This in turn gives us more time to do the things we like... like cycling. There is a doctor in wales who is prescribing on the NHS 2 thirty minute rental bike rides a week instead of handing out funny pills.

 

[LarryOz]

Hey everyone!
Monday we left Gillespie Gap and road about 66 miles with 6400' elevation gain, and 5500' elevation drop, so we gained about 900' from where we started. (See pic of route at bottom)
Another beautiful day with Maria, Jim, Alvin, Jill, Frank and myself. Nice and sunny, but not too hot. It did get extremely windy in mid afternoon - probably the windiest I have ever ridden in actually. The scariest part of the day was my going down a pretty steep hill at about 45mph and having to adjust myself to the fierce wind as I drove though a place with a meadow on each side where it was blowing freely. It probably was not as severe as I thought, but at the time I felt as if my bike was angled about 45% with the wind hitting me on my left side. I was just praying for it to stay constant, as any sudden change would have been bad. I did make it safely though and after that spot but was really super attentive to the windy conditions.
We left near 8:30am in the morning. Kind of late because there was the "fantastic" local restaurant (Krista's) about 16 miles down the road that we wanted to eat lunch at. We stopped every 4-5 miles for long pauses to use up the time. We were extremely disappointed when we arrived at the restaurant and it was closed. We did find another local BBQ that was quite good. We bought a couple pounds of pulled pork and cole-slaw and had us a very nice picnic. Wonderful food and friends. Ain't nothing like it!

There were still some pretty tough climbs today, but nothing as long as the 10 miles at 6-7% we experienced on the first day. Some today were steeper and maxed out around 9% but there was nothing that was longer than 3-4 miles if I remember correctly! A pretty good mixture of tough climbs and really fast downhills. When protected from the heavy wind I finally topped 50 mph. No way I am going to hit my age thought! haha

We made it to our lodging for the evening about 5:30pm - and the shadows were getting long - Mostly due to all our stopping and enjoying each other's company and sharing with others we ran into. We are always eager to share why we are doing what we are doing.
After cleaning up, we drove about 25 minutes to each supper at the closest town, and got back to our rooms about 9:30 - very tired now! haha

Our Picnic:


It was great, the only problem was that we had only ridden 16 miles of our planned 60 and it was already 1:30pm! Plus we added another 3 miles or so for the detour to the restaurant. Not a problem says our tour guide "Alvin" - it;s almost all downhill from here - yeah - right!!

One of our "many" pit-stops for re-fueling, stories and fellowship- (Not sure why I was hauling around 4 pounds of water, but Alvin always made sure they were topped of for me so I had to haul them up the hills!)

Larry coming down the Lynn Cove via Duct: (courtesy of Jim)


Frank, Maria and Larry near the end of today's ride.


Thanks again for supporting me in this,
Larry
Here is my data sheet from my Garmin device: My NP was 188 - about 72 minutes of "coasting" today, so 3 hours of "hard" riding! haha

 

[benphyr]

The reverse direction look like it would be even more interesting! Might have to sit on the handlebar to get a little traction . Hmm, wonder if that would work? Unicycle with training wheel? (@trplay my mind keeps inserting the Moose theme here.)

 

[LarryOz]

The reverse direction look like it would be even more interesting! Might have to sit on the handlebar to get a little traction . Hmm, wonder if that would work? Unicycle with training wheel? (@trplay my mind keeps inserting the Moose theme here.)

The steepness of the climbs is about the same in both directions. Most of the time it is between 5-7%, and rises to maybe 9% for some very short periods. There is very little flat areas, as you are either climbing or descending up here. I believe he slope looks more severe because the graph is drawn out by time instead of mileage.

 

[LarryOz]

Hello everyone,
Day 4 was a very short day - a rest day really with only 42 miles of riding and 3900' of climbing.
I tried to limit my power output today to truly rest up. The next 3 days will be 56, 88, & 89 miles of riding which will be tougher.
Today was another stellar day on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Crisp in the morning, lots of sun, and minimal wind. Vista's were fantastic. We stopped only twice to regroup. Once at 16 miles for some wonderful tasting pineapples that Maria hand-carved up for us! She even met a lady riding the other way and got to offer her some as well. Then we pit stopped at a another beautiful overlook for lunch. We arrived there so early that we ate at 10:30! Egg-salad sandwich and pickles were so good! I think we made it to our hotel before 1pm. A nice shower, a nice nap, and some extra time to download and make some videos from my footage.
Nice dinner and conversation about everything in life.

Our beautiful lunch spot:

Jim on his S40:

Me going 51 mph:

My bike gets its own bed tonight!



Here is the ride and elevation profile from today:


Thanks for supporting the cause - Blessings to you,
Larry Oslund

Still time to donate if you have not yet: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/lawren-oslund

 

[super slim]

51 mph on a 3% decline is impressive!

There must have been a steeper incline(5-7%???) before the photo!!!

 

[LarryOz]

Proof that riding up and down mountains every day makes you stronger: Data from today's ride:

 

[LarryOz]

Here is some video from Day #4:

 

[super slim]

Proof that riding up and down mountains every day makes you stronger: Data from today's ride:
View attachment 7938

Have you been approached by a Power Company to create your own power generation plant???

 

[LarryOz]

Day 5 report
Hi All,
On Day five we rode about 60 miles from Roaring Gap, NC to Meadows of Dan, VA
The day started out a little hectic with me locking myself out of my room during our "outside" breakfast together. The door knob was one of those kind that you cannot unlock. We all tried for about 15-20 minutes using various techniques to get into the room to no avail, and it was about 7:30am so there was no one in the office to help us. Around 8:15 or so the housekeeping lady came by and had a master key so that was nicely appreciated. It took me so long to get all my other stuff together than everyone went ahead and left without me. I finally got everything going about 15 minutes later.
It was cool, foggy and misting rain as we left. I could not wear my visor, so that slowed me down a little bit. After my "rest day" yesterday I was determined to ride hard today for a good workout, which I did. I covered 60+ miles in just under 3 hours, which is not too bad considering all the climbing involved.
Here is a tally off all our days, mileage, time, etc, so far: (Total time is from when we first left to arriving at our destination. As you can see there was a lot of non-riding time most days. Sometimes because we are trying to "hit" lunch time at a certain location and wait extra long at our breaks

Day Mileage Riding Time Total Time elevation avg speed
1 60.96 5:37:39 8:42:15 9615 10.80
2 77.00 4:55:35 8:40:58 7445 16.20
3 66.30 4:12:25 9:23:19 6430 15.80
4 42.10 2:36:26 4:26:07 3908 16.10
5 60.90 2:59:38 8:30:00 4098 20.35

Today we ate lunch at local place known for its great pies. It was a nice place, but the waitress told me the only 2 types of pies they had were "Mrs Smiths's", and there was not much left of either. I thought that was kind of funny. My lunch was interesting: I ordered a club sandwich with extra bacon and extra tomatoes. It came with "no tomatoes", and not much bacon at all. I asked the waitress for a bowl of tomatoes and a bowl of bacon and then put it back together myself. Most everyone had this incredible bowl of apple pied, covered in ice-cream, covered in whipped cream, with bacon on top. I had a small bowl of apple strudel with whipped cream. We met a guy that had been riding from California since Feb. He was headed to D.C. to catch plane to Finland - and then ride through Europe. He was self-supported and carried all his supplies and gears on bags hooked to his bike. Must have weighed 75 pounds
We left there an continued north around 1:30pm. We had made good time, and I myself had average about 20.5mph so far. My goal was to break 20mph average for the day. We only had about 26 miles left to ride and broke it up into 3 segments. On the last stop we met up with a traveling family who lived in a huge bus. Husband, pregnant wife and 5 delightful kids. They made tepeas.

We arrived at our destination around 5pm. A nice quaint little place with comfortable rooms.

Beautiful view at our first stop (after the fog cleared)

Group chat at first stop:

Alvin's pony-tail (Larry and Alvin are always joking around)

Larry's V20 meets Jim's S40 - No the flag does not slow me down that much!

Larry and his V20 at one of the other stops

Maria and her "coffee with Cream" at lunch

Larry and "the group" in the distance getting ready to depart after lunch

All our bikes lined up at a later stop - 2nd from the last

Tomorrow is a pretty long day of riding at around 88 miles. We leave the Meadows of Dan, right through Roanoke, Va, and end at the "Peaks of Otter". We are going to try and get an early start. Here is the route and the elevation. Looks like we will climb about 9000 vertical feet in the 88 miles.


Thanks again for you continued support - Hope you enjoyed it!
Larry

You can still give if you like. Help me beat Maria: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/lawren-oslund

 

[benphyr]

Day 5 report
No the flag does not slow me down that much!

(@LarryOz) Hey Mr. testing, Have you tested and quantified how much "the flag does not slow me down that much"?

And, there are a few pictures of Jim and Maria's S40s without seat pads are they riding nude seats? Or swapping the pads out or something?

 

[LarryOz]

Day 1:

 

[LarryOz]

Hi All,
Wow - a very hard day after riding so hard yesterday. We covered 89 miles and climbed over 8100 vertical feet.
We rode from "Meadow of Dan" area to Peaks of Otter today. Since it was so long, we met for breakfast at 6:30 and started our ride a little after 7am.
Another beautiful day was served up by the Lord for us. A little foggy and a slight chill in the air to start, but gone within a half hour.
We did longer segments and stopped for less time as this day also had quite a bit of climbing and some of it long and steep. I rode quite hard today too, but not as hard as yesterday. My total riding time was 4h57min. Around mile 23 I had a couple deer darted across the road in front of me. One was quite close. Frank had a bear cross in front of him, but not as close.
We had lunch at a nice local trailhead in Roanoke, VA around noon and had already ridden over 50 miles. We then rode the 20 odd miles through the Roanoke valley and started the tough climb out of the valley back to the mountain ridge line. The remaining 20 miles had about 3500' of climbing and was quite hard. We ended up at Peaks of Otter around 4:30pm and ate dinner around 6.

Here are the riding totals for the last 6 days:
Day Mileage Riding Time Total Time elevation avg speed
1 60.96 5:37:39 8:42:15 9615 10.80
2 77.00 4:55:35 8:40:58 7445 16.20
3 66.30 4:12:25 9:23:19 6430 15.80
4 42.10 2:36:26 4:26:07 3908 16.10
5 60.90 2:59:38 8:30:00 4098 20.35
6 88.70 4:57:27 9:04:56 8158 17.89
7
Totals 395.96 25:19:10 ###### 39654 15.64



Here are some photos for the day.
A rest stop with a little dam and waterfall (sorry so blurry!)

My Vendetta resting while I rest

Jim on his S40

The group at one of our stops around 10:30am

Nice Vista

Deer jumping out in front of me going 40mph

At overlook to Roanoke, VA

Our route for the day:

Our last day we ride from Peaks of Otter to the very beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Wayneboro, VA. We will do around 89 miles and over 9000' of climbing again.
Thanks again for all your support and prayers,
Larry

 

[LarryOz]

Hi All,
The Final Day - We rode from Peaks of Otter to the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Wayneboro, VA. The day started cool with a pretty hard 9 mile climb. It was cool and very windy at the top. Then we descended to James River (13 mile descent), then climbed back another 13 miles back up to the ridge line on the other side. I rode Jim's S40 for the first 31 miles. It was great fun to be able to see the sights easier. Descending I was much slower than my Vendetta, mostly because I was not comfortable with the bike and the speeds were high and it was also very windy. My back started to hurt a little as I did not have my lumbar support in his seat either, so I switched back at one of our breaks. The winds got stronger and stronger as the day progressed. When we arrived within 10 miles of the end - they were blowing so hard it was beyond incredible - Had to be at least 40mph and gusts higher. This caused me to ride significantly slower downhill to avoid being thrown down unexpectedly. The trip was great fun. We had 6 riders - and no flats the entire trip from anyone! To date, we all raised over $14,000 to help beat brain cancer.


Much Thanks to Jim & Maria Parker for this great adventure and for caring so much about finding a cure for brain cancer. They are the lifeblood of that charity. They took wonderful care of us during the entire trip. Great food, fellowship, and fun - all the time. I thank the Lord for them and their servants hearts.

We will meet at their van at 5am to start the long drive back to Cherokee, NC tomorrow morning.
Thanks again for your support.

Here are the riding stats for the week:
Day Mileage Riding Time Total Time elevation avg speed
1 60.96 5:37:39 8:42:15 9615 10.80
2 77.00 4:55:35 8:40:58 7445 16.20
3 66.30 4:12:25 9:23:19 6430 15.80
4 42.10 2:36:26 4:26:07 3908 16.10
5 60.90 2:59:38 8:30:00 4098 20.35
6 88.70 4:57:27 9:04:56 8158 17.89
7 87.30 5:38:30 9:52:09 8525 15.40
Totals 483.26 30:57:40 ###### 48179 15.61

Here are some pictures from today:
Leaving the Peaks of Otter - by the lake
Nice vista on our first break at the highest peak we would be at all day.
This was at hawk nest stop looking down at the valley - wind was ferocious here
Another view from Hawk Nest
Larry taking in the sun at Hawk Nest

Larry's Bike at mile Marker #1. They did not have a Mile Marker #0, so I rode back to #1 for a picture
Larry and his Vendetta at Mile Marker #1
Larry at the Beginning of the Blue Ridge route (but we ended here - this is where the mileage starts
Our group at the same sign
Thanks again for going on this adventure with me,
--
Larry Oslund