{"id":5443,"date":"2019-06-09T13:47:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T20:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.com\/?p=5443"},"modified":"2019-06-09T13:47:28","modified_gmt":"2019-06-09T20:47:28","slug":"cherokee-to-moonshine-creek-campground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/cherokee-to-moonshine-creek-campground\/","title":{"rendered":"Cherokee to Moonshine Creek Campground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The first day of our trip didn&#8217;t start as expected. We awoke at the home of our hosts Steve and Lynn, whose daughter Michae and her boyfriend Collin were planning to ride with us for about a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Collin greeted us in the kitchen to let us know that they couldn&#8217;t join us because Michae had caught a summer cold. He hoped if Michae was feeling up to it in a couple days they could catch up to us and maybe get a few days of riding in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bummer. We were looking forward to riding with our good friends. They were kind enough to drive us to Cherokee, the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After crossing a creek, we passed the &#8220;Welcome to the Blue Ridge Parkway&#8221; sign and immediately started climbing. And then we climbed and climbed and climbed the most evenly graded road I&#8217;ve ever been on. We cruised on a roughly 6 percent grade for the next 8 miles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"685\" src=\"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/BRP-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5465\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/BRP-1.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/BRP-1-300x201.jpg 300w, http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/BRP-1-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Carrie and I spin slowly up the first climb of the Blue Ridge Parkway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/BRP-2-798x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5467\"\/><figcaption>At one of the numerous overlooks along the Parkway, we stop to stretch and admire the Smokies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our first descent was marvelous and far too short. We got a break for a good minute before the road pointed up again. Then we went up and up for at least another hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The forecast called for scattered showers, but so far the showers hadn&#8217;t arrived. That didn&#8217;t stop us from staying wet though. Even in mild temperatures, the high humidity makes it hard for the body to cool itself. So it compensates by sweating more than usual. I&#8217;ve never been so clammy without help from the heavens or a shower head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally after an eternity of mild grade climbing we got our reward: a multi-mile mild grade descent. So far I&#8217;m convinced you could ride the Blue Ridge Parkway on a single speed with no brakes. Just choose your favorite climbing gear and coast down the hills. If you need to stop you&#8217;ll eventually run into an uphill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To reach our campground we had to merge onto highway 74. Not more than thirty seconds passed on the noisy and busy highway before I heard Carrie let out a four letter word behind me. I stopped and turned around only to see her rear tire was totally flat. And then it started to rain. $#&amp;@!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon inspection of her tire I found a huge slash in the sidewall. The tire was set up tubeless. The sealant on the tire had no chance to seal up such a large slash. So I installed a tube and used a dollar bill as a tire boot, one of those cycling repair tricks you never think you&#8217;ll use. It worked!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We arrived at the Moonshine Creek Campground tired and damp but in good spirits. The campground was very nice. Each tent site had a wooden shelter under which we could pitch our tent and eat at the picnic table. We even got to shower. A finer campground could not be had.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first day of our trip didn&#8217;t start as expected. We awoke at the home of our hosts Steve and Lynn, whose daughter Michae and her boyfriend Collin were planning to ride with us for about a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5443"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rideeatcamp.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}