May 27: Spruce Pine to Pineola, North Carolina (via Tennessee)
We added Tennessee to our list of visited states today. On the map, Spruce Pine and Pineola aren’t much more than 25 miles apart, but we took a 44-mile side trip into Tennessee. I chose this particular side trip because part of it was on a well-documented bicycling route called the Roan Moan. It’s name comes partly because the route passes near Roan Mountain and partly because the 66-mile route includes over 7100 feet of elevation gain (that’s the “moan” part).
Along the route today, I saw some of rural North Carolina and Tennessee, crossed the Appelachian Trail, spoke with a fairly wet young man (he said it rained the previous night and earlier in the morning) who was hiking the entire length of the trail.
Pat and I met in Tiger Valley, Tennessee for a quick bit of lunch. From there, I was headed back towards Pineola, North Carolina, our destination for the day. To get there, my map showed me that I had to take a 20+ mile stretch of busy US 19-E. But, the “Roan Moan” cue sheet hinted at some side roads that ran parallel to 19-E. I started our on 19-E and within a half a mile, I saw bicycle route signs headed off of 19-E. I spent most of next ten miles on a road called “Railroad Grade Road”. It’s a good name too — it’s pretty flat and about as wide as a railroad bed. I passed a couple cars coming my way and a couple cars passed me. Fortunately, I never encountered cars coming both ways at the same time. Here are some pictures of that great stretch of road:
A couple people have contacted me and mentioned that I seem to like peanut butter and bagels when I ride. That’s certainly true, but I seem to be eating less peanut butter these days. I still love my bagels, but they tend to be just plain bagels — no peanut butter. Another food that I’m finding that I like when I’m riding is bananas. I ate one banana before riding today and then two others during my ride. Besides the carbohydrate, a banana is a good source of vitamin C (which helps fight infection), B6 (which aids the immune system), and potassium, which is the major electrolyte in the body. Proper levels of potassium are essential for muscle function and recovery from fatigue, two things that are pretty important to me during this bicycle tour. (for more details on the nutrition of bananas, see this page and this page)
Here’s a link to all the photos from today:
May 28th, 2006 at 6:10 am
My neice and her husband are through hiking the AT right now. Wouldn’t it have been interesting if you had run into them? But I think they are in Virginia already, my brother posts a blog for them but it gets updated about once a week.