Days on the road: 4
Day mileage: 338
JF total mileage: 2991
Gale total mileage: 1459
States/Provinces: North Carolina, Virginia
This part of the parkway isn’t as mountainous and has sweeping curves running along the top of the ridge. The entire parkway has well marked scenic overlooks often so there’s plenty of opportunity to stop and see the view. Yes, the speed limits are 35 and 45 miles an hour, but it’s worth slowing down to see the beautiful scenery here. The week before the 4th of July and we felt like we had the 460 mile Parkway to ourselves most of the time since there was so little traffic.
I had a half dozen deer spill out of the underbrush on the left of the road, run across in front of me to disappear into the brush on the right.
JF was too far behind so see this but a short time later had a doe run along side his motorcycle. He wasn’t sure what the best course of action was – slow down and the deer might choose to veer in front of him, go faster and it could hit him. He opted to gas it and left the deer safely behind.
We make it to Sherando Lake State Park to find the sign “Sorry campground full”. We were directed to a primitive area 4 miles down a gravel road and camp next to a running stream. Sounds idyllic, but there are many serious ATV riders in the area who ride until about 2 AM. And these ATV riders don’t believe in mufflers… the 4th of July holiday has officially begun.
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