While I was on vacation at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, I didn’t want to let the week go by without taking advantage of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. Even if it meant throwing the bikes in the car and driving an hour north to get to a a worthwhile route. Although this route didn’t have anything quite as adventurous as our Smith Mountain descent, it it did have a lot of fire roads and some double track that tested the limits of our gravel bikes and my patience. On top of that this was the hilliest ride I had done in quite some time and I wasn’t sure my legs were up to it.
The Planning
When planning a route that ventures onto unpaved roads and trails for a gravel bike, there is always a level of uncertainty. Is this road public? How rough is the terrain? Can I cross that stream? Will I get bit by a loose dog? If so, how large is the dog? To an extent I enjoy that uncertainty, but I also enjoy having a rough idea of what I will be dealing with and whether or not I’ll be able to finish the ride. That’s why I made this website.
I found this route on gravelmap and decided it was our best option within driving distance from our vacation house. But in order to keep the drive down, I moved the starting point to a trailhead parking lot on the southern side of the route. Which was unfortunately at the top of a Sharp Top Mountain.
Uncertainty plagued a large chunk of this route. My dad and I pored over multiple maps to find images and videos of two specific trails that Ride With GPS did not want to route us through. The first unplumbed section of trail is called Black Horse Gap. We were able to find a little bit on TrailForks, but it only told us that it was a doubletrack trail and that we’d be descending 900 feet in 2 miles. We figured we could walk our bikes for two miles if things got dicey.
The other trail yet to be chronicled is called the Pulaski Tract on Gaia GPS or the “Botetourt Mountain Bike Turnpike” on TrailForks. Again, there was very little information on it other than it was a doubletrack trail. However, this section of the route was closer to nine miles long, so we verified there was a road we could pull off onto if we were ill-equipped to continue down the Botetourt Mountain Bike Turnpike. Even on a good day neither my dad nor I want to walk or carry 20+ pounds of bike for nine miles.
Everything else on the route seemed to be recognized to some extent as a road or trail, so with those two concerning sections addressed, our minimal planning was complete.
The Ride
Thursday morning my dad and I filled up our water bottles, grabbed some snacks, packed the car and hit the road for the hour long ride to Sharptop Mountain. Not long after we left Smith Mountain Lake behind, the Blue Ridge Mountains came into view. The wonder brought on by the nearing mountains slowly transitioned into dread. Our legs, not the minivan, would be the returning us to the summit of Sharptop Mountain at the end of a hot, brutal day of climbing and off-road exploration. The minivan brought us up the winding roads to the small Sharptop Mountain visitors center parking lot. It was supposed to reach 90 degrees, but the mountain air was noticeably cooler than the air had been back at the lake. All signs pointed to a good day of riding.
Once we were on our bikes, we followed our GPS to the back side of the mountain where we were met with a rough gravel descent with many rutted out hairpin turns. It was four miles long and we held our brake levers for most of the time, but it was a very manageable descent into some very rural “neighborhoods”.
The gravel on this route was making much a better impression than the gravel on Smith Mountain did. The seven miles after the initial descent were the most enjoyable gravel riding of the whole ride. Our legs were fresh, the weather was warm, but not oppressive and there were enough ups and downs to keep it interesting.
As enjoyable as it was, once we got clear of a wooded descent and into the farmland of the valley, I made an observation. “I think that’s where we are heading.” I said, as a mountain came into view behind the farmland. Just below the top of the mountain, the horizontal carve out of the Blue Ridge Parkway could be seen. “Shit. Let’s get a picture of that.” Replied my dad, so we stopped to snap a picture of what would be our next destination.
Whether or not that mountain looks intimidating in a picture, I can tell you that we weren’t looking forward to it. If the elevation gain wasn’t enough, shortly after we entered the rural woodland at the base of the mountain, the end of our pristine gravel was signaled by a “Narrow Rough Road” sign. From our observations the term “Road” seemed generous. It was doubletrack, maybe an ATV or a Jeep could get up this path, but not much else. This coincided with the base of the climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. So after I took a pee break, we saddled back up and settled in for the climb. The base of the climb brought on ruts, an overgrown, grassy crown (center land of the road), and a handful of downed trees. It did not start off particularly steep; the only times we had to get off our bikes were when we had to carry them over trees. Our GPS led us to believe we were spinning towards a wall where we would most certainly have to get off and walk. But that wall was a figment of our GPS unit’s imagination, brought on by the apparently faulty GPX file we had used to create the route. We were able to continue spinning up the hill which remained at a 3-5% grade almost the entire time. We weaved in and out of the grassy crown to avoid ruts and rocks and eventually reached one of the large stone tunnels that are commonly found under the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.
With this section completed, we were cautiously optimistic. “I don’t think I’d like to descend on that, but it wasn’t too bad.” my dad said while we took a quick snack break. We were talking about the two mystery trails up ahead. We had a five mile stretch on the Blue Ridge Parkway before descending into the woods with no idea what we were getting into. This had the potential to be the worst part of the ride or send us down the alternate route. On top of that, it was getting increasingly hot out and I had already finished one of my two water bottles and we were not even halfway done yet.
I went to college in the Shenandoah Valley and was lucky enough to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway a few times and take in the views, but cycling on it is a much better experience. The views of farmland vistas and opposing mountain ranges are refreshing after climbing in the woods where the foliage prevented us from getting a glimpse of our reward at the top. We soaked in the blue skies and easy miles on the Parkway before approaching the gate to the Black Horse Gap Trail.
The trail started out as a rough double track, not unlike what we had just climbed to get onto the Parkway, but it seemed more traveled and maintained. As we approached the long straight section on the map about, brick-sized loose rocks become abundant. On 38mm tires (35mm in my dad’s case) we struggled on these obstacles, hugging the brake levers and attempting to maneuver around every rock. The consistent, straight 6-7% decline and intermittent pings and clangs of rocks bouncing off my steel frame only added to the frustration. I did not enjoy this part of the ride.
After the descent, the trail led us onto the Boutetort Mountain Bike Turnpike, which turned out to resemble the Blue Ridge’s more standard gravel roads, which I find very pleasant. Our concern for this part of the route was for misplaced. We climbed and descended, following the mountain’s base for seven miles. While this gravel was more favorable, three hours of hot, humid riding left me low on water, sweating profusely, and swatting away insects. My dad generously shared some of his spare water, as I started to worry about dehydrating on the last ten miles of the ride. Luckily, that would not be the case.
Emerging from the gravel to pavement next to a Family Dollar was a surprising highlight of the trip. We refreshed ourselves with drinks before skipping the original route though Buchanan and we started the final climb to the parking lot. Climbing isn’t my strength, and the last two climbs of this ride, up a consistent 7% grade, took an hour. But they were doable, and the pavement felt great compared to the gravel we had traversed earlier.
Spinning our legs and dripping sweat, we finally reunited our tires with the pavement of the Blue Ridge parkway after the arduous last climb. We threw our bikes in the minivan and headed back to the lake house with another 6,000′ feet of elevation checked off for the month.
Ride Information
Ride Distance: 44.7 miles
Ride Time: 4:26
Elevation Gain: 5,901 feet
Tire Size Used: 38mm Gravelking SK and 35mm Gravelking SS
The Verdict
The only section of this ride that was truly frustrating was the rocky, straight downhill of the Black Horse Gap Trail. But frustration is part of the adventure. It makes the finishing of the route all the more savory. This route was very demanding and one of the harder sub-fifty mile rides I’ve done, if not hardest, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a challenging ride with rewarding views. Make sure to bring plenty of water because there aren’t many options to stop outside of Buchanan and the Sharp Top Store. I think I’d recommend wider tires than 38 for the gravel/dirt sections, but 35mm will work if your careful. Hydraulic brakes would also be a nice touch.
Loved the pictures, but the elevation looks brutal. Can you pronounce Boutetort??