Charlotte, North Carolina is home to one of the best outdoor getaways in North America.
If the family that plays together stays together, these local clans are in it for the long haul.
We’ve selected a six pack of industry-leading favorites: some represent amazing values, some offer cutting-edge technological advancements and all stand, in general, as genuine marvels of speed.
Nantahala Outdoor Center – Tsali, North Carolina
For more than 35 years, the Nantahala Outdoor Center has maintained a reputation as a first-rate outfitter for just about whatever strikes your fancy, in the Carolina Mountains near Bryson City. While perhaps better known for its whitewater trips on seven different local rivers, the NOC is fully committed to cycling as well.
If you find yourself in the area without your two-wheeled steed, worry not. NOC rents high-quality rides of both the fat and skinny tire variety at reasonable rates. Better still, you don’t even have to leave their property to enjoy a solid mountain bike ride; their recently built Flint Ridge Trail is a 4.5-mile run, entirely on NOC grounds, that serves up nifty views of the Nantahala Gorge. Roadies are well advised to stop by the local East Swain Elementary School on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. (except in winter) for a 22-mile ride “loosely” organized by the NOC crew.
While the Flint Ridge Trail may be fun, hard-core off-road riders have long migrated to the nearby Tsali trails to taste the best of nearly 40 miles of well-maintained single track. In a system devised many years ago, the four loops of the Tsali System alternate between cycling and horseback riding, with two loops open for each activity every day. Set on a peninsula jutting out into the Fontana Lake, the Tsali trails are just plain good fun, and well worth the visit.
Ride
Tsali Challenge Triathlon, Sept. 6 and 7. This off-road tri substitutes a kayak leg for the traditional swim and throws in a trail run and a mountain bike ride for good measure. www.noc.com/events_tsali.html.
Don’t Miss
The pure pleasure of outdoor lunch at the River’s End Restaurant at NOC headquarters, with a ringside seat at the famed Outfitter’s Store wave. Your entertainment is provided free of charge as kayak fanatics surf this fun rapid in front of you while you eat and relax.
Stay
Right there at NOC. They literally have something for every budget: from shared bunk lodging at $16/night all the way up to luxe mountain cabins that top out at $379/night. www.noc.com/resort_lodging.html.
No matter how many times we mention this gem of a cycling destination, we can’t seem to convince people to drive the extra few hours out of North Carolina. Too bad. If cycling has an organic Disney World, this is it. The region’s reputation was founded on the almost absurd amount of super high-quality mountain biking trails that lace the area – but when we visit, the knobby tires stay in the vehicle, because the road riding is just too good. Road surfaces, particularly on the Highland Scenic Highway, are almost surreally good and there is no car traffic worth mentioning. Quality climbs abound and the scenery is magical.
Oh, yeah, about that mountain biking. Snowshoe Mountain alone has nearly 100 miles of maintained MTB trails, and that barely scratches the surface. The surrounding 900,000 acres of the Monongahela National Forest is full of fire service roads and beautifully maintained single tracks. Should the mountains be more than you can handle, you can always fall back on the Greenbrier River Trail, a superb 79 miles of rails-to-trail conversion that is a magnificent packed-gravel fantasy ride. Coursing through Pocahontas and Greenbrier Counties, the trail traverses 35 bridges and a couple of tunnels and passes through multiple state and national parks and forests.
Ride
The Wild 100, August 16 or the Cheat Mountain Challenge, also August 16. What a shame these two great events go down on the same day this year. The Wild 100 is a 100 km mountain bike race requiring racers to chart their own courses between mandatory checkpoints. Topographic skills are an absolute necessity. On the other hand, superior fitness is what you need to grind through the 107 miles and 10 thousand climbing feet of the Cheat Mountain Challenge. 2007 winner (and Trek/VW mountain bike star) Jeremiah Bishop casually calls it “your basic Tour stage.” www.ertc.com/wild100, and www.wvcf.org/cmc.
Stay
The Elk River Inn. With affordable rates, a great restaurant, an MTB repair shop and gear store on premises, this is our hands-down favorite. www.ertc.com.
For a sense of how things used to be, you can also stay in a cottage at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. Converted from turn-of-the-century logging houses, these way-cool cottages take you way back in time – in recently refurbished style. www.cassrailroad.com/cottages.html.
It’s an age-old problem, one that has plagued active athletes and their significant others for eons. You like bombing single track, collecting road climbs past 5000 feet and knocking off 12-mile runs before breakfast. But your spouse likes gourmet meals, moonlight walks and sleeping in.
The solution: live a little. The Dancing Bear Lodge in Townsend, Tennessee bills itself as the “vacation base camp of the Smokies” and is tricked out with all those things your comfort-loving spouse demands: king size featherbeds, hot tubs, very affordable in-room massages, a posh high-end restaurant and wildflower walks. Depending on your tastes, you can park yourselves in either a lodge room or a luxury cabin.
Happily for you, the property also boasts its own 2-mile mountain bike system and offers rentals on touring bikes. The local 9-mile paved bike path runs right through the Dancing Bear grounds.
Off property, the 11-mile Cades Cove loop road is a gentle ride through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with all the bucolic trappings you long for: an old grist mill, log cabins, mountain streams and stunning vistas. The single-lane road is closed to vehicles on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, making those the best times to ride the loop.
More aggressive routes are close at hand as well. Relatively nearby you can find top-rated road climbs like Clingman’s Dome and the Cherohala Skyway. Dancing Bear Managing Partner Matt Alexander suggests the local “Ride to the Top of the World” on the Foothills Parkway. The ride tops out at 2,300 feet and hardcores will want to ride all five different routes to the top in a single day.
Ride
The Dancing Bear Bicycle Bash, Sept. 5-7. The main day is Saturday, with 30-, 50- and 60-mile options and a great post-ride buffet lunch “unlike any other you’ve ever had, prepared by the Dancing Bear chef.” There’s also the Dancing Bear 6-Hour Resolution Race, January 1. How many times can you loop the two miles of the 300-foot-climb-per-lap Dancing Bear course – with a New Year’s hangover? This is your chance to find out.
Don’t Miss
The Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in downtown Townsend, with its Tennessee history and Native American museum exhibits.
Eat/Stay
The Dancing Bear Lodge, www.dancingbearlodge.com
The Complete guide to Climbing In a world that is so constantly full of challenge and uncertainty, it’s somehow comforting to know that there are other people out there just as crazy and obsessive as you are. Meet John Summerson. This Winston-Salem, North Carolina resident took on the daunting task of collecting the most difficult road climbs in America and placing them in one helpful compendium.
We love it. Mostly because it is a great resource to both start and conclude arguments. With his number-one litmus being sheer difficulty of the climb, he grudgingly leaves out many tasty hills – including his own local challenge, North Carolina’s Pilot Mountain, which he admits is “just too short” to make the list. In a brief conversation we made arguments for the backside of Snowshoe Mountain out of Cass, West Virginia and North Carolina’s own Snake Mountain – both of which he agreed to consider for his next edition, set for release sometime in 2009.
While you can debate endlessly which climbs should make his list, you can also plan whole vacations using the info Summerson provides. In addition to route maps and climb profiles, he also includes handy tips about the closest airports and the nearest towns for supplies and bike shops. Moreover, he presents all the vital data on climb length, average and maximum grades, total elevation change, and two types of difficulty ratings: his own, and his estimation of how a given climb would be classified by the Tour de France. And there’s tons of other argument fodder too, including rankings of rides as measured by climbing feet per distance traveled, toughest climbs, greatest elevation gained, greatest elevation reached, etc.
As a special treat for Competitor SE readers, Summerson clued us in on a few climbs he plans to include next time around for their beauty, if not their difficulty. First on his list would be the aforementioned Pilot Mountain, the actual model for Mount Pyler in the old Andy Griffith show. Clearly visible from Highway 52 between Mount Airy (yup, Mayberry) and Winston-Salem, the knob-topped mountain is ‘only’ a 2.5-mile climb with 10-12 percent grades. That sounds tough enough to us, but Summerson has his standards.
Others on his list:
• Piper’s Gap, a one-lane road up to the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Virginia/North Carolina border.
• Route 151 near Asheville, NC, again up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
• Wintergreen Mountain… a pleasant 6.75-mile ascent at an average 7.5 percent grade with sections up to 20 percent (this one may actually make his tough list).
• And his “don’t miss this climb” is Roan Mountain from the Tennessee side, a beautiful nine-mile climb at an average six percent grade that’s one of our favorites too.
You can pick up your own copy of this addictive book by clicking your way to amazon.com.
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