Skyline Drive Trip Plannnig

I'm beginning to plan a bicycle ride along the entire length of the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. Its about 105 miles, all of it through the mountains. Sound crazy? It probably is! ...


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The idea is to take it easy and spend 2.5 days biking the Skyline Drive. I will have to work hard, but it won't be crazy-hard, or at least that's my intention. I may cover 40-50 miles the first day, have a really easy 2nd day and then the 3rd day will be 30-40 miles, but the last 20 miles is mostly downhill.

The Skyline Drive is through a National Park and thus the speed limit is 35 (bike-friendly) and also commercial truck traffic is prohibited (also bike-friendly). I originally wanted to bicycle the Blue Ridge Parkway (which starts where the Skyline Drive ends) but decided that the Skyline Drive would be easier due to its shorter length (105 miles -vs- 469 miles on the BRP) and its also mostly on a plateau, versus the wild and crazy elevation changes found on the BRP.

I'd be staying with the family at a couple of the lodges situation along the Skyline Drive: Big Meadows Lodge and Skyland Lodge. The family will go off and visit several of the Civil War battlefields in the Virginia area and then meet me at the lodge in the afternoons. After the trip ends, we'll all continue to the DC area to do the tourist thing as a family, including catching a couple of baseball games in Baltimore and in DC, part of our quest to visit all of the MLB ballparks.