Peaks of Otter: A weekend of Hiking and Riding

We spent last weekend at Peaks of Otter in Central Virginia. They have a lovely lodge that we stayed at last year when we did our epic Blue Ridge Parkway ride. This year, we were just out for a weekend getaway and some training in serious hills. That section of the Blue Ridge Parkway was my favorite in the Virginia portion of last year's ride.

We took Friday off and made the long drive south. After we arrived and got checked in, we decided to do the signature hike at Peaks of Otter: Sharp Top. There are signs warning that it takes 1.5 hours to hike the 1.5 miles. It is a little steep and I'm sure it does take many people that long, but we made it in 55 minutes. Mostly, it is just a steady uphill hike. There were lots of late-summer flowers blooming on the way up. The top was spectacular with a 360 degree view of the area. On the way down, we encountered a rattlesnake who really wanted to use the trail. Eventually, it figured out where to get away from us. We did get to do a little bit of interpretation about the snake with some visitors from Germany. It is a lovely little hike, which we finished just in time for dinner in the lodge. Overall, we saw just a handful of people, but the trail is six feet wide and the parking lot is large. Clearly, they get a lot of traffic, likely mostly on the weekends. We were pretty happy to have it mostly to ourselves.

 The Sharp Top Summit.

 A cool little caterpillar on some fern fronds.

 Monarda didyma (Wild Bergamot)

 Spirea latifolia (Meadowsweet) near the summit of Sharp Top.

 The view to the south of Sharp Top

 Looking down towards the Peaks of Otter Lodge. I was trying out a new wide-angle lens for my mirrorless camera.

 Michael on the summit

 Flat Top Mountain and the valley below (click to enlarge)

 A directional plate on the summit

 A large shelter just below the summit of Sharp Top.

 The rattlesnake we encountered on the way down (I have a good zoom lens)

 Another view of it as it was moving.

We spent Saturday and Sunday riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. On Saturday, we just rode north out of the lodge, up over Apple Orchard Mountain. The weather was actually chilly enough that I had to put on a windshirt for the twelve-mile descent off of the back of Apple Orchard.  The top third of that descent wound up being a challenge because they had very recently chip and sealed it. There was a lot of gravel, which meant we had to be really, really careful with turns. After about four miles of that, we hit normal pavement and were able to have fun with the downhill. After lunch, we had to pay it all back by riding back up the 12 mile climb. We ended up doing 60 miles by the time we were done. Unfortunately, I didn't take a ton of pictures.

 A couple of miles below the summit of Apple Orchard Mountain.

 My bike taking a break at the top of Apple Orchard.

On Sunday, we drove to our Saturday turnaround point and rode north from there. This is one of the best sections of the Parkway for riding in Virginia: Little traffic, amazing views, and good climbs.

Taking a break just north of US 60.

We had a great weekend, couldn't have asked for better weather, or better riding.