Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 18, 1994 TAG: 9404180046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Allen left his home in New Hampshire Thursday for a trip to Salem, S.C. On Sunday, he hoped to pull most of the last leg of his drive taking in the sunshine and the scenic beauty of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
"I was just going to get on it," he said, staring ahead at the closed gate at the parkway entrance just south of Roanoke.
So were about 70 other people Sunday morning, and who knows how many more as the glorious spring day stretched on. But, like Allen, if they wanted a ride on the parkway, they had to take a detour through the Roanoke Valley to get there.
Allen wasn't here when this winter's relentless ice storms snapped hundreds of Virginia and white pines, leaving a mess of broken limbs strewn across the parkway. But he got a hint of the massive destruction when he turned his Bronco off of U.S. 220 and caught a glimpse of the entrance sign, barely visible under a tangle of fallen trees.
Wes Thompson, a parkway volunteer, walked over to the Bronco to explain the problem to Allen, carrying a handful of parkway maps and brochures. It was becoming a familiar routine for him. Thompson went through it more than 140 times the day before.
The ice storms. The destruction. The maps. And then the directions to the top of Bent Mountain, where the 14 miles of damaged roadway ended, and tourists could resume their scenic ride.
Actually, the road has been clear for some time. But Parkway officials fear that piles of broken limbs pushed to the side of the road - and trees still hanging precariously in the wind - could prove dangerous.
"We still have trees coming down," Park Ranger Charles Johnson said.
Even those that maintenance workers have cut and pushed aside might cause problems for people pulling off the road to hike or to sightsee, he said.
Not everybody believes that - particularly a group of hikers and cyclists eager to take advantage of a long stretch of parkway closed to cars. The road is also closed to them.
"Cycling through there without traffic would be a great deal safer than cycling through here with traffic," said Ed Kyle, pointing to the portion of the parkway heading north.
"It's the cars that will kill you," he said, perched atop his bicycle. Kyle rode up to the gate from the closed side.
He and his wife entered the parkway so frequently from their home on Fallon Ridge Road that parkway rangers placed yellow tape in the woods to block their path. Now they simply duck under it, or wait while joggers ignoring the ban hold it up for them.
"They were nice enough to put it high enough" to get under, he said. "If it were Yellowstone, I'd be scared to go in. But this is my backyard."
Johnson said it would take until the end of May or longer to clear the shoulders of debris. But the parkway could reopen as soon as this week. He said a decision would be made soon about whether it was safe to open the road during the day.
Other areas, such as the camping facilities near Mill Mountain Zoo and a 4-mile loop on Roanoke Mountain, likely will remain closed for several weeks, he said. The road to the zoo is open.
In the meantime, the redbuds and dogwoods will continue to bloom, adding an occasional splash of color to the brown, battle-torn woods. And the parkway will reserve its charms for those such as Kyle and the walkers and joggers who dare to defy the warnings of park rangers.
"It is actually really beautiful," said Joan Smith, who was walking the parkway with her husband, Sam, her friends, Jim and Joanne Lampros, and two beefy golden retrievers, Jazz and Fella.
Johnson pulled his patrol car to the side of the road and asked them to leave.
"We'll never get to do this again," Smith said.
by CNB