Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509180086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK LENGTH: Medium
The cars were gone Saturday. So were the Winnebagos, the camper-trucks, the rubberneckers and all the congestion that often seems to turn Skyline Drive into a parking lot.
And for this historic occasion - the first day since the scenic road opened in 1934 that bicyclists had it to themselves - Bill Mullins was ready. He had his bike, water bottle, dried fruit, tire pump, first-aid kit and spare inner tube. The only thing he forgot, given a summer of drought, was his raincoat.
``It is a great view of the clouds,'' Mullins said as he took an afternoon cycling break at a rest stop along Skyline. By then, a steady, cold rain was falling, and the Air Force officer, who lives in Montclair, was dressed in an extra-large trash bag he had purchased near the park entrance. ``You know the valley is down there somewhere.''
The day had started off all right. Bicyclists, who for more than a decade have been lobbying the National Park Service to provide occasional car-free days on the two-lane highway that snakes through the mountains here, started showing up about 7:30 a.m.
There were gray clouds in the sky and some patches of fog rising from the valley, but it looked as if the rain might hold off.
``This is fantastic,'' said Lee Letwin, 48, who had come to the park with his family from King of Prussia, Pa. ``We have done a lot of riding here with car traffic, but this is something different. It is a rare opportunity.''
Rare indeed, and some 2,000 cyclists showed up. The Park Service closed the top third of Skyline Drive for seven hours, forcing drivers to take a 35-mile detour to a second park entrance to the south.
The highway, which attracts about 700,000 vehicles carrying sightseers and hikers a year, has no shoulders and twists and turns as it climbs up and down the sides of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Riding a bicycle in that kind of traffic can be a harrowing affair.
But Saturday, at least until it started raining, was a biker's dream come true. For 19 miles, there were no revving engines, no clouds of exhaust, just an occasional white-tailed deer. The roadway, which has just been repaved, was as smooth as glass.
``I have never flown without an airplane, but I figure this is what it is like,'' said Lizann Longstreet, 52, a criminal lawyer from Alexandria who started out at 8:30 a.m., marveling at the views of farm, town, river and mountain. ``I was just climbing, climbing, climbing and climbing. But then, on the way back, I did not have to pedal for three miles. It was like floating on air. It was just breathtaking.''
Park Service officials do not expect to have another car-free day at the park this year. As for next year, they're undecided. The event was complicated and expensive to arrange, requiring hours of staff overtime.
``The response from the bikers and hikers has been two thumbs up,'' Ranger Barb Stewart said. ``But what I don't want to do is make a promise I can't keep.''
by CNB