Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway

Blue Ridge Trip '24 #25
Back in Boone, NC - Thu, 5 Sep 2024. 8pm

This evening after leaving Linville Gorge after our hike at Linville Falls we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway most of the way back to our hotel in Boone. We had to drive it at least some of the way, as Linville Falls is managed by the National Park Service, as is the parkway itself. The visitor center is only accessible via an exit off the parkway. A few miles out from there we could have exited onto various other routes, but the Blue Ridge Parkway is such an enjoyable road to drive and as a scenic route it's surprisingly only a slight bit slower than the not-as-scenic alternatives.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is an astonishing 469 miles (755 km) long. It connects from where the Skyline Drive in Virginia ends at the boundary of Shenandoah National Park down to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The Park Service says it's been the most visited of their units almost every year since it opened in 1946.

This evening we drove only 25 of the parkway's 469 miles. But it was a very pleasant drive, very chill. Here are three reasons why:

1. The Blue Ridge Parkway has no stop signs or traffic lights. Engineers designed the parkway so that all its intersections with highways are done with small connector roads. ...Not that there are a huge number of crossing roads, anyway, as the parkway tends to travel along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. But it's really sweet to drive it without having to stop constantly for lights and signs.

2. The Blue Ridge Parkway is designed to blend into the scenery. The road's only 2 lanes wide, one in each direction, and there are no shoulders. This keeps natural beauty close by. The fact there are no traffic lights, minimal traffic signs, and almost no commercial interests along the road also keeps the drive feeling like a communion with nature.



3. The Linn Cove Viaduct is along the stretch we've driven a few times this week. It's probably the most photographed section of the 469 mile parkway. It was an engineering marvel when it was completed in 1983. The 1,243' long bridge hugs the contours of Grandfather Mountain in an S-curve and is constructed of 153 uniquely shaped concrete segments weighing 50 tons each. Now, it's not fall foliage season this week. There's no riot of autumn colors out there... yet. Maybe if we were to come back in a few weeks we'd see something the like stock picture above. Though probably in a few weeks there'll be heavy traffic on the parkway with all the leaf-peepers, making it a much less pleasant drive.

1,000 Miles in a Ford Edge

Blue Ridge Trip '24 #26
Relaxing in Boone, NC - Fri, 6 Sep 2024. 8am

Sometime last night driving the Blue Ridge Parkway home from our last hike we crossed 1,000 miles in our rental car this trip, a 2023 Ford Edge. We've still got a few more days left on the trip, but the 1,000 mile mark seems like a good time to share my thoughts about this vehicle. (Update: we returned the car Sunday at 1,343 miles.)

Overall I like this Edge. There's nothing wrong with it. I know, that sounds like damning it with faint praise, but that's actually a relatively high bar with autos. So often a vehicle that may excel in certain areas has a "Yes, but...", a major objective weakness. This isn't quite a car I'd buy with my own money (more on that below) but I certainly don't mind drawing it in the rental car lottery.

Size and Space. The Edge is a 5-passenger wagon body SUV. The front seats have about the right amount of room. The rear seats, I can't comment on from a seating perspective. They look roomy enough for 2 adults or 3 kids. All we've stored back there is some of our gear, for which it's plenty spacious. And the cargo area in the back is plenty spacious, too. We can fit our big suitcase on its back along with our two carry-on bags on their sides.

The one very slightly uncomfortable thing about the vehicle's size is that it feels big at first, when navigating in a parking lot. It has a larger turning radius than you'd expect from a vehicle of its size. That gives you a gut feeling of, "Whoa! This thing's a boat!" I gather the wide radius is because of our model's all-wheel drive. In all other cases the vehicle feels like an easy-to-manage mid-size.

Handling. This is the area where 'Nothing wrong' most applies. Everything about the car's handling is good but not great. Power from the standard 2.0L turbocharged engine, rated at about 250 HP, is good but not great. The automatic transmission seems to manage the engine's rev band for fuel economy and low noise levels rather than performance. At least it's generally in the right gear, not leaving the car feeling flat-footed when I step on the gas. So again, good but not great. In the handling department there nothing to complain... but also nothing to write home about. The car drives smoothly and corners smartly, but you'd never confuse this crossover SUV for being genuinely sporty.

Technology. I've written before that in evaluating cars of the past few years it's critical to consider their technology integration as technology is becoming so central to the driving experience.

Technology is literally front-and-center in the Ford Edge with a big 12" touch screen in the center console. This has been a standard features since in 2021. It seems generous and is a slightly luxe touch in lower trim models.

The big touch screen drives the Apple CarPlay integration. Having the big screen for it is nice. We can see a big map when we're using a maps app and still have space on-screen to see vehicle settings such as air temperature and fan speed.

...Speaking of which, it's a little frustrating to have so many comfort controls managed only through a touch screen. I'm a fan of obvious, chunky, dedicated knobs and buttons for cabin temperature, fan speed, etc. Having to click through an on-screen menu splits my attention away from driving just a tad more than I'd like. But at least with that large screen such controls are only 1 click away in the menus, not 2 or even 3 clicks.

Oh, let me get back to CarPlay. It works. In every other car I've rented in the past year that had Apple CarPlay, it has been flaky. It won't add my phone, or sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesn't, or it stops working randomly. It's been frustrating. But in this Ford Edge it just works. This is a great example of how "Nothing wrong with it" is comparatively a good grade.

Fuel Economy. The Ford Edge has an EPA rating of  23 mpg combined (21 city/28 highway). We're getting about 27 mpg this trip, which makes sense as we're driving in mostly highway conditions. OTOH, driving up and down mountains that's actually really good. I'll bet if we lived in flatland (and I had a less heavy right foot on open highways) I could get close to 30 mpg.

Bottom Line. Overall this car's good but not great. I was a bit surprised to find as I was researching for this review that the last major revision was in 2015. So in terms of overall layout, engine, and handling, the Ford Edge is now a 9 year old design. Thus it's surprising that it's so firmly in the category of "There's nothing wrong with it". Other cars with aging designs have all felt stale in places. Heck, cars with 3-4 year old designs often feel outdated in some respects.

All that said, while I don't mind being assigned this car as a rental, I doubt I'd ever want to buy one for myself. I think the reason for that is falls in a "neither fish nor fowl" gap for me. If I'm buying an SUV for its off-road capability, I need way more than what the Ford Edge offers. And if I'm buying a car for driving strictly on the road, I want more luxury and performance. For anyone who's looking for an on-road crossover SUV with good handling, though, I'd recommend considering the Ford Edge.

New Hiking Pole(s)

On a hiking trip two weeks ago I broke my hiking pole. (I fell over a waterfall and snapped it in two on the way down!) I started looking for a replacement the next day. Local outdoors stores didn't have the sort of pole I enjoy using, and the nearest REI with one in stock was almost 2 hours away. I decided to order online.

Online I found two poles that seemed like what I want. One's a REI brand pole that's the most direct replacement to, but not an exact replacement, for the one I broke. The other is an ALPS brand pole I found selling on Amazon.

Which is better? I decided after poring over the tech specs that I couldn't be sure until I held them in my hands, so I ordered both. They arrived in the mail last week. I finally had time to unbox them Sunday.

You can see in the picture (right/above) that the two poles are similar in a number of ways. They're both collapsible/telescoping, and they both have rounded handles at the top— instead of the "pistol grip" or ski pole style grip that's more common with hiking poles. This was a key feature to me, as I when I'm using the pole for balance on tricky terrain I like to push straight down with the palm of my hand on the smooth pommel rather push my weight down through a bent wrist grasping a trigger-like handle.

Also, both poles have exterior clamps for locking the telescoping mechanism in place. This is different from the internal locking mechanism my old pole had. I liked the internal mechanism. It was an elegant design, giving the pole a clean profile without knobby bits that catch on a pants leg or tree branch. Alas it seems like no poles use that design anymore. I can only surmise it was more expensive to manufacture, wasn't as durable, or both.

The poles are not exactly the same, of course. The REI hiking pole I selected has an olive green shaft, while the ALPS pole is a neutral gray. I really liked the blue of the pole I lost, but that color isn't offered anywhere. Gray is dull, but I'm really not a fan of the green.

The REI pole is shorter by a few inches when collapsed, as you can see in the photo. That could be a big benefit when packing it in a suitcase for air travel. Among the tests I did Sunday was to lay both poles in our checked airline bag. Even the larger ALPS pole fits fine.

The pommels of the two poles are different. ALPS has rounded wood top, REI has a slightly shaped cork handle. I thought I'd prefer the cork by a lot— my busted pole had a cork handle, and I loved it— but upon trying them out the wood handle seemed. Plus, I salvaged the cork pommel from my old hiking pole... I can unscrew the ALPS pole's wood cap and screw on my old cork pommel!

One little difference that kind of pissed me off is that the REI pole doesn't come with a rubberized foot cap for use on hard surfaces. It's got a chisel point. REI sells foot caps for several dollars extra. The ALPS pole costs half the price of the REI and comes with a foot cap included.

At this point you probably won't be surprised that I chose to keep the ALPS pole and return the REI pole. The main reason was the cost— REI was 2x the price. And the ALPS pole included the foot cap and seemed to have a slightly heavier duty construction. Fortunately, returns are easy with REI. There's a store less than 2 miles from our house. We walked it in there and had a cash-in-hand refund minutes later.