Blue Ridge Time

Post 4-mile Climb up from Waynesboro

We found these during a lunch break at a visitors centerWe climbed up to 3300ish at the beginning and end of our BRP sectionThis is what we descended to get off the parkway - eek

The past two days have been gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Yesterday, we climbed out of Waynesboro up to Rockfish Gap and continued on the Blue Ridge Parkway, climbing up to 3300 feet twice (beginning of the section and the end). We passed some awesome scenery and caught up with Ted and Lisa (apparently, Fabian has developed knee issues, so he was headed toward medical care). We couldn't have asked for a better day, for while it was a bit chilly, that helped a ton with all the climbing we had to do. Dad was looking great, and mostly keeping up with me on the climbs. (He always has the upper hand on downhills.) We wanted to get off the parkway before night since there was a frost warning out, so we headed off the mountains at Vesuvius, and whoa, that was one hell of a downhill. The road was super steep and super winding, and I walked my bike for about a quarter mile of the steepest stuff. I attempted to do so while dismounted, but my bike nearly escaped, so I ended up straddling my frame, pushing the bike uphill and walking downhill. We got to the bottom, grabbed some groceries from this nice country store, and made it to a hostel 9 miles away from Lexington. 48 miles total, average speed around 8 or 9mph.
This morning, we woke up to a chilly 34 degrees, packed slowly, and headed off, with the road paralleling the South River (which is beautiful, by the way). There were tons of flowers, a pair of lovely waterfalls, and a few hills before we passed VMI and W&L. We had lunch at a nice sandwich shop at the edge of W&L's campus, and continued toward Natural Bridge. That section was great. It was Emory-ish, with lots of meadows and rolling hills. A Hungarian and his buddy from northern California caught us, and I had chats with both of them during the day. There was a steep climb into Natural Bridge that had me in granny gear, but we picked up some juice at a gas station at the top. Between Natural Bridge and Buchanan, we were on and off 11 and old US-11, which had some fun, steep, rolling hills. Buchanan was out of water, so we got some more juice and cranked the last 18 miles into Troutville. At one point, I was waiting for my dad and got to see a family of beavers (complete with two young ones). All in all, the past two days have been great. Yesterday we got the views from the ridge (20 mile cliff probably being one of my favorites). Today we got the nice ride through the valley - which I think we might have to climb out of tomorrow. 56 miles total; no clue what the average speed was.... perhaps 11.4
Tomorrow we'll head on toward Christiansburg and meet up with my aunt toward the end of the day. Today my dad was hurting, so we'll see how far we get and/or whether we'll take a zero day with my aunt or not. Getting closer to Emory, and eventually our first state boundary. Wahoo!!

Ted and Lisa at the Hostel

What are these?

What the road was like post-south riverTaken during one of my breaks