Whew. We have spent the past two days climbing and being chased by dogs, it seems. We left Damascus Sunday morning, and pedaled 53 miles through familiar territory (btw, Emory people - you need to pull your bikes out and ride down Lindell and Old Saltworks). After going through Meadowview and Hayter's Gap, we started climbing Clinch Mountain and kept climbing for a while. At the top, we ran into some bike-friendly folk. The descent was grand, and we chilled until lunch at Rosedale. We then took 80 over to Honaker, and climbed up Big A mountain (not making the name up). By the time we made Council, VA (an awesome place with an even awesome-er town park that's open to bikers camping), we were beat. We rolled in just as a bunch of folks were finishing pre-Memorial Day picnics, with lots of food to spare - lucky us :) We spent the night with a group of 5 bikers from Blacksburg who had plenty of drama, though they were pretty nice people. Sleep was tough to get with one kid yelling "CUPCAKE" for upwards of an hour and some other people coming in and out of the pavillion we were camping in. Things worked out though, and it sure was a beautiful ride. Once more, Emory folk, you should really try out state route 80.
This morning, we got out pretty early and booked it to Haysi, where we had second breakfast and where the rain started. We waited a short bit and then decided to brave the rain, which made for a very nice first major climb of the day. We biked into the Breaks (gorgeous with the mist coming off the Russel Fork), out of the breaks, into Kentucky (where we were greeted by a not-so-encouraging loose german shepherd), and over two more major climbs to Virgie, KY. The majority of the rain stopped once we made the Breaks, but we did get a few more drops later in the day. One of the awesome outdoors kids from Emory has hooked us up with a very comfy place to sleep and some wonderful food. Thanks!! We rode 64miles total (3 mountains) and are looking at a shorter (but still 2 mountain) day tomorrow.
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