Kick-butt day (take 2)

Ugh. We only did 38 miles today, but I was not up for a lot of it. Started way too late (a bit after 1:30), and while we were hoping to make Wytheville, we just barely dragged into Max Meadows, which is a bit to the north. Spent a lot of time near the interstate in full sunlight, so we had a lot of noise, wind, diesel, and (at least for me) dehydration issues. Hadn't slept well again, though it was good to see my aunt and cousins. There were a couple monster hills, and several smaller ones that I got into low gear because of the heat. It was yet another gorgeous day, when I was capable of enjoying it (yay for OJ). In two days we'll be in Damascus/Abingdon, and though my dad is bad at telling me whatever plans he has, it sounds like we might be taking a zero in the area. Emory folk, I expect to be hanging out Saturday evening. We get off Old 11 soon, go up Whitetop, then drop down into Damascus. From there, the trail goes to Meadowview, over to the Breaks, and eventually to Berea. We may be hopping on the Creeper for a bit, depending on weather and how the loaded bikes handle the terrain.

Welcome to Southwest Virginia

I'm finally back in the region I left just over a week ago. Tonight we made it to Radford, and we got picked up by some family for food and a place to sleep. We continued traveling through the valley we were in yesterday, climbing out of it at the end of the day (the ridge outside of Christiansburg is quite a hill). There was a pretty awesome railroad bridge spanning the valley near Ellett, Va (concrete, but elegant). 54 miles for the day, and with my dad's legs feeling better, we got some good time for the day. It should take us around 2 days to get near Emory, and some alumns that graduated with my dad have offered their house in Abingdon as a crash spot. I may still hang out with Emory folk from my era (possibly/hopefully sleeping there). Ran into one guy who had started at the US border by the pacific and who is headed up to Maine. Pretty cool guy and plenty eccentric. We had some more heat and sun today, and that has me worn out.

Btw, it's been absolutely gorgeous going through the valleys (and even on some of the climbs).
:^D

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

Teh Megablog: Ashand to Mineral, Mineral to Whitehall, Whitehall to Waynesboro

Heading out of Ashland

ScotchtownGotta love the sign

Clothesline outside the rescue squad

The past three days have been increasingly hilly (and increasingly beautiful). Two days ago, we left my mom and Ashland to head up to Mineral. Similar to past days, we had a mix of forest and field, with a cool morning and sun later in the day. I felt great; we did 45 miles (fully loaded for the first time since Yorktown) and averaged 11.5mph. Early in the day, we passed Scotchtown, Patrick Henry's home - twas pretty cool, and the old ladies there were sweet. They also had rams. We did get to go through Bumpass, and as you can see from the post office pic, that really isn't made up. We cycled in over Lake Anna, which is the site of the most recently built nuclear plant - I think. In Mineral, the joined rescue squad and fire department offer bicyclists a place to rest, and since there was a group using the banquet hall the next day, we set up our camping gear out back. The folks were great and the area was nice.

Wild roses by the road - a common occurance

The solar home - nicknamed the trojan goatDad finishing the 80 mile day
Storm clouds rolling in - still gorgeousI almost sat on this dude

Yesterday was probably my toughest day thus far. I hadn't slept that well in Mineral, and my abdomen was pretty much failing. So I got up in a bad mood, biked over pretty hilly terrain in humid, mostly sunny weather, and though we got good distance, it was taking a lot to keep going. From Mineral, we went through Palmyra and Charlottesville (where we got lost and ended up on a super busy road with graduation traffic) to Whitehall. It was pretty, but oh so tiring. We came into town pretty late and had the offer of camping behind their Ruritan building (with no bathrooms or water or anything). A massive storm was kicking up over the Blue Ridges, headed straight our way, and we ran into our first bit of trail magic. :) This wonderful, wonderful man in a minivan rolled down his window as we passed and offered his spare solar home, which had just been completed and which is completely kick-ass. Bamboo flooring, new everything, a cool deck, smallish (and efficient) space... the works. 2 miles away from his place, we got caught in the storm (complete with lightning), and we poured the last ounces of energy into sprinting through the rain. (My panniers withheld the massive quantities of water - yay!!) We stayed on the road as instructed, but Tom (the amazing guy) had been expecting us to miss one of the turns and go straight onto a different road. At some point, we were soaked through on this gravel/dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and Tom drives up, tells us to get in, and drives us back out to where we were supposed to be going. He dropped us off with towels, changed vehicles, and went back for our bikes and remaining gear. Once he delivers that to us, he goes to his house, grabs wine, apple cider, chips, salsa, grapes, ice cream, and honey-roasted peanuts, and feeds us. I love Tom. Having shelter was amazing, and he even gave us breakfast and energy bars this morning before we left. Many thanks to him, his wife Sue, and their awesome kids. Total mileage was around 80, with average speeds just under 11mph. My spedometer is now unresponsive, so I'm using my dad's cyclocomputer.

Woke up this morning, still pretty beat, but in a much better mindset, and headed out of Whitehall. We went over some more rolling hills, climbed a ways on backroads (up through Afton), got over the Blue Ridges at Rockfish Gap and came down to a hotel in Waynesboro. My dad was not looking so great on the hills today, but he has been dealing with some super not-good leg cramps. He's not so used to these hills, nor, for that matter, is he used to the country. We did about 30 miles today, and dad's average was about 8.3mph. (For the record, I expect my avg would have been a bit higher, since I was riding a little more than my dad on some of the hills). In Afton, we caught up with one of the long-standing legends of the trail, the cookie lady. This awesome lady, June Curry, is 88 years old and provides food, water, and shelter to any cyclists that care to take it. We had some cookies and some conversation with her, and she is definitely one of the more loving people I've met. Bikers are her family, and she has rooms filled with things that transam folk have sent her. Tonight at dinner, I felt like I'd been biking - three giant plates chock full of food = nom. Gotta love all-you-can-eat buffets and steak houses.
Tomorrow, we re-climb the Blue Ridge on a more popular and more easily-graded road to get back on the trail, and we'll be following the Blue Ridge for a while (probably beyond where the trail goes down - Vesuvias - to some road that goes down into Buchannan. One of the great things about the decent today was that we took US250, which is not as scary of a descent as the transam likely is. Since the Buchannan trip would be about 80+ miles, we'll take two days to get there.

Below Mechanicsville to Ashland

TRAIN!!!!

We made it to Ashland tonight (think Randolph-Macon). Short ride, humid day, rolling hills, and a bunch of gusty wind. It was about 40miles, and we went unloaded to get some recovery time. We're now repacking all our stuff (aka moving some things from my dad's bags to mine) so we can ride fully loaded again tomorrow. We stopped at a pretty awesome bike shop in Mechanicsville and had their main guy check out our bikes (for the cost of a postcard sometime during our trip - awesome). We started out on this awesome cool, forrested road and got to something similar a little past halfway. There were a lot of asinine drivers out today, and we did go through some heavier traffic (complete with people who decided to pass us on a blind curve with incoming traffic). Twas annoying.
There were some quotes earlier in the week that I forgot to post. The first, from a guy in colonial Williamsburg: "May all your hills be down." I have a feeling that isn't exactly gonna be happen, but he was pretty cool for saying it. The second, from my mom looking at swim goggles in the REI: "Do you think that any of these would keep bugs out of your eyes?" I have shades for just that reason, and I'm pretty sure that even though she is a swim mom, she didn't recognize the fact that they were goggles.
Tomorrow we'll be passing Patrick Henry's home, but right now we're on track to hit Charlottesville for UVA's graduation.
Things I wish we didn't have: 3 bottles of Halt (a dog repellent that scares me), a heavy stove, a ton of things that will be useful occasionally. Time to continue packing.
Also, there was ice cream... which was amazing.

WAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Oy! So we finally made it somewhere, and that somewhere is about 15 miles away from Mechanicsville, VA. We went unloaded to make some distance, and that means that we made it 60 miles today with an average speed around 13.5mph. Top speeds were around 26mph, and we caught back up with Fabian, Ted, and Lisa at the hotel tonight. Found out a little more about their life stories, though it certainly isn't to the ecohouse level. The roads were mostly flat, and we travelled through a mixture of hardwood forests and midwest-esque sceneries. (The flat farms were the only thing we got pictures of.) We stopped once to get food at this kinda cute sub shop, and since my dad has forgotten a lot of important things (i.e. snacks), we got my mom to bring us gatorade and snickers at one turn in the road around 50 miles in to the ride. Traffic was increasingly heavy and will probably continue getting worse tomorrow (when we go thru Mechanicsville and Ashland).


If we get some good distance tomorrow, we'll be getting off the road at a place named Bumpass, which was apparently named for the Bumpass family. In case you were wondering, Bumpass is pronounced "bump-us."
My dad and I are both reasonably worn out, so planning 40-50miles for tomorrow. Anyhoo, I'm gonna sleep soon. Life is good.

good grief

Day one sorta postponed again.
We got to Yorktown and took the obligatory ocean + monument shot, but about 8 miles in, my dad's front hub got messed up, and we started hearing a clicking noise (not a good one, either). 13 miles in, we realized that the clicking noise was coming not from the hub, but from a break in my dad's frame (right next to the drivetrain). Luckily (?), the REI folk had a newer model of the Randonee that fit my dad up in DC, so we've switched bikes out (which took all day).


On the awesome side of things, we did meet several other people starting the trail, including Fabian from Portland and Lisa and Ted from Hawaii. They were super nice, offering tools and conversation as far as we could make it.



Unfortunately, when I was putting on sunscreen at the Yorktown visitors center, I forgot to put my bike gloves back on and ended up losing one. The REI trip did turn out to be an excellent way to get a replacement pair.

Stats:
13 miles for the day
11ish mph (slow) average
20ish mph high speed
3 annoying problems


It's probably a good thing that we did have to stop, though. Dad was not doing so hot. Apparently he hasn't biked in two weeks, hasn't biked at all fully loaded, and has been tired and antsy for the past two weeks as well. Granted, I've been stressed and nervous, but I still figured he'd be doing better than 7mph up small hills. I hope he gets into the swing of things soon, cause it was a little draining for me to balance my bike at the slower speeds. He also isn't doing very well at telling me how he is. We'll work on that. Anyhoo...

For the record, when my dad's frame broke, I talked in materials terms about it for the next 10 minutes. Thankfully, my dad is also a dork, so he completely understood.

Dad and I are determined to get closer to Mechanicsville tomorrow.