Day 5 continued:

I ended my entry a little earlier than I wanted to yesterday. It takes at least an hour to write out a post and another if I want to add pictures and another half hour if I want the pictures to have captions.

Yesterday we woke up at 6:45 however we didn’t leave the shelter until 9:30. We then rode into town to meet up with Evan at a coffee shop. Mark wanted to grab some snacks at a store so we stopped at a (I think it was a Kroger’s) store. As we were checking out the sky opened up and a downpour began. We decided to get to know one another in the store entryway and wait out the rain. I learned that Evan is from Hawaii but is about to enter his Junior year at Harvard. He also plays the violin!

We headed out only to turn left on the street when Evan wiped out. It wasn’t a bad fall but it made me nervous for the next several miles since we have the same brake system. Rim brakes are a little shaky in the rain. Anyway the sunshine didn’t last long and it started to downpour again. There wasn’t anything to do but continue so we got soaked. Unfortunately that’s when I noticed my handlebar stem was crooked. I couldn’t stop because of the rain to fix it and we were so close to Natural Bridge. After a couple more hills we made it. The weather was so kind to even stop raining. It cost 20 dollars to get in. This was kinda expensive but since we didn’t have to pay for housing for the last couple days and we biked extra hills and battled rain we went for it. Evan went first and asked for a student discount. I’m glad he did as I had my student ID with me! We only had to pay 12 dollars instead. Natural Bridge was really cool and I’m glad we took the time to look at it. I usually get stickers when I go to parks but I couldn’t find any. I asked ticket taker if the sold any. They didn’t but she gave me a free one that they put on gift wrappings.

I don’t remember the rest of the day. I remember getting into town and camping at the firehouse. They let us shower, do our laundry, and use their kitchen. The store across the street had pretty cheap food so I ate a bunch of those microwaveable Mac and cheeses, a peach and a coke. After everyone set up their tents we went back to the store for some ice cream. I debated weather to get a gallon of ice cream since it was the same price as a pint. I tried to get the rest of the group to split it with me but everyone wanted a different flavor so we went with individual pints. We walked back to camp to eat the ice cream. It quickly turned into a contest of who could eat it the fastest. Mark can in first, followed by me then Jolee. Evan didn’t finish his despite claiming to be an ice cream eater champion. Everyone felt slightly sick so we called it a night and headed to bed.

Day 7: biked 81.34 miles todayPlanned to get up at 7 but didn’t until 8. Since we were staying behind someone’s house we didn’t have a bathroom. Thankfully the restaurant let us use theirs. Evan was having some bike problems so he stayed behind while Mark, Jolee and I headed to Wytheville, Va. The terrain wasn’t that bad. A little hilly but since we just started for the day we were in good shape. Miles of beautiful farms with perfectly rolled hay bales quickly turned into shaded forests. The roads became twisty and it was impossible to see around the corners. Since we didn’t want to surprise traffic Mark and Jolee turned on their mini stereo and played some music. We got to Wytheville, Va in no time. It was only 11:00 so we decided to continue on to the next town (Rural Retreat, Va) before eating lunch. I don’t remember much of the ride to get there. I do remember that there was a traffic light right before we hit the town. We had to turn left but we weren’t heavy enough to trigger the light to change. The car behind us wouldn’t pull up close despite us beckoning her to come closer. Finally we ended up running the light. There was a narrow hill to get into town without a shoulder and the same car refused to pass us so we pulled off onto the grass to let 9 cars pass us. At the beginning of town there was a subway so we stopped for lunch. Right when we sat down to eat, Evan showed up. He must have been booking it to catch up! I was really impressed he managed to catch us. We lingered too long for lunch (we left at 3) as we wanted to get to Damascus Va that night. It was another 45 miles away and we had already gone 36 miles that day. There were three giant hills separating us. One steep shorter one followed by a slight downhill followed by a short hill into Troutsdale and a long sleep one followed by a gradual decent into Konnarock. About halfway up Troutsdale I started to get really tired and mentally drained. I looked at my GPS and to my horror we had another 3 miles on this hill. There was hardly tree cover and I could feel myself burning. There was a lady mowing her grass ahead and her (I’m assuming) son playing in the yard. He looks up and starts running toward us. He pauses for a moment before crossing the road and blocks our path. We’re still climbing the hill and not moving very fast but make a move to just go around him. All of a sudden he puts his hands on his hips and yells “DO YOU WANT SOME GATORADE?” I try to smile and gasp ‘sure’ since I’m breathing hard from this awful hill. He yells again “OKAY WAIT RIGHT THERE”. He runs back to his house and goes inside and returns with a nice cold grape Gatorade. I’ve never been so thankfully to taste something other than lukewarm water. I thank him and he yells “NO PROBLEM. ANYTIME” before running back to his toys in the yard. I gave him a big wave before continuing. There wasn’t anything interesting in Troutsdale so we pushed on to Konnarock. There was supposed to be a long steep hill to get there but I didn’t notice any incline. The road looked new and didn’t have any potholes or cracks. For a couple miles we wondered if we were on the right road as the terrain didn’t match the maps. We flagged down a passing car and she confirmed that we were on the right road. It was a really nice surprise that the road wasn’t as bad as we thought. Konnarock turned out to be a ghost town so we pressed on. The decent to Damascus in one word was heavenly. It was a little twisty but not enough that it blocked traffic behind you from seeing around the corners. There was a river (which I have the name of on my map but can’t remember right now) that we followed down and it was very present to listen too. I didn’t time it but we passed a sign that said Damascus: 10 miles and 40 minutes we were here! We got in rather late so the only thing opened was a Citgo gas station. It wasn’t too bad though because they sold hot pizzas. We each got our own with 8 slices in it. I got the meat lovers and a cherry coke. I also grabbed some maple bacon flavored chips. My music theory class in high school had a weird obsession with maple bacon so the chips reminded me of that (it was a great class! Definitely one of my favorite high school classes). I haven’t eaten them yet but I’m looking forward to it tomorrow.

There’s a house that allows AT trail hikers and Trans-am cyclists to stay at so we headed over there to set up our tents. The caretaker informed us while we were eating that you couldn’t shower after 10. It was already 9:15 so we hurried up to fit everyone in. Since we didn’t shower in the last two days everyone needed it. I didn’t finish all my pizza. I still have 3 slices left that I’m looking forward to eating for breakfast. I think we are going to walk around the town for a bit tomorrow morning because it’s known as a bike and AT trail town.

Day 8: Monday, biked 51 miles

They say the first week is the hardest. Today was day 8 on the road and I didn’t notice it getting any easier.

Last night after I finished typing my summary a duck wondered into the yard and would not stop quacking. At first it was really funny because who would have thought a duck would be wondering around. After a couple minutes it seised to be funny because we were trying to sleep. Finally Evan got fed up and tried to chase it away. Apparently he was successful for a while but it came back later. I didn’t wake up. For breakfast I ate the rest of my pizza which as cold and kinda hard from sitting out but still better than nothing. We got a late start again because the town has a lot of cool bike shops that we wanted to walk around in. I bought a mirror for my sunglasses since my handlebar mirror wasn’t working. I also bough a replacement value for my hydration pack. Mine had accidentally fallen off a few days ago and I didn’t feel like stopping to pick it up. I also bought a route 76 t-shirt.

Right out of Damascus we ran into a recumbent tandem pair. There bike was so cool! It looked like something out of Dr. Seuss. The retired couple is from Canton Ohio. I didn’t catch their names though. From there we went through Meadowville and started towards Hayters Gap (pronounced haters). We noticed a guy coming toward us and he looked like a day rider. A closer look proved him to be a racer. I’m pretty sure it was Alistair Davidson who is in first place right now. At the base of the climb we caught up with this guy: Brent, who said he was with another person. Mark had warned Jolee and I that this climb would be challenging and he was right. I’m glad my bike computer wasn’t working cuz I would have been counting the feet until we got to the top. It was so steep that we agreed to just meet at the top. I fell behind and soon Evan and Brent’s companion, Ellen caught up with me. They were welcome company to take my mind off of the climb. I didn’t know Ellen so it was nice to do the whole introduction thing. We stuck together for the next couple of miles until we got to the top. About halfway up we passed another female cyclist that was carrying next to nothing. Since she was going down she didn’t stop but we noticed the number and tracker on her. It was Amy Williams, one of the racers. I believe she is in second place right now. We cheered her one and she waved. Finally after a couple hours we made it to the top. Mark, Jolee, Brent were already there. We caught up to Evan just before Ellen and I reached the top. The next 11 miles to a Bike Hostel/Church were amazing. It probably only took us 35 minutes from the top of Hayters Gap to get there. The church is open for passing cyclists to eat lunch and refill water. They let you eat anything that’s in the kitchen too! In the freezer we hit the jackpot. There were about 20 of those frozen meals. I ate a chicken Alfredo one. In the cupboard they had applesauce and cans of diced pears. It was really nice that the church lets people stop by. We signed the guest book and noticed that there were a couple of people just two days ahead of us. We might be able to caught them.

From there we headed to Honaker, Va to grab stuff for dinner. We planned to end the day another 10 miles down the road in Council, Va. Council doesn’t have any places to eat so we loaded up at the dollar general. I bought a loaf of bread, peanut butter/grape jelly swirls and sour gummy worms. We were packing up in the parking lot when we noticed yet another cyclist with hardly anything. Since the road going in the opposite direction from us was steep we wasn’t moving very fast. We ran out close to the road and yelled at him if he was a racer. He gave an enthusiastic yes! We cheered and waved until he made it over the climb. To get into Council, Va we had to climb yet another hill. Thankfully this one was shorter than Hayters Gap and had a longer descent. By 6:40pm everyone was finished. The local park allows cyclists to stay so that’s were we set up camp. They have a bunch of jungle gyms and a pool. Unfortunately the pool and showers were closed. I am however going to sleep in the pirate ship play area. While we were eating dinner a stray kitten found its way into our circle. We played with it for a while before it ran off.

Once again it’s getting late so I’m going to end there.