Our layover day in Damascus is on the weekend of the Appalatian Trail Days, an annual get together of people who have hiked the trail. The small town of Damascus, that the trail passes through, is buzzing with streetside stalls. It looks rather like a 60's peace rally...check out the stickers on this van! The trail hikers do have a hippie look about them. I guess when you are trekking through the wilderness for six months things like shaving etc. aren't a priority. Seeing some of the hikers with their huge backpacks on makes what we are doing seem rather tame. At least you get to freewheel down the hills when cycling.
The usual 10 mile morning coffee stop.
There's no escaping the hills. The only flat bits are the bridges over the rivers before the next climb starts.
Another fantastic day riding through rolling rural landscape. There was a lot of up and downhill. Often you are flying downhill at 35mph and a few seconds later you are in 1st gear doing 4mph! There were magnificent views around each bend, like this huge old wooden barn.
A glorious day's riding off the Appalatians and along the valley through Lexington and Buchanan to Troutville. The high crime rate in S.A. is highlighted when you see the absence of fences and walls here. The railway runs next to the road and between houses and not a fence in sight. Houses don't hide behind 6ft walls but stand proudly on their vast neat lawns open to the street and neighbours. Kids play happily in gardens and their bikes are left outside.
This is what we do after supper each day...go over the next day's route. Our tour leader, Bob, is on the right in the green shirt.
The Parkway is an awesome road lined with manicured lawns. The wooden fence is part of an exhibit of a settler farm.
Time for an energy boost at the top of one of the climbs on the Parkway. This one's for you Dom!
A corner in June Curry's bike house where we stay tonight. Every space is covered with postcards, photos, newspaper clippings etc. from cyclists that have passed here. June, the 'cookie lady' has been helping cyclists since the Transam route started with the bikecentenial in 1976.
The countryside is getting more lumpy as we start climbing up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. All these lush pastures make me think of the alpacas back home that are going into winter and can only dream of green grass!
Wyant's store, the best place in White Hall for some chille on a grey day...in fact, the only place, the store is all there is.
There are a lot of churches along the route. This was one of the more striking ones today.
Some of the country convenience stores that are marked on the map have closed down, so we were glad to find this one open. I was starting on my peanut butter sandwich when Ingo came out with a tub of ice cream. That looked much more exciting than my sandwich, so there I was soon after with a tub of my own. It went down really well. After all the rain it is very humid, so the roller coaster hills were hard work.
Our scenic camping spot at William Hale's farm.
During a beautifull route through rolling fields of wheat between shady wooded stretches, I came across this family of geese crossing a bridge. They waddled halfway up the hill in front of me before they veered off into the woods. But they weren't holding me up, I was huffing up the hill in 1st gear and battling to keep up!
It was a challenge to find a spot to pitch that wasn't waterlogged. It has rained a lot here. Check out the monster rv's in the background!
Morning rush for coffee at the first convenience store. One of the shorter days, 30 miles to Americamp near Ashland.
The many preserved Civil War battlefields make good spots to munch on some sandwiches.
After more on the parkway the route followed this new Capital bike path. It was another wet day, but luckily we could sleep indoors at Willis Methodist Church.
It was too cold and wet to wait for the whole group to do the wheel dipping. So we just did it quickly and got no our way back to our motel in Williamsburg. If all goes well I'll be dipping the wheel in the Pacific in three months.
