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After a shower and a short rest we got ready for dinner. The River House Inn is over 200 years old and still has much of that old Blue Ridge Mountain charm and we relaxed on the porch and drank wine while we waited for dinner. And though the River House Inn is long on old fashion appeal, this night it was short on wait staff. We started at 6:30 and finally left at 10:00. The meal was excellent to taste, but by the time it got there I would have eaten my shoe. Tomorrow was hiking day so we headed back to the room to get some sleep.
The next morning we gathered for breakfast not sure how long it would take. What ever the problem of the night before, they had fixed it. Breakfast was not only good, it was served promptly. For the record I had an herb and cheese omelet. It had basil, chives and rosemary in it with Swiss cheese. It was excellent! Good mountain climbing fuel. |
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The River House Inn |
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double click pictures to enlarge |
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Susan among the wild ponies |
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Fortunately the weather was great! |
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After a scenic shuttle to the Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia we all piled out of the van ready to go. The hike begins up a slight grade through a pastoral setting complete with wild ponies. Before long we began a serious hike up a large rock outcropping. The view at the top is impressive. |
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Leaving Grayson Highlands State Park & entering Mount Rogers National Recreation Area |
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The big climb |
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This is soon followed by another climb up the rocks with a descent through Mountain Laurel thickets. We even crawled through �fat man�s squeeze�. OK, it was a little tight but I made it. This was finished with a great picnic lunch that was so good flies came from miles around to sample everything. It was a great way to spend the day off the bike. We even had time to get a nap before supper. |
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Fatman's squeeze (yeah, I know, there are no pictures of me going through). |
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Tonight supper was again at the River House, but this time everything went perfect. It was a great meal with great service, but the big news at the table this night was the weather. Tropical storm Cindy was headed our way. You know us. What would a bike trip be without a tropical storm or three? It was suppose to hit by midnight and they already had the flood warnings out. The temps were dropping too. I wouldn�t want it any other way.
We woke up to threatening skies but no rain. That was not a good thing. That meant the rain had not gotten here yet instead of already gone through. Yeap, this was building up to be one of our type of days. I was sure glad I had my fenders on.
Breakfast was all about the weather and the options. About half wanted to ride, and half had better sense. I have no sense so you know which side I was on. We all shuttled to the top of Whitetop Station, the start of the Virginia Creeper Trail. The first half is 17 miles to Damascus and it is almost all downhill. The average grade is 2.2%, but actual grade is 6% to 0. The first two miles are 6%! There was no way I was going to miss this!
The temperature at Whitetop was 62. It was pouring rain. It just kept getting better. Cold, wet, and 6% grade to build a really cool wind chill and the best part was I was wearing sandals. Susan opted for the better sense option so I pushed off as soon as my bike was unloaded. Besides I was freezing! |
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double click pictures to enlarge |
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The first hundred yards or so are fairly flat and then the trail tilts down through the tress and you are off. I was sailing along about 22 MPH over a trail that had water running down it like a stream. I was speeding around blind turns and over trestles hundreds of feet long and over a hundred feet high. They were covered with wood. Wet wood. Slick wet wood. Very scary slick wet wood. Not all were that high but all were covered with wood. The other disturbing part of trestles was the exit ends were always washed out. This meant I had to jump off the ends of the trestles on a touring frame bike with road tires. There was no braking on the wet wood. I was literally getting airborne. It did take your mind off the cold though. It did not take long to cover those 17 miles to Damascus. I was sitting there waiting when the van pulled up. Damascus was also our lunch break stop. My plan was to eat and then continue down the trail to Abingdon, but when Greg asked if I wanted to load the bike up and take the van on in I was faced with a decision. It took almost a nano-second to say, �OK, sure.� I guess I�m getting old. I just don�t enjoy cold, wet, miserable bike rides like I use to. Maybe another day.
We arrived back at the Summerfield House by midday. We loaded up our bikes and stuff into the truck and said our goodbyes. We thanked our tour guides Anne and Greg for a great trip and we picked up the tickets to the last part of our trip. We were going to end the day with a play at the Barter Theater. I could hardly wait, (written dripping with sarcasm), but it�s the price I pay for getting Susan to go along on these biking adventures. It turns out this was a deal.
The play was �Lying in State�. It was absolutely hysterical! We both laughed till we had tears running down our cheeks. The tickets were included in our bike trip and the play turned out to be a perfect ending to a great trip.
skip & Susan |
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The last picnic |
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Life on the trail without fenders |
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Anne & Greg, owners of Carolina Tailwinds |
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The crew (notice only two guys :) |
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back to whence you came |
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or |
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