6/7/12
I left Boone this morning after yet
another wonderful couchsurfing experience. My hosts, Elissa and
Jenny, live right next to a creek in a house with interesting, open
architecture and mellow vibes. Jenny left early on the second day of
my stay, heading out into the wilderness for a week at her new
wilderness therapy job, and Elissa finished the last day of her first
year as a middle school science and Spanish teacher while I was
there. Elissa has done some long-distance biking, and happened to be
hosting another cyclist while I was there, who was heading in the
opposite direction on a short trip from West Virginia to Atlanta. I
could easily have spent several more days in their company at their
cool house.
Today was perhaps the most physically
challenging day of the trip so far. Not the longest mileage, nor the
longest time pedaling, but the most vertical climbing I've done all
trip. With my legs still fresh from 4 months of weightless riding, a
bit of running and a few short hikes, I almost wondered if I would
make it to my destination here in Galax, Virginia. The themes of the
day, other than hills, hills and more hills, were ride-on lawn mowers
( I must have seen a dozen in operation, and another dozen sitting
ready to go), ground hogs (which ran into the bushes upon my approach
so often that I stopped looking), and Christmas trees. I must have
passed a hundred Christmas tree farms, growing multiple varieties of
beautiful conifers, covering the hillsides in neatly trimmed rows.
Because of the hills, the vistas were beautiful, and big, puffy white
clouds filled the sky, making for some incredibly picturesque scenes
of farms and pastures. Happy cows dotted the gloriously green
hillsides, and old homes sat proudly against a backdrop of thick,
dark forest. My body is tired, and so are my eyes from looking so
hard at all the beauty all day long.
To finish the day, I began the New
River Trail, a bike path running 57 miles from Galax to Pulaski, VA.
It is flat, well-maintained crushed stone, following a river which
gives life to all of the big, leafy trees along its banks and makes
for a shady, green and easy ride. I look forward to finishing the
rest of it tomorrow, knowing that there are no hills for another 50
miles!
6/11/12
The days are flying by! After nearly
a full day on the New River Trail, I was ready for some hills once
again. The trail was definitely flat, and also very beautiful. For
most of the trip, a crumbling rock cliff covered in mosses and
lichens of a dozen varieties stood on one side of me, while the New
River, brown and slow with a small rifle here and there, lay on the
other. I passed dozens of other folks on bikes, all out for day
trips from the nearest parking area. Near the end, the surface of
the trail became softer with gravel, and I was happy to be back on
asphalt again once the trail ended.
Over the next couple of days, I
paralleled Interstate 81 as it heads northeast through the valleys of
Virginia. I stayed on minor highways and back-roads, and ran into
the first other cycle-tourists I have seen on this leg of the
journey. First I met Tom, who left from central Pennsylvania a few
weeks ago and is traveling the ACA (American Cycling Association)
Trans-America route, which roughly traces the path of the settlers
who followed the “Oregon Trail” when our country was first being
settled by Europeans. Part of this route overlaps with the
bicentennial bicycle route, which has large signs all over around
here with a “76” on them and a bicycle underneath. I need to
read more about what this route means.
I then met a Dutch couple who have
been cycle-touring for 15 years, and were also on the same route at
Tom. I get the feeling that if I stuck more closely to ACA routes, I
would be running into touring cyclists several times a day, now that
it is summer.
I also ran across a couple of
middle-aged guys holding a large sign outside of a planned parenthood
which read “180.” I stopped and talked to them for a while about
the film they are promoting, which compares abortion in America to
the regime of Nazi Germany during WWII. The one of the pair who did
all of the talking then asked me several specific yes/no questions
about my beliefs, and genuinely tried to convince me that I would go
to hell if I didn't come to God. I kindly let him know that I didn't
believe in hell, and that I didn't believe that a loving God would
send people to such a place even if it did exist, especially for the
types of “sins” he was condemning mankind for (lying, stealing,
lust). It was not a very productive conversation, as I don't think
either of us was going to convince the other of anything, but we were
both amiable throughout our interaction. I admired his passion, and
I let the guys know that I approved of their first amendment rights
to freedom of speech, and I moved on.
Yesterday, I happened upon perhaps the
most beautiful random lunch spot I ever could have hoped for. On the
edge of Jefferson National Forest, between Vesuvius and Buena Vista,
VA runs South River Road, with a small river right next to it for
most of the way. I didn't catch the name of the river, but at one
point, I saw a white patch through the trees at a turnout, and upon
closer inspection, a magnificent waterfall appeared. Pulling my bike
off the road onto a small path, I changed into my swim shorts in the
bushes, and had a glorious swim in the cool, clear water right below
the falls, where a hole of at least 5 feet deep made for excellent
swimming. I climbed and swam closer to the falls to inspect, and
realized that it was carrying and depositing minerals on the mosses
that grew all around it, making for some very interesting, growing,
changing formations in and around the falls. After climbing over the
3 ft high falls that fell directly into river, the next falls up were
20 ft high, followed by another 2 falls at 10 ft each, making for a
total drop of over 40 feet. I was able to climb up everything that I
could see from the river, and when I got to the top, more falls
awaited. I felt as though I had found a hidden treasure, and no one
else was around to see it. It was a marvelous way to cool down and
reinvigorate myself for the rest of the ride.
Today, I am couchsurfing at Shannon
Farms Association, an intentional community south of Afton, VA. The
ride here made me somewhat anxious because, after climbing to 1850 ft
Rockfish Gap, I then descended 1200 feet in 8 miles to arrive here,
and I know that I will be biking back to Rockfish Gap before
continuing on into Shenandoah National Park. Some of the hills I
descended were very steep,
and I am not looking forward to the ride back in the opposite
direction.
Upon my arrival
here, I met Rollie, my host, who put me in a very nice, spacious
guest room with wonderful natural lighting due to windows on 3 sides.
He had alerted some others in the community of my arrival, and while
I was in the shower, several folks arrived and we all chatted about
my trip and others like it that had been attempted by some of them.
We then packed up some food and headed to a small potluck an a piece
of their property (520 acres in total, with about 100 residents) on a
ridge where an old building had once stood, and had recently been
demolished. A large bonfire had been made from the pieces of the
building that were deemed not to be reusable, and a half-dozen folks
were sitting around on upturned 5-gallon buckets eating the delicious
offerings that had been brought by several folks. I filled my plate
twice with more greens and beans and tastiness than I had seen in
several days, and finished it off with some delicious watermelon.
Every so often
while I'm riding, I will pass some kids doing a car-wash fundraiser.
Without exception, they always think it is the funniest thing to wave
their signs at me, then laugh and give each other high-fives.
The
wildflowers are going off everywhere! Day lilies grow here like
poppies in California, dotting hillsides and the edges of forests and
roadside ditches with bright orange, deep and intricate coloring,
mildly sweet scented flowers. Yesterday I passed an area where a
variety of yucca, with its creamy white torch of flowers, grew mixed
with day lilies and something purple in the pea family, spanning the
color spectrum in the bright sun. I stood in the road on a blind
curve to get a few shots, but no photograph could do that hillside
justice. The countryside continues to be gloriously pleasant to look
at.
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