Day 14 - June 17, 2013 - Radford, VA to Wytheville, VA

Mileage - about 43

Total mileage - 452.2

Wildlife spotted - Deer, wild turkeys, cows, goats, barn kittens, road kill snakes and possum

Today began with a lovely (mostly downhill) ride from our hotel in Radford.  We coasted past a couple of fellow cyclists on the route checking out their maps and waved, knowing we'd probably cross paths later in the day.  We crossed the New River, then immediately turned onto a road that ran along the river for many miles.  We spotted the most adorable baby deer crossing the road along the way, it stopped to look at us for a bit, then followed its mom up the hill on the other side.

We passed through the quaint town of Newbern, which had marked most of their original structures along with the year they were built, starting in the early 1800s.  I thought we hit the jackpot when we went right by a post office, since we found about 10lbs of extra crap to send home to lighten our load, but it didn't open for a couple more hours, bummer!

We were about halfway to the next town, Draper, when we had paused to put on sunscreen (see, mom, we remember most of the time!), and we saw the other two cyclists we spotted earlier making their way up the hill!  They stopped to chat, and we talked gear, bikes, training strategy (or lack thereof!), and more for a good while, decided to all grab lunch together in Draper, and all kept pedaling up the hill.  

About 100 feet down the road, we all spot a cyclist approaching from the other direction, and stop to chat with him.  He's headed from San Francisco to the East Coast, and started about 8 weeks ago!  And this is his 3rd time riding across the US (he's British), but first time riding the TransAm, and says its the absolute best route across the US he has tried so far.  

We continue on, only to find as we get to Draper that the one restaurant is closed on Mondays, as is the small store in town.  We all stop at a park to snacking what we have with us, find that the other riders are Mary and Joe, just out of college, from New York and Connecticut respectively.  They take off first, as they have decided to do about 14 more miles than we will for the day, and we discuss meeting up in Damascus, where they are planning a day off.

We head out again, get rained on a bit during a sustained climb, and then meet some bovine friends at the top of the hill.  These cows were super curious about us, pushing each other out of the way to get a better view.  I crossed the road on my bike to get closer to them, and caused a minor stampede, but they came back when they realized I wasn't a threat.  They even followed us a bit down the fence line as we pedaled away.

Then we run into a major headwind.  We cheated a bit on the TransAm route, opting for our old friend Highway 11, which is basically a frontage to I-81.  We rolled into Wytheville around 5 I think, braving a busy highway off-ramp intersection full of truck stops and semi trucks to get to our hotel.

On our way, we also saw the "Wytheville Smallest Church", apparently one of the smallest churches in America.  It was in the middle of nowhere, near a Pepsi bottling plant.

Day 13 - June 16, 2013 - Christiansburg, VA to Radford, VA

Miles - about 16

Total miles - about 410?

Today became a short day - we headed out of Christiansburg into more of those lovely Virginia hills, complete with a headwind.  We had to pedal downhill - this is a major tragedy in the life of a touring cyclist!

It (sadly) took all morning to get to the 13 mile point - we stopped for lunch, and just knew we didn't have another 40 miles of hills in us, so we called it a day in Radford.  

As a side note, the TransAm trail is very well marked in Virginia - there are signs everywhere telling you where to turn, and assuring you that you are still on route.  It seems they have changed some of the routing in VA fairly recently however, but have yet to change the signage, which resulted in us taking on hills today that we really didn't need to, and missing out on a cool bike path!  Moral of the story - TransAm'ers, don't get lazy with that map reading in VA just because you see signs everywhere!

Day 12 - June 15, 2013 - Troutville, VA to Christiansburg, VA

Mileage - about 48

Total mileage - 388.4

Do you remember that post I wrote a while ago about how the first 10 or 15 miles of our day tend to go by pretty quickly? Yeah...forget that. 

We packed up all of our gear from camping and tried to get our tent to dry a little in the morning sun. Meanwhile, a small dog had wandered into the park and we managed to get him to come over to us. His tag informed us that his name was Jack, and that he had also managed to get beyond the invisible fence at his home. I tried calling the phone number on the tag, but got no answer, so I entered in the address also listed on Jack's tag, made a make-shift leash out of some rope we had and led him home. It was so nice to have a little encounter with a dog along our journey, as Erica and I both miss our two dogs, Louie and Rudy, so much!

We finally get going and of course, run into more really horrific hills. I'm a bit anxious for us to get to Adventure Cycling's Headquarters in Montana, just so I can ask them why they must put us through such cruel and unusual punishment. It was really quite a difficult morning, where we started to question if we would be able to make it to our destination by the end of the day. Maybe this is just one of those things that happens in your head while you're cycling in the middle of nowhere...when all the scenery starts to look the same and you're not sure you are getting anywhere. We finally reached our mid-day destination, a small gas station in the Catawba valley. As it was high noon, the sun was beating on us and the heat was definitely not helping our mental game. We picked up some sandwiches and drinks at the gas station and sat underneath their awning to help cool us down. 

We got back on the road and I made a mental note about how much further we had to go...27.6 miles.  I was hoping to be able to watch the miles go by on the computer on my bike, then tell Erica how far we had gone at 10, 15, 20 miles...just something to hopefully encourage us to keep going. It worked for a long time and the second half of our day was getting better. We had another dog encounter with a dog that sort of ran out onto the road as Erica passed. As I watched this happen in front of me, I was  silently praying that I wouldn't have to use my Halt pepper spray if the dog decided to attack. He looked quite confused by us for a minute, just looked at me, then at Erica, back to me. We both got off our bikes and kept talking to him in calm voices, telling the dog that he was a good dog. Finally, Erica just walked over to him and he started wagging his tail and walked right up to her and she gave him some good dog pats and he seemed to love it. In fact, I think he wanted us to hang out with him. We tried to give him some of our water, but he didn't take it. Finally, we had to usher him back into some shade on the side of the road and say goodbye to our new friend. Not too long after this, we saw a large turtle on the side of the road and we spent quite a few minutes protecting him from oncoming cars and finally convinced him to move on over to a safe spot. 

Finally, we are getting close to Christiansburg, so we stopped in at a gas station for some Gatorades and to figure out where we should stay. After booking the hotel, the map application for the iPhone told us that our hotel was only a small 3.8 miles away. I think it was lying. The next 2 hours we pushed our bikes up some of the most ridiculous hills (because remember, everything in Virginia we need to get to is up a giant hill) and even considered "thumbing" a ride or asking someone in a local home to take us to the hotel. It was the longest 3.8 miles ever. But we made it. We ended the evening with showers, phone calls to home (it was my mom's birthday), pizza, and fell asleep to a Friends marathon on TV Land. It was a rough day, but we made it and that's all that matters. We did make it through our first map and were actually quite glad to be done with it! On to the next!

Day 11 - June 14, 2013 - Lexington, VA to Troutville, VA

Mileage - 45.7

Total mileage - 340.4

The weather today couldn't have been better for cycling - upper 70s most of the day, sunny with big puffy clouds.  We headed out of Lexington around 8:30, and happened to run into a woman getting out of a bestofvabiketours.com van.  We chatted with her a bit about biking in Virginia, and the TransAm, the took off again (yes, up a hill!).

The route took us out to some gorgeous back roads this morning - we spent a great deal of time biking alongside rivers, streams, and babbling brooks - and it seemed like most of it was downhill!  We had some of the best cycling of the trip thus far this morning.

We spent the rest of the day on frontage roads, criss-crossing I-81.  We stopped in the cute little hamlet of Buchanan for lunch, and ate at an old-fashioned soda fountain!  

We cheated on the TransAm route after that, choosing to stay on the busier but more direct Business 11 route, shaving a few miles and countless hills off of our afternoon.  We still got to ride some roller-coaster hills, the pictures don't even do them justice.  They launched us down over 30 miles an hour, fast enough to propel us back to the top of the next monster without much pedaling.  Only bad part is that you nearly get blown off your bike when a semi or dump truck passes going the opposite way!

We rolled into Troutville around 5, and headed to the grocery store after locating the town park that lets cyclists and Appalachian Trail hikers camp for free.  We signed the book of all the hikers and bikers that stop in the store, and found that one of the guys we camped with in Mineral, Daniel from Berlin, is about 4 days ahead of us now.  We are sharing the space with a trail hiker tonight - super nice guy in his early 60's.  Said his next adventure will be biking across the country!  Need to remember to ask what his trail name is if we see him in the morning.

After a delicious dinner cooked over a camp stove, examining the map for tomorrow, and setting up camp, we are now headed off to sleep, as long as the trains allow!  There is a running theme to small-town Virginia - nothing is further than 40 feet from the railroad tracks!

Day 10 - June 13, 2013 - Lexington, VA - Rest Day

Had to take an unwanted rest day today because of predicted strong storms, including hail, lightning and strong winds.  Wouldn't be fun if we got stuck in the middle of nowhere in that.

Early in the day, I took us on a 2 mile death march to do laundry in downtown Lexington.  About halfway there, I was informed that yes, indeed, we were calling a cab to take us back!  Cabs in Lexington are interesting...just a retired guy and his dirty old crown vic, that smelled like old man and dog.  Awesome.

Not long after we got back, and almost right on cue, the nasty storm rolled in.  I can't post video here from my phone, but I'll try to post it on Facebook.  We were glad we made the call to stay in Lexington!  Sounded like it caused a lot of people to lose power, and did a ton of damage in the Roanoke area.

The rest of the day was boring - cooking backpacking food in our room, napping, and being kinda restless.  It sucks having to take a day off that you don't really have time to take off - ends up just making us anxious!

Day 9 - June 12, 2013 - Love, VA to Lexington, VA

Miles - 35

Total miles- 294.6

Today began our part 2 of conquering the Blue Ridge Parkway and the mountains that Virginia threw our way. We got a pretty early start, since we didn't know exactly what the mountains would be like, though we did know that we had a crazy downhill waiting for us at the end of the Parkway.

Here's Erica's mascot, Shep, up and at 'em early at the cabin:

Just as we expected, we faced more uphills and major climbs. But something was different about today's ride...maybe it was the promise that we would be through one of the most challenging parts of our journey by the end of the day, maybe our legs are actually getting stronger as the days go by, but despite the climbs today, we did manage to make it up them. I (Mel) finally think I have my gearing figured out, so I know what gears I should be in and what will get me up a hill in the best and most efficient manner. Erica has been riding bikes with gears for years, so I think she has it down pretty good. 

We came across a number of beautiful overlooks today, such as this one, which apparently serves as some sort of way for the folks in the valley below to tell time in the summer months. I'm not sure why there is a giant gun on the sign, though. 

We finally turned onto the road taking us down off of the parkway and into the town of Vesuvius...and this descent is legendary to TransAm riders. We're not 100% sure what the grade is, but our best guess is it is at least over a 10% grade. This is crazy enough in a car, but on a bike, we are talking potential speeds up and over 50 mph. Most folks ride the descent while engaging their breaks, which means that after 100 feet or so, it is necessary to pull off to the side of the road and let the rims of your tires cool from the friction of the brake pads. Too much heat can severely damage the rims or completely blow out your tire. Neither of which are very fun to deal with, so it's best to play it safe, kids! 

When we made it totally down the mountain, we stopped in to the famous TransAm landmark, Gertie's Country Store. Gertie's has seen hundreds upon hundreds of bikers and hikers, and even hosts overnight guests behind the store in a nice little pavilion. We had some awesome food, refreshing drinks, Erica had a Choco-Taco, and we talked to the folks there for quite a while. Everyone at the store was super kind and we genuinely enjoyed the food, drinks, and conversations. 

Next we experienced such wonderful biking as we traveled on a slight downhill, next to the South River and some railroad tracks. We reached some coasting speeds that we hadn't seen in days and it finally felt awesome to not be struggling up another hill. 

Our original plan was to stop at the Mallard Duck Campground for the night, but we both felt so good that we rolled right past it. We figured we could make another 8 miles easily after what we faced over the past few days. And we were mostly right...though we did have about 3 miles of some very serious hills that forced us off the bikes and into the hiking position, and some construction that took one of the roads down to a single lane road. We finally made it to Lexington by about 6 p.m. Of course, our hotel is up a hill, as are all things we are trying to get to in Virginia. But we're glad to be out of the mountains, and we both had huge smiles as we immediately got in our swimming gear and headed down to the pool to cool off this evening. As the great poet, Ice Cube, would say, "Today was a good day."

Day 8 - June 11, 2013 - Afton, VA to Love, VA

Miles - about 16

Total miles - 259

Oh, Blue Ridge Parkway...

We coasted down the hill from our scumbag motel, and discovered that the kettle corn stand at the bottom of the hill had just opened, so it was time for kettle corn and Gatorade breakfast, naturally.  We knew we were in for a brutal day again, and I think we were avoiding the inevitable just a bit...

So, all sugared up, we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and start pedaling.  About 2 miles in, we think, this isn't so bad!  It's uphill, but we can handle it!  We see a mom and baby deer leisurely crossing the road, it's almost an idyllic morning scene for cycling.  Then we find the real hills...

It's pretty, sure, but visit by car, or at the very least, an unloaded bicycle!  We spent a crap-ton of time walking up mountains today.  It kinda sucked.  There were two amazing downhills, one of which I had to come to a complete stop in the middle of because the blustery wind threatened to take me down!  

We stopped about 6 miles in a the Humpback Rocks visitor center.  I'm sure the rocks were lovely, but there was no way I was doing any more hiking up the mountain to find out!  If you ever get the chance, have someone drive you and your bike to Ravens Roost Overlook, coast down the parkway for a mile or two for some of the best views and cycling you'll ever experience, then have that person pick your ass up at the bottom so you don't have to bike up any mountains!

Since we knew we were in for a doozie today, we scrapped our previous plans of a near 50 mile day, and made it a 16 mile day, staying in a cute little cabin in Love, VA.  The proprietors were very friendly, and their general store was an oasis for cyclists!  We got a chance to talk to a couple of other riders at the store biking the Blue Ridge Parkway from Charlottesville, VA to Ashville, NC in about 10 days.  One from Brooklyn, one from London.  They had cruised by us a bit earlier on much lighter bikes - we were very envious!

We survived to bike another day!  On this map photo, you can see the elevation gains we experienced - from Afton to about where my finger was on the map.  Mel will tell the story of that huge downhill to Vesuvius on the next installment!