Blog Made! Finally...

The team made it to Charlottesville, VA on our sixth day and first off day. We dropped Peter's bike of at Blue Wheel Bike Shop and got directions to a laundromat to wash some stinky clothes. I (Capel) set up the blog while Peter looked up our route for tomorrow.

All things considered, we have had a very smooth trip so far. Before leaving Princeton, we had to finish packing and reorganize the van, which called for shipping a lot of stuff to Oxford. Once the boxes were taped up, Ty and Peter left to drop them and pick up lunch. That is, until they popped a tire after 40 feet. That was the only hiccup for the day and we left Princeton with a new tire around 2 o'clock and biked 40 miles to Nockamixon State Park in PA. George drove that day and did some great research around the area, but we didn't find a great place to stay so we decided to drive to our original destination, French Creek National Park. We got there with less than an hour of light, set up camp, ate and slept.

Day 2 was a learning experience. Conway, George and I were the first to bike and quickly found out that our route plans were not going to work if you missed a single turn and the idea was to go in the "general direction" we wanted. We stopped in a town called Gibraltor and asked to clerk for directions to a town called Plowville. He gave us directions that took us around a long, up hill loop. Twenty miles later we had found Plowville, but it was only supposed to take us 9. Never again will we ask a non-cyclist for directions.
Ty and Peter took over in a town called Fivepointville and the three of us (The Stooges as we became known after that), went ahead to Columbia.
When the Hillary Team (Ty and Peter) caught up to us we drove accross the Susquehanna River to avoid traffic and Peter, George and I jumped out to keep biking. We out rode a storm and ended up in East Berlin, PA with night coming quickly. We found a bar with food and cheap beer and called Ty and Conway to check that status of our campsite. Turns out camping in that area was a little complicated, so we sprung for a motel room and all got showers and a bed to sleep in.

Day 3 was easy, short and fun. After leaving the hotel, we dropped the Hillary Team at the bottom of the biggest climb in Michaux Park. The Stooges went to the top and dropped the van off and unloaded our bikes to head down a very intense gravel decent. At first it was scary, but after a while we just accepted it and looked at it as an adventure. We had our first mountain climb followed by our first mountain decent and it was a really good introduction to how the rest of the trip would go. The terrain, the views and the physical strain. Ty and Peter picked us up after 26 miles and told us that we had to make a move to Frederick so that we wouldn't inconvenience our hosts for the night.
That night was great. When we got to Frederick we rode to a bike shop called Wheel Base that was absolutely great and the staff was amazingly helpful with everything from equipment to routes. Ty's aunt and uncle in Frederick, MD hosted us and let us do laundry and take showers and swim. They also fed us a big meal and gave us each a bed to sleep in. We organized the van that night as well and set everything we would need the next day aside so that we could take off early in the morning. We could not thank them enough for their help and hospitality. Without them, we would not be traveling so easily today.

Day 4, we really got cookin. We followed the route that the owner of Wheel Base recommended and entered VA and the South after just over 20 miles. This is The Stooges we're talkin about so of course we found a gravel road that took us for a pretty good climb and immediately decided that it was our best route. It really was fun and took us on a good route. We met the van and the other guys at a gas station in Purcellville and we drove around all of the major highways and got lunch. On the other side, Conway, Peter and I jumped out and had a great ride down a rolling state highway. Conway and I finished the day with 50 miles in Front Royal. Ty hadn't ridden all day and he jumped out to help Peter climb the initial climb in Skyline. The Stooges drove ahead to find a campsite and messaged the climbers where we were. Ty and Peter dominated the hill and met us at our campsite in just over two hours. That night we had a great treat when Sam, Peter's college roommate and his brother Dodge Decker, met us at our campsite at Mathew's Arm with steaks, corn on the cob and salad. Not to mention chocolate milk, gatorade and beer. Man meal commenced and we had a run-in with two park rangers from Union County, MS who stopped to chat after they saw our Ole Miss field tent. After we ate, we hung around with the guys and talked strategy for the next day. we decided to bike the entire Skyline Drive and spend the next night with a friend of Peter's from Princeton in Crozet, Va.

Day 5 was a blast. Great views. Fun roads. Wildlife jumping out at you. We stopped at Skyland for second breakfast and saw a bear. Got some great pictures of it while we waited for George and Peter. Everyone wanted to bike Skyline, but the drivers were having fun taking pictures and cheering on the rest of the crew. At the end of the day weather started to turn sour, but it didn't stop Ty, who biked the entire Skyline Drive in two days. All 105 miles of it. Needless to say, everyone was pretty excited about that.
We got very lucky again that night when we stayed with Jim Moniz and Hannah McDonald-Moniz in Crozet. We had burgers and pasta salad and so much more food as we ate outside under the tree in their front yard. After dinner, Mr. Moniz pointed out a place for us to set up our hammocks next to a brook that ran through the land on the south end. We stayed up late drinking and playing cards because we knew that we had an off day today. It was a lot of fun, but the hospitality didn't end there. This morning, Mr. Moniz made us two and a half dozen eggs and gave us recommendations for bike shops to use in the area. He even extended our invitation for another night, but we had to decline in an effort to be ready to hit the road bright and early tomorrow.