Tuesday, June 8, 2010


June 8th, 2010 - The Sixth Day of Riding

Yesterday's rest day in Charlottesville following the hospitality of the Moniz family was quite productive. A laundromat with wifi provided the day's big stop. Capel got the blog set up and I routed the team through North Carolina. Conway and Ty found a campground for the night while George talked to Holly, again. After a few final stops in Charlottesville we shipped out to our campground in the GW National Forest at Montebello Farm Campground. After nearly running out of gas, we made it to the campground at dusk. It was a pity, for the campground was beautiful. It surrounded a lake nestled in a dip between two mountain ridges. As an aside, the RV culture around here is something that none of us have really come to understand. These campgrounds have RV spots with water/electric as well as the primitive grounds that we use. We've lucked out a lot and we've gotten the primitive grounds all to ourselves. The RV spots have always been full, but people are almost never visible. They seem to be veritable ghost towns, and frankly they scare the mess out of each of us. Anyway, last night we set up our circle of hammocks, cooked up some meat ravioli, and got some rest. The night got COLD. Some wolves/coyotes/dogs were howling all night, which added to the chill. The temperature had dropped to 44 by the time we woke up at 6:30. Preparations were slow, but even slower after my tubing popped when I was tuning my bike this morning. Eventually, though, Capel, Conway and I got underway. Conway had intentions of making today's whole trip for the daily "Iron Man" status.

The day started out with a difficult climb up to the ridge (7-8%) and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Once there, we saw the 88 mile to Roanoke sign and the day began. On the morning ride, Capel, Conway, and I had a casual 40 miles of rolling hills with an awesome descent (35-40 mph) for several miles at the end down to the James River (see pics on next post). At that point, we took a break while George and Ty tuned their bikes for the climb. The 13 miles from the James River (elevation ~600 ft) to the next peak (~4000 ft) is the toughest climb we have had to this point. We ran into a local rider at the base who told us that mapmyride was crazy and the climb definitely qualified as a Category 1 ride. He told us that Lance Armstrong had climbed it in about 45 minutes in the early 90's and that the best local riders did it in about an hour. Nervous but excited, Ty, George, Conway, and I set out. The ride was grueling in the midday heat but the views of the surrounding valley were motivating and we made really good time by local standards. I finished in just over an hour flat with Iron Man close behind, and the bouldering crew following (Ty and George found some great small climbs overlooking the western valley). After cresting at close to 4000 ft, we pounded out another 9 miles to meet Capel at the Otter Peak resort (title picture). From there, Capel, George, and Iron Man closed out the remaining 20 miles of descent into Roanoke while Ty and I got meat to grill out for our next set of generous hosts, the Deneka family.

The grill is warming and the night looks to be fun as tomorrow is a relatively short ride to Meadows of Dan, close to the North Carolina border.

-Peter

No comments:

Post a Comment