Another long day with 3 long climbs. The first two were steep and the third, which was the longest, was the easiest. The third climb had normal road grades which never got over 4 percent. I can take that a lot easier than the 7 to 11 percent earlier in the day. The road felt like I was back in the mountains of the west again instead of the east coast Appalachian mountains because the grade was so reasonable.
Today was also the day where I went through Damascus, VA, which is only a few miles from the Tennessee border. In Damascus I hopped onto the Virginia Creeper trail, a former railroad, which is a now a crushed bike path for 11 miles. It was windy, and rocky and there were a lot of cyclists going downhill. It is a thing for people to rent bikes in Damascus and get shuttled to the top of Koonnarock and coast downhill back to Damascus. Damascus is also one of the main locations where the popular Appalachian hiking trail meets the TransAmerican biking route. It is a main refueling point for the hikers. Riding the Virginia Creeper trail took longer than expected but it was nice to be away from the traffic for an hour.
On today’s ride I was in a rush to get to Wytheville. Initially I didn’t think I was going to make it before dark but made it with at least an hour before the sunset.
Today’s stats: total mileage 93.75 miles; average speed 11.6 mph; maximum speed 36.6 mph; total elevation gain 5991 feet; total elevation descent 5978 feet.