May 21, 2006
Day 11: (Almost) Cedar Springs to Damascus: Catching the Tail end of Trail Days
This was supposed to be an easy day...I woke up early and knew I had to be on my way soon. The weed wacker guy had given permission for me to stay, but I didn't really want to be there long in the morning. Besides, it was cold, so moving around helped warm things up. I kept on my stocking cap and started riding ASAP--But I couldn't go over about 10 mph w/out my eyes watering, so it was a slow start. I even wished for (and soon got) an uphill to warm things up.
I was also hoping for a hot breakfast in Sugar Grove 11 miles down the road, but the good Christian people of this region apparently didn't feel a need to feed a biker on a Sunday, so my breakfast was a granola bar.
The ride up to Troutdale started off beautiful as I crossed and recrossed a stream, but after a while I was wishing for some downhill and that heathens would be running the diner in Troutdale. Got some downhill and an offer to stay at the hostel there (it was barely 10 am) but no open diner. Oh well. I need to eat what I have anyway and lighten my load.
In the hour of so after Troutdale, I made it MAYBE 4 miles. The wind came up hard, it was a slow uphill, and I was trying to make little adjustments to my saddle. The darn thing just won't break in. I think maybe I'm sitting clear back on the rivets or somthing. Or maybe I have too much butt fat to let my sit bones do their thing in the leather. (update--yes, I'm sitting too far back--now it's adjusted a little better, so we'll see ...)
In any case, I didn't think I was ever going to make it to Konnarock.
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But I did, and thankfully the store was open, giving me a chance to chat with older local chain-smoking women there giving directions to lost bikers (as in motorcycles) who were headed to some festival.
The ride down (Down!! WooHoo!) to Damascus was scenic--following and criss-crossing a couple of shaded creeks. I tried to pull over when I could to let traffic pass on the winding road, but everyone seemed respectful and pretty patient.
Damascus was just ending Trail Days when I got there--and got there too late for a free shower. Looked around a bit and found "The Place", a mostly hiker hostel famous on the AT. There was a group of bikers there planning for a faster TransAm that had camped out there, so I introduced myself and chatted with a few of them for a while before heading out to look at vendors.
My day off in Radford meant I'd missed most of the chaos of the previous night, but The Place was a mess and scattered with various hungover hikers and stray hiking gear. Most had cleared out by early evening, but it was a no-brainer--I was camping outside. The showers were so gross I didn't even use them. And I've used some pretty questionable showers before. Yuk. But there were cool people around (not including the hiker guy who told me his ears were so dirty he could hardly get the Q-tip in there).
Ate a burrito at a nearby mexican place that let you have 15 min. of internet and talked to Postal and Skinny Bastard (AT hikers use trail names--not their real names) about hiking and biking as they waited for a ride back to where they'd gotten off the trail. Later went back to the burrito place with Dirt and saw Pat, a biker turned section hiker who was also camping at The Place who was trying to get away from Florida for the summer. Pat and I had fun talking bikes, but we probably bored Dirt.
Back at the hostel, the biker group left to stay somewhere else, but two other TransAm-ers came in. Ben and Jonathan. The Place had somewhat cleared out by the time they got there, so they stayed indoors (but later said I was probably smart to stay outside). Jonathan has the same bike I do, and Ben is doing these mountains on a double! Ouch for his knees, but they're both in good shape. We all talked bike gear with Pat for a while and finally went to bed sometime near 11, late for a biker who's been going to bed when the sun goes down.
Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 479 miles (771 km)
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