Day 10: To Pearisburg

September 18, 2014

Today I continue traveling southwest, now on highway 18 from Covington to Pearisburg. Upstream along Potts Creek with mountains on both sides.

The road is 2 lanes with no shoulder, but traffic is light. Just local traffic, no big trucks.

The highway is often close to Potts Creek, but other times the highway climbs small hills. It was uphill for most of the day.

This morning I felt tired, so after about 10 miles I laid down on the front porch of a vacant house and took a nap. That helped.

The first 15 miles have frequent houses. But most of today's ride is in Jefferson National Forest. Threading between mountains, following a creek upstream through the forest. An ideal bike touring route.

There is a store halfway between Covington and Paint Bank. The only other services on today's route is at the Paint Bank resort. I had a buffalo burger at the restaurant/gift shop. Expensive, but good food and great atmosphere. Across the street is the Depot Lodge bed and breakfast.

Depot Lodge at Paint Bank. I had lunch at the restaurant across the street. Charming place.

After leaving Paint Bank it became apparent that the resort owns the entire valley for miles on both sides of the highway.

After lunch the sky was partly cloudy and the temperature rose to about 70F. Slightly warmer than the last few days.

Eventually I'm back in the forest, climbing hills and crossing into West Virginia for 10 miles. I passed a couple of small villages in West Virginia but entered the forest again when crossing back to Virginia.

Confederate flags and Ten Commandments signs are increasingly common.

I crossed back into Virginia near today's summit, 2800 feet elevation. There are no "Welcome To" signs on this back road.

Leaving a 10 mile sliver of West Virginia and re-entering Virginia.

Shortly after entering Virginia is a 1100 foot forested descent. One of the biggest descents of the tour.

I thought I would have easy terrain from here to Pearisburg, but I was dead wrong. First is a 450 foot climb to US 460, mostly 8% grade. Then I turned right and descended 300 feet to cross the New River on a very high bridge.

Finish the day with a 450 foot 8% climb to US 460, descent to New River, and 300 foot climb to the Pearisburg exit.

US 460 is a busy 4-lane divided highway with a good shoulder. Safe to pedal for 4 miles, but a huge contrast to the no-traffic roads I was on all day.

Crossing a river is always costly around here. After the bridge US 460 promptly climbs 300 feet to the Pearisburg exit.

I was surprised to be back in the Ohio river watershed. The New river flows northwest, crossing multiple northeast-southwest ridges on it's route to the Ohio river. The New river is actually older than the ancient Allegheny mountains. I would like to see much more of this contrarian river.

High above the New River on US 460. The river flows northwest to the Ohio river.

From the Pearisburg exit it was downhill all the way to downtown Pearisburg (population 2721). It has a nice looking downtown, with many brick buildings. More charming than Covington. No paper mill in the middle of town.

I didn't have a motel reservation because Google indicated that Pearisburg has 3 motels. I got the last room at Holiday Lodge for $45. The room stinks and is very run down, but there are no other options. The motel next door is full. The 3rd motel is now a concrete foundation and a bit of rubble.

Downtown Pearisburg looks pretty but is not quite thriving.

Looking at signs and hearing people talk, I can tell that people tend to identify with their county rather than the nearest town or the name of the valley. The Giles county school district reinforces that. Identifying by county is common in rural areas where the population is widely dispersed. That includes my county in Oregon.

Around here many people identify by county more than town.

Next to the courthouse is a typical Confederate war dead memorial. The most common design is a tall narrow pedestal with a single standing soldier on top. I saw many that looked similar to this.

Nearly every town has a monument to Confederate war dead.

Today had a lot of climbing, but the scenery was outstanding. Only the last few miles had heavy traffic. Most of the day had almost no traffic. Overall, this is a great touring route.

After 4 strenuous days I was hoping to take a rest day tomorrow. My awful room isn't available tomorrow night, so I called to make a 2-night reservation 50 miles down the road in Tazewell.

Distance: 67.3 mi. (108 km)
Climbing: 3493 ft. (1058 m)
Average Speed: 9.6 mph (15 km/h)

Today's ride: 67 miles (108 km)
Total: 494 miles (795 km)

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