Day 11: To Tazewell

September 19, 2014

My original route plan was to bike in West Virginia for 5 days and enter Virginia here. Now I'm back on the planned route.

Today promises to be another great day of low traffic mountain valley roads. Net elevation gain of 1000 feet, but today has half the climbing of the last 4 days.

Yesterday and today I saw basically no trucks on the road because the highway is signed "trucks not advisable".

The first few miles on highway 100 is the hilliest part, climbing out of Pearisburg on a big hill overlooking the New River. Then I descended to the cute little resort town of the Narrows. It has a nice motel, store, restaurant, and a large creekside park. I should have stayed here last night, but don't know if I had the energy to go another 10 hilly miles.

Looking down on the New River from highway 100.

Wolf Creek and highway 61 were my companion for the rest of today, gradually climbing to a 2700 foot summit just east of Tazewell.

Lunch was at the little village of Rocky Gap. No restaurant, but the country store made me a fish burrito. After lunch I continued up Wolf Creek on highway 61. The terrain is a bit more rolling, but no 8% grades like I had the last several days. Overall it was easy and very scenic. And once again there is basically no traffic.

Kudzu makes its first appearance during this tour.

Today I had my first large-scale encounters with kudzu on this tour. I've seen it before in Mississippi, but never this far north.

Another beautiful farm valley in the mountains.

Today I'm noticing some changes as I make my way into southwest Virginia.

1. A large percentage of houses display Ten Commandments yard signs. I had never seen so many Ten Commandments signs before.

2. The church landscape is now a monoculture of (Southern) Baptist churches.

3. I see more trash on the roadside. Previously there was no trash at all on the roadsides.

Abandoned buildings tend to be very interesting.

Today was a bit warmer, high of 75F. Probably about normal for the first time in many days. The sky was foggy until 11 AM, then mostly cloudy afterwards.

This reminds me of the Oregon Coast Range.

Today's ride ended with a gentle 3 mile descent to Tazewell. Elevation 2503 feet, a county seat with population 4627. I got a room at Fincastle Motor Inn. $110 for 2 nights. Much nicer than last night's motel.

I took a nap from 4 to 6:15 PM. It's nice to arrive early enough to take a nap before dinner.

I'm ready for a rest day and glad that today had only half as much climbing as the previous 4 days. Tazewell isn't a particularly interesting town but I'm here to rest, not sight see.

Distance: 53.1 mi. (85 km)
Climbing: 1815 ft. (550 m)
Average Speed: 9.9 mph (16 km/h)

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 547 miles (880 km)

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