Getting closer

The mom, Jackie, and I woke up this morning at the Methodist Church/bike hostel. I made use of the kitchen and whipped up pancakes for the three of us. Yum. I even packed a peanut butter and syrup pancake sandwich for the road. We began pedaling up through more Appalachian Mountains. The first gap that we went through was beautiful and relatively pain free due to some serious switchbacks. Most of our earlier Appalachian climbs neglected to use switchbacks. We arrived quickly into Damascus, VA (where I ate my delicious peanut butter and syrup pancake sandwich) and decided to take the Virginia Creeper Trail to our campground for the night. The Creeper Trail is a converted rails to trails project. Since it lies in an old railway bed, the entire climb to the campground was very gradual. Furthermore, the trail was completely shaded. We climbed for 18 miles straight on an easy going 2% grade. It was a nice change from the perilous ups and downs of the road. Most of the people on the trail (actually all of them) get dropped off at the top and then coast their bikes the entire was back to Damascus. The grade was just slight enough that they would occasionally have to pedal gently. It was funny because it quickly became clear to Jackie and I that they had no idea how much harder we were working to pedal up the same path.

Tomorrow we begin our second to last day of pedaling into Stone Mountain State Park in NC. After that: Winston-Salem!