Day 65 – Last Mountains of the Journey
What a day! This
evening I feel exhausted. A good kind of
exhausted. Like can’t wait to get some
rest exhausted. Today’s bike ride was
73.2 miles, from a spot southwest of Vesuvius, VA to Charlottesville, VA.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that bikers coming from the
east have been telling me that biking the Blue Ridge Mountains (specifically
the area I biked today) would be the biggest challenge of the journey. I didn’t necessarily believe the
stories. I just biked most of the major
mountain ranges of the U.S. and the highest mountain I bike in the Blue Ridge
Mountains is only 3,400 feet high. How
bad can it be? I’m ready. The first seven or eight miles today were
relatively easy. Then the real climbing
began. Within the next four miles I
climbed over 2,000 feet. I have climbed
more than that on this journey. Many
times. But not at such a consistently
steep grade. Throughout most of that
first climb today the grade was between 9% and 13%. I stopped a few times, and by the time I got
to the top my energy was zapped. I did
not fully recover the rest of the day.
But the climb came with high reward. I spent the next 27 miles biking the Blue
Ridge Parkway – a road that is along the ridge crestline and often parallels the
Appalachian Trail. The vistas are
amazing. It took me a long time to bike
those 27 miles, partly because I was exhausted and partly because I was
stopping to take pictures often. I went on to continue climbing up and down
hills the rest of the day, eventually climbing a total elevation of 6,224 feet
before the day was over.
Did I mention I’m exhausted?
The Blue Ridge Mountains are distinct
because they really do have a blue hue to them.
And the views I was blessed with allowed me to see many layers of
mountains, one behind the other.
Some of the roads biked today.
Beautiful! Thanks for the pics!!
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