Day 35. A long, rough ride gets help just in time. Damascus, VA

 

8am start from Breaks, VA with a lot of climbing made for a slow day into Damascus at 8pm. Over 8,000 ft. of climbing today through sunny skies and warmer temps. 

 At the Gateway Motel before we leave John checks his phone outside because the wifi is so weak and the Internet terribly slow. 

 

As we've move onto Virginia were getting higher, the views are getting longer and the mountains and valleys are opening up more to us. This is a view of the Breaks Interstate Park about 5 miles from our hotel.  

 Just one of many steep and fairly long climbs, today. John grabs some water as he crests and prepares to modulate his speed with his brakes on the way down again. 

 

A long view for a nice change. 

 

 Road, mountains and sky. Our roads today were like this one mostly but the traffic was much busier and less tolerant giving us less space as they passed.  Perhaps getting into more populated areas and the Friday before the Memroial Day weekend had something to do with it.  Today might as well have been national "Mow and Weed-eat Your Grass" day. We saw so many people out getting their properties cleaned up for the weekend parties and BBQ's coming up.  

No photo, especially from my phone, can capture the beauty and depth of the vistas today. 

 We knew getting to Damsacus was going to be hard today because of the climbing and what would be an 80 mile day if we made it. We had a fallback plan of camping in Meadowview about 20 miles sooner if we got too tired or ran out of time. 

In Rosedale, about 20 miles from Meadowview, we started looking seriously at the fallback plan. We had had one really tough and long climb into Honaker called Big A Mountain and it had taken some wind out of our sales.  I called the camping place in Meadowview. It turned out to be camping behind a little market but no access to water or restrooms. Crap! 

There were no good options other than stopping now, in Roaedale, half way to our goal, or dig deep and try to climb up another big climb into Hayters Gap and then the last 20 miles into Damascus. We decided to give it a try but we knew if we made it we would likely be straggling into Damascus in the dark. Just before we reached the point where the road pitched up steeply for the 3 mile grind I was feeling light headed and beat up. Just in front of us was a pretty house with a beautiful manicured yard with a little mountain brook running down along the side of the property. I laid my bike on its side, no place to lean it or use the kickstand, and plopped down in the grass by the stream and started devowering some sports snacks Ang had left me.  Minutes later Jerry Thornhill, the man in this picture, came walking over from his chores to check on us. We explained we were just resting for the final push into Damascus and hoping to make it. He offered to take our bikes up the mountain for us!!  We quickly got over our guilt of "cheating" and thanked him. 

Jerry built this house 35 years ago, retired from teaching at the community college and then got kidney cancer a few years back. After removal of the kidney things had been going well. He and his wife were planning on taking a big western US trip this summer to birdwatch but a recent follow up exam indicates the cancer was back and now in his adrenal gland.  Tuesday after Memorial Day he starts chemotherapy.  His helping us out meant so much to our day today, I almost hugged him. I gave him my address and phone number and told him after he completed his treatment Angela and I would put them up for a night on their way to Rocky Mointain National Park to pay back his kindness.  I hope I get to see Jerry again. 

 Finally into Damascus and before sunset!!

 Damascus is a hot bed of hiking and biking. It's on the Appalachian Trail and a famous point for hikers to get a little "civilization" before completing their through hike to Mount Katahdin, Maine. We stopped to ask this young man for info on the town. His trail name was Corn, graduated from Alabama last year, he had started his hike at Springer Mountain, GA on March 8. Having hurt his ankle he has to take 2 weeks off but was now on his way to finish the 6 month long trek. Corn gave us the lay of the land, mostly focusing on the hostels that serve the hikers but also including the upscale hotel The Old Mill Inn where we finally settled for the night. Great burgers and beer in the hotel bar before they closed at 9, then off for showers and a well earned nights sleep. 💤