Day 2

I began today where I left off yesterday at mile marker 50 on the Parkway. My goal was to ride the next 70 miles into Roanoke. The weather was cool this morning at 62 degrees, and was still windy. I began a 15 mile descent, with dry roads and blue skies, much different than yesterday. I averaged 23 miles per hour on the way down to 650 feet of elevation at Otter Lake, the lowest point on the Parkway. From there I started the big climb to Apple Orchard Mountain I mentioned yesterday.

Although the climb was only 12 miles, I really suffered, often reaching gradients of 10 to 12%. The temperature rose to 83 degrees quickly while on the climb, with limited humidity. This climb is what cycling the Parkway is all about, beautiful views, and hills. I averaged about 6 miles an hour for 2 hours getting up the mountain. There was little traffic on the climb, and I just kept my front gearing in the small 34 tooth ring and tried to keep the bike moving forward. I stopped once for GU and an oatmeal cookie. The top of the mountain was at 3,985 feet, 3,335 climbed. As far as I know, this Apple Orchard climb is one of the two toughest I’ll have to complete, Big Witch Gap is the other, both about 270 feet of ascent per mile.

Once I finished the climb, I had a little descent down to Peaks of Otter, where Robbie and I had a great lunch at the restaurant there, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes fries and fried okra. Nice restaurant, but to keep my bike from being stolen I brought my front tire in with me, most folks were dressed up from church services, I was in my cycling gear.

After lunch, at mile 35, I did some more descending down to about 2,000 feet, cruising past a dozen scenic overlooks, great views, but at my normal 30 mph I didn’t stare much. That’s not really that fast; a good descender would have been doing at least 40. Since I don’t get paid to do this stuff, I don’t mind tapping my brakes to stay in the 30 to 35 mph area where I feel safe. My max was 33.7 today, a lot of fun.

The most disappointing part of the ride today was the last 15 miles into the Roanoke area. The folks around here, we’re at the Holiday Inn in Roanoke tonight, use the Parkway as a shortcut in the area, it’s very heavily traveled, with the typical disrespect for cyclists.

Today was a great day on the bike, 5,869 feet of ascent, about 82 feet per mile, 6,970 feet of descent. Nice weather, fantastic scenery and for the most part, light traffic.

Two big climbs tomorrow, another 70 miles.