Ride C2C #4 - Day 11: Rosedale to Damascus, Virginia

Date: 7/3/23
Day: 11
Route: Rosedale to Damascus, Virginia
Miles: 33.4 with 2,375 feet of climbing
Total Miles: 428.33

MyZone MEPs: 399 

 (Video is of our view from dinner tonight)

Neither Doug or I slept much last night in our church - classroom.  Every time either of us moved, our mattress squeezed on the floor.  I tried putting in my earplugs at 4am and it did not help much.  Big rain, thunder, lightening storm in the night gave us some entertainment while we were not sleeping.

Got up around 6:30am and took advantage of the shared food for some morning oatmeal.  Made a pot of coffee and had little cups of peaches (Robin) and mandarin oranges (Doug) as we ate our breakfast.

Great chatting with Randy from Wisconsin as we are packing up our things. 

 We leave a little before he does and the weather is looking like ... rain

Soon enough Randy catches up with us.  He is talking with his wife Mary on a speaker system he set up so we yelled our hellos to her. 

We hit the big climb of the day...

and when, after a couple of 10%+ lifts, Doug and I put a foot down for a little rest, Randy continues on.  

It starts raining, the POURING before we hit the top of the big climb on Clinch Mountain with The Channels Natural Preserve.

The descent is steep and windy and dark with overhanging trees.  There’s a road biker who passes us going up the hill who doesn’t seem bothered by the rain at all. 

 It is hard to see (and too hard to take my hand off the bar to take many pictures) and with so much water on the road and the weight of our bikes, we are careful as we descend.  On any other sunny day with a road bike, that would have been the best descent ever.

As we get to the bottom near Hayters Gap, the road biker catches up to us and rides alongside, chatting.  We stop for a snack under the roof at a Hayters Gap school, then Rick (the road biker) asks if he could ride with us for a bit because he’s usually riding alone. 

He lives in the area at Abington and is out for a 60 or so mile ride.  An investigator with state Medicade mostly for opioid abuse.  They just cracked a case that took 10 years involving several doctors…

More riding on beautiful Back country Roads, trading stories of work, career, and observations.

Rick peels off before we hit the highway with a two lane 55 mph road and zero shoulder but little traffic and we get to Cruz for a bit.

Meadowview is another “dead and dying” town with closed businesses. 

 I feel like that is all that we’ve seen since leaving Bardstown and Harrodsburg.  We have a snack at a closed business and get on our way before the rain starts again.

It feels refreshing to be on roads with open area instead of the deep V valleys of Kentucky.  Also happy to have few, if any, dogs chasing us.

More rolling hills with 2 notable climbs with this river in between before we get to Damascus. 

 Doug BONKS - he has not eaten enough today and is dragging his tail as we pull into Damascus. 

We go straight to the Damascus Diner where we feel like we are a little more at home. 

Doug notes that the crowd in the restaurant is generally fit (not obese) which is refreshing to see.  We have a great lunch of delicious salads with blackened chicken.

When we buy supplies, the “Dollar General” (or dollar anything) stores generally do not carry fresh vegetables and so we’ve not eaten much other than canned or boxed foods.

We check in at the Damascus Old Mill Hotel and do our regular shower, rinse clothes routine. 

At some point, Doug says “it stinks in our room” and we realize that it is US (well, our shoes and clothes)..  Doug finds out that the only option to do laundry is with “Crazy Larry” who, for $10 washed and dried our clothes.  Crazy Larry was so weird that Doug said I should not go there.  He was a lifelong stoner that talked and talked and talked…”and that’s when I started going to prison more”… his house was a wreck.  But we have clean laundry!

I went shopping at the Dollar General for bread, oatmeal, Dinty Moore stew, bag of mashed potato’s, and twirlers.

We reconviened and went to the restaurant at the hotel for a “trout dip” appetizer with veggies and drinks and a game of cribbage.  A little time out for writing and now heading back down for dinner.

Damascus is more of a hiker town with the confluence of the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper trail, along with the Trans-American bike route.  Fun to be in a place with other active people!

we took a walk after dinner and heard live music. We followed the sound, and the people onto the Virginia creeper trail across the bridge, and we found a Festival!