Day 16, A little R & R.

Displaying some off my artistic talent, I was able to capture the essence of what I thought was nothing

Upon deep, spiritual contemplation, I decided that the chicken came before the egg.

after hiking ovfer a half a mile opne way, we waited almost a half hour for the dumb train to come out of the tunnel. It never did.

We rode, then we walked. Tomorrow, we ride again.

This was one of the displays at the visitor center at the Breaks Interstate Park. We tried to get in, but it was locked.

According to the discription, this is an originale muskit. the horn holds the powder, the little cannister holds the primer, the oaked rag holds the lubes, lead bullet heads, the crimper forms the lead bullets, and the shoulder bag holds everything else.

The sign to the left of the still discribes how to make moon shine whiskey. Quite simple as I recall. But easier just to buy the darn thing.

We were standing on the levy that formed this man made lake. Two hiker4s came by just as I was ready to take this shot.

A couple of guests cruising the lake. upon closer inspection, I found that they were fishing.
This is the laundry room at the camp ground that we had to bike to with the risk of getting causght in the thunder showers.

They call this Chimney Rock. It is part of the large gorge fronting our room at the lodge.

Eriie morning and evening mist forms as the temperature of the land heat and cools. It's like a living entity as the fog rolls in and about, creating a visual spectical.

I shot this from our room at the top of the canyon wall.

The scene changes by the minute. I found myself taking a shot every few minutes as the fog created differant moods through out the morning.

I don't know what this bug was. It just looked differant that what we have back home.

These birds were flying in a flock, and hapened to land in front of me on this tree. It was quite far away, so I zoomed it in and cropped the shot.

Another one of the gorges moods, I spent olver a half hour mezmorized by the way the fog played for my visual sensation.


Day 16, Rest Day, Breaks Interstate Park. 3.5 miles, Laundry run.

There is a severe weather warning out for the area. They called for a 70% possibility of flooding and thunder showers starting at noon. Lisa and I weighed the options carefully, and decided it would be a good idea to call it a rest day and give the weather a chance to blow over. Tomorrow looks to be a better day. I was up at 5:30, and decided to catch up on the blog and e-mail. I looked outside, and I couldn’t see 20 feet. The clouds had settled in over night, and it was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Lisa was up at 7:30, she too did some catching up. At this point, we were not quite sure of our plans as of yet. We decided to got to breakfast, and see how things looked. At breakfast, we met Leigh who had walked in to find us. We asked him what their plans were. He said they were moving on in a bit. We then told them about the weather warning, and told them we might stay another day just to be safe. He became concerned about the situation also, and went back to confer with Margaret. Our concern was that once we leave Breaks Interstate Park, there is no real accommodations listed on the Adventure Cycling map. There were camp sites listed, but we didn’t want to have to struggle with setting up our tents in the rain, that would be miserable, not to mention the hazards of riding our bicycles in the rain with all those big rigs zipping by.

We never saw Leigh or Margaret the rest of the day, so I’m not sure if they decided on going ahead or not. After breakfast, we decided to do our laundry. That’s where the 3.5 miles came from. Riding our bikes with out having to pull the trailers was a real treat. It was actually fun. The laundry station is located at the camp site about a mile and a half into the woods. The air was heavy, and we knew we were taking a chance at being away from shelter for that long. Luckily it didn’t rain, and we made it back to the room with out a scratch. In fact, we even stopped by the visitor center to check out some of the history of this place. This area is where the infamous Hatfield and McCoy family feud took place. It all started over a stolen pig, and escalated into a full scale war between the two clans. It lasted over a hundred years, and became one of the bitterest feuds in American history. Today, there is an annual Hatfield and McCoy family reunion in which these two families get together as a token of forgiveness and friendship. What a lesson we can all learn from this. If somebody steals your pig, it’s better to just get another one.

The stormy weather never materialized, in fact, it never rained at all. The skies were cloudy and threatening, but all in all, it would have been safe to push on. The rest day did give us a chance to take in one of the hiking trails called : The Tunnel Look Out. A short hike, a little over a mile from our lodge round trip. The trail took us through thickly forested terrain to an over look with views of : The Towers, and Chimney Rock. There is a tunnel going through the mountain for trains to go through. Pretty neat. There are also these very large birds that soar throughout these valleys. I don’t quite know what they are, but they look like eagles. They have wing spans of at least 4 or 5 feet in length.

Well it’s shower time, and then off to dinner. Tomorrow is a 58 mile run into Pippa Passes, population 297. We are currently right on the boarder of Virginia and Kentucky. I Googled it, and it is way out there. Some of the poorest people in the county live in this area. And this is where the wild dogs of Kentucky start. Hopefully we will make it okay. We have our pepper spray handy, and I might even bring a stick with me. Please continue to keep us in prayer. Aloha, Ted.

day 15, Days of Thunder.

This is known as the Grand Canyon of the South. At the bottom is the Russell Fork
river. At over 600 feet deep, it is the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi.

Between thunders showers, the heat rising from the bottom caused these eerie clouds to form. Changing every minute. I must have taken over a dozen pictures of this phenomena.

The Russel Fork River at the bottom of the gorge.

At Lovers Leap, I took it to the edge and took this picture. That is straight down, over 300 feet.

I'm pointing to where I had my foot.

Lisa at the over look where she took my picture.

Lisa and her new friend. A box turtle we rescued from the hazards of the road.

This is the poor fella trying to cross the road.

These are those big trucks that come barreling down the highway at break neck speeds.

This is a close up of where we stayed for the night. Room 129, top floor, third room from the left.

This is Liegh and Margaret. Two touring cyclist we met today. They are from Alaska, doing the TransAm route also. They too got cought in the faul weather and are staying here.

This big boy is carrying a full load of coal up the near 10 per cent grade past where we were having lunch.


Day 15, Council to Breaks Interstate Park. 27 miles. Days of Thunder.

Aloha everyone. We made it as far as The Breaks Interstate Park. The climbing was horrendous today. According to the elevation profile on the map, Today’s climb should be the last of the big climbs for a while. We didn’t make it into Kentucky like we had hoped. The rain and threat of thunder made us decide to lodge for the night. We are in coal country now, and will be for the next few days. What this means, is that we will be encountering these huge coal trucks hauling buns up and down these narrow winding mountain roads with no shoulder. Sound dangerous? It is! How ever, we have a plan. When we hear these monsters coming, and you can hear them coming from afar, we will simply get off the road if possible. They are usually real good about giving us space, but around hair pin turns and on coming traffic, they tend to cut it pretty close.

We left the William P. Harris park in Council at about 7:30 this morning. We had a light breakfast and headed into Davenport for breakfast. I had the traditional biscuits and gravy with my meal. The weather looked like it would clear up, so we were in pretty high spirits. Leaving Davenport, we rode along more scenic country roads. It was nice being off the interstate. We made frequent stops to take pictures and to enjoys the shear beauty of this place. I can’t get over how green and thickly forested this entire region is. We saw this little box turtle trying to cross the road. So Lisa stopped and put it on the other side so it wouldn’t get run over like the ones we saw earlier flattened out on the road. There were a few dead snakes we saw, one of them pretty big. A few miles down the road, we stopped at a Subway to pick up something for lunch. It was only 10:00AM, but we weren’t sure if we would run into anything along the way before lunch.

Upon leaving Subway, we found a baby snapping turtle also trying to cross the road. This was cool. Two turtle rescues in one day. And the first time I’ve ever seen and held a real snapping turtle. We put that one across the street also before heading on. To our dismay, the climb turned vertical. It was steep enough to merit the granny ring. I am just guessing, but would say from personal experience, that this was easily a 10 to 12 percent grade. This kept up for over 3 miles. We would stop occasionally to take a breather and wipe the sweat out of our eyes. The humidity was unbearable. I never sweated so much in all my life. Since it was now noon, we decided to break for lunch right next to the guard rail on a steep section of climb. There was shade there, and enough room for those big rigs to pass with out making us feel uncomfortable. We watched as they geared down coming up the hill. By the time they passed us, they were only moving about 10 miles per hour with their full load. Once we were done, we jumped back on the bikes and methodically pumped our way to the top, not realizing that we were only about a quarter of a mile from there. We pulled over at a really neat over look called Lovers Leap. The story goes that two young Indian lovers who were forbidden to marry, took the leap of faith in protest. The over look was such a welcome break from all that climbing. As we were ready to leave. Three motor cycle riders came by and told us that there was a better spot just a couple of hundred feet away, so Lisa and I went over, and they were right. I got the pictures to prove it. While we were there, it started to rain, drizzle at first, then harder, and harder, thunder, lightning, the whole trip. I was getting kind of worried, so I offered a silent word of prayer as we waited for the rain to stop. With in about 15 minutes, it was safe enough to get on the bikes again, so we decided to push on. We reached the top within a few hundred feet, and noticed the weather was threatening again. To our delight, the Breaks Interstate Park entrance was right there to our left. We pulled in, asked the attendant if she know what the weather was going to be like. She didn’t, then we asked how much sto stay at the lodge. She didn’t know that either. Lisa and I had to make a decision as to weather or not to stay here, or push on another 8 mile and camp. No fun if the weather is going to be like this. So we paid the entry fee,$2.00 each, and went in. We made our way to the lodge and inquired about rooms. They told us that the Memorial Day visitors were all gone, and that they had rooms for $50.00 a night with eithernet internet access. We took them up on the offer, and was surprised at how nice these rooms are. We are on the edge of a gorge approximately 600 feet above the valley floor. There is a river down there, and we heard a train blowing it’s whistle earlier. I think we made the right decision, because it’s now pouring and thundering again.

Bye for now, I’m getting hungry. Aloha, Ted.

Day 15, Council to Breaks Interstate Park. 27 miles. Days of Thunder.

Aloha everyone. We made it as far as The Breaks Interstate Park. The climbing was horrendous today. According to the elevation profile on the map, Today’s climb should be the last of the big climbs for a while. We didn’t make it into Kentucky like we had hoped. The rain and threat of thunder made us decide to lodge for the night. We are in coal country now, and will be for the next few days. What this means, is that we will be encountering these huge coal trucks hauling buns up and down these narrow winding mountain roads with no shoulder. Sound dangerous? It is! How ever, we have a plan. When we hear these monsters coming, and you can hear them coming from afar, we will simply get off the road if possible. They are usually real good about giving us space, but around hair pin turns and on coming traffic, they tend to cut it pretty close.

We left the William P. Harris park in Council at about 7:30 this morning. We had a light breakfast and headed into Davenport for breakfast. I had the traditional biscuits and gravy with my meal. The weather looked like it would clear up, so we were in pretty high spirits. Leaving Davenport, we rode along more scenic country roads. It was nice being off the interstate. We made frequent stops to take pictures and to enjoys the shear beauty of this place. I can’t get over how green and thickly forested this entire region is. We saw this little box turtle trying to cross the road. So Lisa stopped and put it on the other side so it wouldn’t get run over like the ones we saw earlier flattened out on the road. There were a few dead snakes we saw, one of them pretty big. A few miles down the road, we stopped at a Subway to pick up something for lunch. It was only 10:00AM, but we weren’t sure if we would run into anything along the way before lunch.

Upon leaving Subway, we found a baby snapping turtle also trying to cross the road. This was cool. Two turtle rescues in one day. And the first time I’ve ever seen and held a real snapping turtle. We put that one across the street also before heading on. To our dismay, the climb turned vertical. It was steep enough to merit the granny ring. I am just guessing, but would say from personal experience, that this was easily a 10 to 12 percent grade. This kept up for over 3 miles. We would stop occasionally to take a breather and wipe the sweat out of our eyes. The humidity was unbearable. I never sweated so much in all my life. Since it was now noon, we decided to break for lunch right next to the guard rail on a steep section of climb. There was shade there, and enough room for those big rigs to pass with out making us feel uncomfortable. We watched as they geared down coming up the hill. By the time they passed us, they were only moving about 10 miles per hour with their full load. Once we were done, we jumped back on the bikes and methodically pumped our way to the top, not realizing that we were only about a quarter of a mile from there. We pulled over at a really neat over look called Lovers Leap. The story goes that two young Indian lovers who were forbidden to marry, took the leap of faith in protest. The over look was such a welcome break from all that climbing. As we were ready to leave. Three motor cycle riders came by and told us that there was a better spot just a couple of hundred feet away, so Lisa and I went over, and they were right. I got the pictures to prove it. While we were there, it started to rain, drizzle at first, then harder, and harder, thunder, lightning, the whole trip. I was getting kind of worried, so I offered a silent word of prayer as we waited for the rain to stop. With in about 15 minutes, it was safe enough to get on the bikes again, so we decided to push on. We reached the top within a few hundred feet, and noticed the weather was threatening again. To our delight, the Breaks Interstate Park entrance was right there to our left. We pulled in, asked the attendant if she know what the weather was going to be like. She didn’t, then we asked how much sto stay at the lodge. She didn’t know that either. Lisa and I had to make a decision as to weather or not to stay here, or push on another 8 mile and camp. No fun if the weather is going to be like this. So we paid the entry fee,$2.00 each, and went in. We made our way to the lodge and inquired about rooms. They told us that the Memorial Day visitors were all gone, and that they had rooms for $50.00 a night with eithernet internet access. We took them up on the offer, and was surprised at how nice these rooms are. We are on the edge of a gorge approximately 600 feet above the valley floor. There is a river down there, and we heard a train blowing it’s whistle earlier. I think we made the right decision, because it’s now pouring and thundering again.

Bye for now, I’m getting hungry. Aloha, Ted.

Day 14, Damascus to Council.

Climbing, climbing, and more climbing. It seems lie the hills never end.

There are so many old barns that I wasn't able to take pictures of all of them, some of the best ones were in places where I couldn't stop for a shot.

We stopped at this bridge to watch the water flow. It's simple things like this that sets the mind free.

Lisa spotted this snake in the water. Kind of looks like an eel if you ask me.

Yes, we had rain, but even then, the scenery was awesome. This neat hill was just across a gas station where we made a pit stop.

These were some of the happiest horses I have ever seen. They looked like they wanted to be there.

Down town Mineral Springs. Yep, that's it. The whole town.

I couldn't resist this shot. I love bikes, this one looks like an old sting ray.

These things were growing everywhere. It's not what you think, but if it were, I'd be rich.


An old abandoned water mill. I wonder what it was used for?

Another old barn. I was tempted to go check it out, but I'm afraid of snakes.

Yep, looks like wer're right on track.


Day 14, Damascus to Council. “Entering Coon Country”. 52.48 miles.

We are with out internet tonight, so this will be posted the next time we do. The morning started out wet. It rained lightly almost all night. Damascus is a quiet town. Population less than 1,000. Our camp site at the Methodist Church run hostel is centrally located. Right next to the library. We were thankful for the accommodations, even though we opt. to camping out side.

The rain stopped at about 7:00AM. We slowly got our things together. I packed my things away, and then wiped down the rain fly of the tent. That little micro fiber towel sure comes in handy for chores like this. After loading up the trailers, we headed to a place called “Cowboys” for breakfast. In these parts, biscuits and gravy is a big hit. So I ordered that with some eggs and coffee. They only charged $3.99 plus the coffee. By this time is started raining again, so Lisa and I put on the rain jacket. It was humid to begin with, so having that jacket on was like being in a sauna. The sky started getting pretty dark, and we could see lightning and hear the thunder in the direction we were headed. Since we didn’t have the option of just sitting the weather out, we decided to push on in hopes that the weather would let up. I offered a prayer, asking The Lord for His intervention. He has been good to us so far, and I leave these thins in His Hands. About 2 hours into our ride, the rain stopped, and a little while later, the sun came out. We were on one of the longest and toughest climbs to date, and I was sweating profusely. The humidity felt like it was 150%. The climb lasted about 4 miles, pretty steep for the most part, with dozens of switch backs, most of them hair pins. We broke for lunch about half way up, right next to one of them cool little streams. Since there was nothing for 30 miles, we had to bring our own lunch. We had apple butter sandwiches, grapes that Paula had left us, and some chips left over from the day before. Sounds crude, but you take what you get in situations like these.

If not for the shear beauty of the thickly forested landscape, with cool little streams running at every apex, it would have been one boring hell ride. Traffic was pretty light considering it was Memorial day. That was a good thing, cause these roads are pretty narrow, with no shoulder, and not much room to pass , especially with on coming traffic. Once over the top, we had a cool 2 mile ride down into the valley. We rode along the valley floor for a few miles, stopping every so often to take pictures. We stopped at the community of Rosedale to pick up a few things for dinner and breakfast the next morning. There are no stores or restaurants till the following day when we hit Davenport. When we left Rosedale, the weather started turning for the worse again. To rub insult to injury, we were climbing again. There was more thunder and lightning coming from the direction we were headed, and it started raining again. Worse than earlier. I again offered a word of prayer, and we pushed on. The rain got pretty heavy at times, and by this time it was rush hour, and we were on Interstate 80, a major thoroughfare linking the East coast to the West. We turned on our red blinking tail lights so we would be more visible to cars coming from behind us. We occasionally pulled off the road to allow traffic to pass, especially those big trailer rigs. You can hear those things coming from way off. Although it was only 3:30, with all the cloud cover, it seemed like it was near night fall. I almost considered telling Lisa we should find a place to settle down for the night in hopes that tomorrow would be better, and we could make up some of the lost time. I’m glad I didn’t, cause once we reached the top, we were again treated by one of those long winding descents to the bottom of the valley, where we found the William P. Harris State Park . Our home for the night. Being a holiday, no one was around, so we made our selves at home in one of the covered pavilions. The rain had stopped, the sun came out, and it was wonderful. The place even had electricity, and a cold drinking fountain. The even left the rest rooms open. Tonight, we sleep on the tables and cook our meal on my one canister sterno stove.

Good night everybody, Thanks for all you well wishes and prayers. We really appreciate all the moral support. Aloha, Ted.

Day 13 Damascus

A log cabin church we saw along the way.

Tjhe church on the hill.


Our bikes parked for the night.

Some of the hikers staying at the church on the hill with us.

The Bike Station in Damascus shuttles riders up the road to the start of the Virginia Creeper bike trail. Then they ride all the way back down.


A trout fisherman and his grand son. The older fellow actually caught one while we wee thee.

These horses got it made in the shade. Thee were six of them in there.

Another shot of the log cabin church.

We passed a horse camp where folks would trail ride on their horses for the day, and camp for the weekend.

Just one more of these beautiful little streams that we passed.

A perfect spot for a break as we headed in to Damascus.


Day 13, Troutdale to Damascus. 25 mi,

Hello again, what a beautiful morning. The view from our camp site is simply spectacular. The fog settled in over night, but is lifting as of now. It looks like we might be in for a wet day. Today our destination is Damascus, home of the Appellation Trail Days Festival. Luckily for us, that happened last week, if not for that, we would not have been able to find a place to stay. Our ride today took us through thick forested high country. All that climbing for the last few days is now paying off. We were cruising along at an average speed of about 18 to 20 miles per hour, mostly down hill. We passed many mountain streams, and a few small farms with breath taking vistas of open country, and rolling hills. It was by far our easiest day on the road so far. We were having such a great time, that we did not even break for lunch. On the stops we did make, we just sort of took in the beauty and talked about how beautiful this part of the country is. Pardon me for sounding so optimistic, but I truly believe this is one hell of a great place for bicycle touring. We encountered a number of Appellation Trail hikers at various points along the route as the trail crosses the highway several times though out the day. We talked to a few of them, and found out that they are from all walks of life, using this experience to refocus on their life. I goes to a point, it is exactly the same thing I am doing with this bike trip.

Upon arriving at Damascus, we had no trouble finding the hostel in which we are staying tonight, run by the United Methodist Church. Here we have a shower and restrooms, it has a kitchen, common room, and three bedrooms with bunk beds. Since there were a lot of hikers here, we decided to pitch our tents and rough it. We met Bob Pederson, from Maui who is taking 5 to 6 months to hike the entire Appellation trail. He started on April 4th and is expected to finish sometime in September. Bob is a great guy, he spotted me as a local right off the bat, and we had a nice chat.

Dinner tonight is pizza, hopefully we can get wifi so I can update the blog. Good night, Thank you once again for all the moral support, and prayers. Aloha, Ted.

Day 12, The Church on the hill.

Veiw from oour camp spot at the church on a hill.

The hostel at the church on the hill in Troutdale.

Looking down the road from where we came. Jerry's Kitchen is just to the left beyond the trees.

The roads today had very light traffic. We were able to stop almost anywhere we wanted.

This cow was very interested in what we were up to.

These are the cows that came to visit while we were having our lunch.

There are more barns of all sizes and shapes in these parts than I have ever seen.

The Log Cabin Restaurant. This is where we were supposed to eat breakfast.

The Travelite Motel, our home in Wytheville.

Room 16, home of bikerted.


Day 12, Wytheville to Troutdale. 34.89 mi.

Since Lisa and I had planned a short day today, we decided to walk around and find a decent place to eat breakfast. We heard about “The Log Cabin”, just down the street from where we were staying, and decided to give it a try. We found out that they didn’t open till 11:00AM. So that was shot. We walked a couple of blocks and found a number of choices. Wendy’s, Burger King, McDonalds, Sonics, and a couple others I can’t remember. We opt. for Sonics since neither of us had tried there before. After a casual breakfast, we headed back to the Travelite Motel to pack up and head out.

Once all our stuff was ready, we headed toward our next destination, Troutdale. Once again we were greeted by picture perfect weather. The sun was out, temperature in the 70’s, and no wind. We passed through more farm land and picturesque rolling country side. Of course rolling hills means winding, rolling country roads also. So once again, we re back to the typical climbing and decending of the previous days.

At about 1:00PM. We decided to break for lunch. We pulled over to the side of the road where there was a locked gate, and a place to park our bikes out of the way of traffic. As we were pulling out our lunch, I happened to look across the street and there were about a dozen young cows up against the fence trying to see what we were up to. I strolled over to them to have a closer look. They all gathered together as if expecting me to feed them or something. I took a couple of pictures, then went back to continue with lunch. The cows watched us the whole time, not making a sound. After realizing that we weren’t going to share anything with them, they slowly wondered off. Normally, I wouldn’t give cows a second look. Cows are cows, they are one of the least interesting animals I know. But for some reason, being way out there, absorbing all the goodness of nature. These cows had an appeal that merited a closer look.

I tried the cell phone to call home, I figured somebody ought to be up by now. But I couldn’t get a reception. We were miles fr4om no where, and we hadn’t passed but one gas station and store in the past 20 miles. Once on our way again, we jumped on Scenic route 16 which entered through the Mount Rodgers National Forest Reserve. This was one beautiful place. Deeply forested with a stream that meandered through the valley where the road we were on ran. It was an up ward steady climb for what seemed like miles, I spent most of the time in my middle ring, occasionally dropping down into my small ring on the steeper sections. We3 crawled at a painfully slow pace of 4 to 5 miles per hour on some of these sections.

At 3:30PM. We entered the township commons of Troutdale. A rural community with one restaurant that also housed the only store. The church on the hill caters to hikers and cyclist by providing a hostel and camp ground equipped with porta potties, and showers. Because there were al lot of Appellation Trail hikers already here, Lisa and I decided to pitch our tents on a bluff over looking the high way and the shallow valley down below. A great spot if I may say so myself. After getting settled in and showered. We walked over to Jerry’s Kitchen. The restaurant and store for dinner. We both ordered the house special. Teriyaki chicken with fries, cold slaw, and freshly baked buns. One of the best meals I’ve had all week. For desert, I had the strawberry cheese cake, and Lisa had the Oreo chocolate cake. The whole meal including two soft drinks, cost less than twenty bucks for both of us together. What a deal, and the camping was free.

For those of you who don’t know, the Appellation Trail Hikers are folks who enjoy hiking and back packing for the pure joy of experiencing nature on foot. Th Appellation trail is the longest hiking trail in the world. Something like 2700 miles long. Some folks have hiked the whole thing in a single effort, taking as long as nine months in doing so. I would like to hike a portion of this trail myself. Maybe two weeks worth, just to experience what these fine individuals have. I have heard life changing stories from folks who were completely awed by what the experience has done for them. It is truly something worth looking into.

Thank you for taking the time to join us on our journey. We miss Molokai already. Aloha, Ted.