Day 35

Hungry Mother State Park, Marion, Virginia

Weather: Day 71, night 61

Today we biked the upper section of the Virginia Creeper Trail-from Whitetop Station to Damascus, Virginia. We only brought bikes for Dennis and Eric, as well as Leah’s tag-along bike, so we had to rent a bike for myself and Bay. Also, the way this trail works is that you take a shuttle up to the beginning of the trail, and it is pretty much a downhill ride back to Damascus. The trail continues on to Abingdon, however we only did the 17 miles section today. We rented from one of 9 bikes shops in the town of Damascus-the Shuttle Shop-basically because they offered the best price mid-week. Evidently this place fills up with bicyclers on the weekend. Our guide said that there are easily 250 people going up the mountain between the bike shops every hour and a half. That’s too many bikers for us to deal with-we were very glad we did the ride on a Thursday. There were enough people on the trail as it was.

After breakfast and packing  lunch, we headed over to Damascus in the car-it was about an hour ride. Once there, Bay and I got set up on our bikes, and then everything was loaded up onto the trailer. There were about 20 people going up the mountain with us at the 11:00 shuttle. It was a 40 minute drive up to Whitetop Station-where they unloaded the bikes and dropped us off. From there, we rode down the trail. The Virginia Creeper trail was converted from an old railroad line (like many of the rails-to-trails that we bike) back in 1998. The  trail followed a creek most of the way and was shaded with some beautiful views of the mountains at many stops along the way. There were lots of small, old trestle bridges that we crossed, and several small rest areas along the way. We stopped about 7 miles out of Damascus for some ice-cream (our traditional reward for the kids on a long bike trip). The time really flew by-and before we knew it (about 3 hours later) we were back in Damascus turning in the bikes. Overall, the trail was okay. Compared to  the Allegheny Passage that we have ridden in Pennsylvania, the condition of the trail was not as well maintained. It was much more narrow, and very rocky, causing us to have to slow down and carefully navigate some sections. Getting on and off the bridges was also pretty rough-there was not a very gradual incline leading up to the bridge-sometimes it was quite a distance and really jolted the rider and the bike.

Leah’s tag-along bike was attached to my rental, because there was a fender on my bike to keep the rocks and dirt from flinging up into her face. Initially she was attached to Dennis’ mountain bike, but that didn’t last long as she quickly had something flung into her eye. The boys had a good time playing around on the trail since it was such an easy ride. Dennis taught Eric to do bunny hops over the bumps leading to the bridges, and all 3 of the boys were riding side saddle and putting their feet up on the handlebars being silly. It was all funny until Eric got his foot caught on the handlebar and crashed! Nothing too bad-just a nice red raspberry on his knee. He was a good sport about it all.

The kids all fell asleep in the car on the drive back to the campground. We grilled some chicken on the new charcoal grill to have with our salad and the kids had some mac-and-cheese for dinner. Dennis got a very nice campfire going tonight, and after showers for all, we played a game of Pass the Pigs and then headed to bed.

We have our campsite reserved just for tonight-all of the sites were booked for the weekend when we got here. We will check and see in the morning if there were any cancellations for Friday-if there are, then we are planning on staying one more night.

 Waiting at the bike shuttle shop to get a ride up to the top of the Virginia Creeper Trail. The town of Damascus survives on the business of these bike shops

 At the trial head. I rented a beach cruiser since we were just pretty much going downhill-I won't use one of those again. The coaster brakes were hugely annoying!

 The colors on the trees are just starting to change. It is not peak season, but it sure was beautiful. Don't be deceived by Eric's wardrobe choices-it was very cool-I think about 50 degrees at the beginning of the trail. It warmed up considerably as we came down the mountain, but at the higher altitude it was cold!

 Just riding down the Virginia Creeper

 Having fun while stopping for ice-cream!

 This is when Eric fell while doing one of the boys' stunts. Dennis had the camera today, so he didn't catch it until after the fact!

 Back at our campsite-the water woods are so peaceful. 

 Eric took this picture-he is getting better at his photography skills!

Our collection of National Parks stickers is growing. There were actually a few parks we went to that did not have any stickers so we are going to try to find those online when we get home.