One week in!! Today was surprisingly an easy day! It came as a much welcome surprise. When looking at the elevation map, today looked like it was going to be super tough with lots of climbs with steep grades. Lucky for us it was gradual climbs and rolling hills. The rolling hills were great because we were able to gather enough momentum to go up the uphill without putting too much work into it. As cliche as it may sound, it was just like a roller coaster. Except, if you raise your arms over your head, you’ll probably have a very bad day.
We started out early after breakfast into the rain. A few minutes into the ride we saw a bald eagle fly off, that was really spectacular. We did hit some bad hills, but we rode through them relatively strongly. Not sure if our legs are rejoicing in the fact that there are finallo done with the Blue Ridge mountains or if we’re actually getting stronger. I’m really hoping it’s the latter! We did encounter a couple “road closed” signs due to flooding, and they weren’t lying. We rode through a legitimate river and had to walk our bikes through to avoid getting washed away. It was actually a lot of fun and refreshing during the heat of the day.
We arrived into camp really early. We’re in Troutville in a town park which Appalachian trail thru hikers frequent. We met a few interesting hikers with crazy stories. After dinner a storm rolled through and left a beautiful double rainbow, it was the brightest rainbow I’ve ever seen.
Sheena’s corner:
Today was my favorite day. I loved the rolling hills and only hated the last hill before Troutville.
Fun fact: Brown cows make chocolate milk and pink cows make strawberry milk. But they’re rare, they’re only found in like the Netherlands, I’ve never seen them in person. The tan cows though are rejects and they make milk duds.
Total miles: 45.72 miles
Avg MPH: 11.3 MPH
Max MPH: 37.7 MPH
Time on bike: 4 hours
Emilie Bikes and Hikes 