home stretch-

coucil to damascus 09/21/2011

i like how out here when people are telling you how to get somewhere, they often say, "well you just go over that mountain, and on the other side you turn left...." that's just what they said when i left Coucil VA. Big A Mountain was nothin' compared to the Mountain that dropped me into Hayters Gap!

Hayters Gap boy! i was hatin' it, that mountain was the biggest yet. a thousand foot climb and a two thousand foot decent into Hayters Gap. descent was super fun of course. then i emerged from the hills and valleys to rest atop a hill that seemed to be the rim of the bowl i just climbed back up out of. the road that lay before me in valley below, spreading south and north was the road that would lead me on the final seven mile stretch to Damascus. the sight that greeted me was this beautiful blue monochromatic mountain scape that spanned the entire horizon line. the photos will do it little justice but it was a moment of beauty and peace.

now from Damascus i have 104 miles till Asheville.

i'm in the Mountains.

in Damascus i have befriended the local bike mechanic bad ass at Damascus Cycle Works. it's funny we talked today about the personality types of the bike mechanic/shop owner- it seems that only the mechanic/shop owners are the ones with the really intense, aggressive, angry personalities. even funnier is that i get along with all of them. a shop owner who is really chill is probably not doing the mechanic stuff. i'd be interested to hear other cyclist opinions on this.....

this town is at a cross roads of sorts, with the Trans Am Bike Trail, the Virginia Creeper Bike Trail and the Appalachian Trail, the last of which is a hiker trail. you see a lot of bearded nomady kids striding around here walking sticks in hand with really large shoes giving out "trail names". but there are people of all ages too, there be some older folks up there too, walking around in them woods takin' in sights that other people aren't going to see.

i stayed in a really inexpensive hostel where they ask you to wash some towels with your laundry. i like that. you pay on the honor system and i hear some people don't pay and i know some people don't wash towels.