After reading a lot about the ride up and over Grand Mesa on Day 2 (route preview coming soon) I began to get scared about my hill legs and my ability to climb at altitude. So I decided to load up the car and head out west to the mountains of Viriginia. Saturday I rode 122.7 km (76.2 mi) on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and climbed 2,195 m (7,201 ft). It took me 5:17 and by the end I was really wishing that I had brought some music to listen to. It was one of the first really hot days of the year and I was sweating like it was August. At about mile 40, after a nasty 4 mile climb back up to Skyline from Luray, I started to cramp. Thankfully, the store at Elk Wallow was open so I bought a couple Gatordaes and found some shade and recovered enough to finish. Here's a photo on the way back down:
After riding, my plan was to camp at Elizabeth Furnace but when I got there it was all full so I had to drive an extra 30 minutes or so to Little Fort. I got there at dusk with enough time to get the grill started, my tent pitched, a fire started, and a cold beer in my hand before dark. It would have been a wonderful evening if it wasn't for the drizzle at 4am. The drizzle itself wouldn't have been a problem if I had remembered my rain fly. Sunday I got up and rode my mountain bike from the Bear Wallow parking out to Mudhole Gap and up Signal Knob. I rode about 3:15 but my computer was on the fritz (every time I went through a creek the magnet would get spun around) so I'm not sure the total distance. I get about 3,000 ft of climbing in though.
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