Day 61 - The Steepest But Shortest Mountain (August 1st, 2024)
City To City: Lexington - Charlottesville
Miles: 81
Miles Total: 4,114
Flats: 13
My dad woke Henry and me up before the sun had risen because we had the steepest mountain yet to climb. It was only four miles but it was a steep four miles. Luckily we only had twenty-four miles before the steep climbing happened.
But that mountain was the biggest burner. The beginning was the steepest. The first two miles were straight out relentlessly eighteen percent grade. The last two miles, it started to flatten out.
I was struggling behind Matt for the first two miles, debating whether to gun it to get close to Henry and Mark so I could take some pictures. This went on for five minutes, and finally, I decided I was going to do it. So, I shot off, much to Matt's surprise. I got some closer shots, but I did pay a price in the end. I was the last over the mountain. We got to a flat part of the mountain, and I'm the last one. As I get closer, I see Henry taking off his shirt. Then he wrings it out. About a cup of sweat was wrung out! We could just see the sweat spurt out in a dirty color. For the rest of the day, Mark called Henry "Soggy Henry." Henry grinned sheepishly every time someone said the nickname.
Once we got to the first peak of the mountain, there was a lookout that decided to take a break. We ate a lot of food including leftover cookies and cherries. From there it was easy. We went down, then back up, but it wasn't nearly as steep or long.
Seeing the mountain for miles around, made it the climb to get there. Blue mountains extended as far as the eye could see and faded.
A motorcyclist stopped on the road to warn us about a rattlesnake on the road. And guess what all the guys did?! They immediately go to see it. So, when I arrived all the men were around it, Henry with the GoPro and Mark with his phone.
"Don't get too close to it" Henry says he's standing closer than I am to it.
I reply, "There's no way I'm getting near that thing!" Mark bursts out guffawing at my reply, slapping his knees in amusement.
Along the way, we met a family from Belgium. Karl, the father, pronounced his name by rolling the "r" in Karl. He and his family, the Dueboff's (pronounced DOO-bohf) were traveling the US by RV for a month and like us, were nearing the end of the journey. Karl took a picture of us, and we chatted a little bit. Mark asked Karl was his last name was, and Karl gave it. Mark then said, "Well, we need to head out, but it was nice meeting Dueboff of you!" Kar and his wife laughed and we got on the road.
Then we made it to the top of the second peak. And from there, immense relief that the hardest was over, and from there it would only be rolling hills with a gradual downhill.
Along the way, we were going by peaches and came to a peach farm. There we had cold peach cider and cheery soda. The peach cider tasted like apple cider but had the peach aftertaste.
We made it to our host, David, and his wife. They generously hosted all five of us. They had an outdoor shower for us that was cold and refreshing. We then ate dinner in their basement, and later David and his wife, Joann came down. They told us stories of how Joann sags for David on his bike trips and in her free goes birding. She also is at the top of her county in bird sightings and had sighted over 600 species of birds.
David is a retired dentist and Henry's five days of leaving the stitches in had gone by. So, David took one look at the stitches and confidently said that he could take them out. So, Henry successfully got his stitches out at the perfect time. We went to bed. Downstairs, the dehumidifier stopped working so, Matt and Mark spent forty-five minutes trying to get it back up and working. Finally, they gave up and went to sleep.
Phew! That's an intense hill😮
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