Day 5--Our Introduction to Appalachia

Today we woke up at 7:30, left the Massaro's by 8, and ate breakfast at Bodo's Bagels in Charlottesville. I had 2 bagels and saved one for later. Jake got a bacon egg and cheese bagel and it took him an hour to eat it. That's incredibly slow. I think we were all trying to postpone our introduction to Appalachia.

Our First View of Mountains Outside of Charlottesville.

The climb out of Charlottesville wasn't so bad, but we ended up taking a wrong turn down the road a little ways and ended up on the steepest 2 mile stretch of gravel road I've ever seen. Needless to say we had to push the bikes all the way to the top of a ~2,000 ft mountain. We gained about 1500 ft of elevation in around 2 miles. It took us two hours. I was completely drenched from head to toe with sweat. Looking back, I'm not sure what would have been worse, riding up the hill or pushing the 80lb bike up the hill. So we got to the top after about two hours of pushing only to see a sign saying "State maintenance ends"...I wanted to cry. We ended up asking a lady leaving her driveway how where we were, she confirmed that we were on the wrong road. However, she told us how to get back on track. So that worked out I guess, and we had a small adventure along the way. I'm not so sure the way we took was any worse than the climb to Afton would have been. Either way, I probably wouldn't have liked either climb.
We finally got back on track about 20 miles into the 60+ mile day and it was about 12:00. That's not such a good pace. We rode on the Skyline road for a bit. That was nice, very scenic, and there wasn't much climbing to do. We finally made it to Rockfish Gap and ate lunch at a convenient store with cans of food that had been there for what seemed like years, considering all the dust that was on the cans. It was delicious to say the least. I had some Ravioli, a bag of chips and the leftover bagel.
Then we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP). That was a living hell. We probably climbed close to 4,000 feet on the BRP alone. I never pushed the bike up a hill though. So I guess that makes me somewhat . I felt . The climbs weren't so steep, but they were loooooong. There were 5 and 6 mile climbs that would flatten out, only to bring you to another climb. I had to stop a few times to rest and recharge, but that's expected I guess. The day ended in Vesuvius. I hit 40 mph on the descent, so that was fun, but my forearms burned worse than I have ever experienced b/c I had to check my speed so I wouldn't kill myself. When we finally got to Vesuvius, I ate more food than I have ever eaten in one sitting. I ate, in this order, a can of Ravioli, 2 Reeces cups, a Coca-cola, a homemade Philly Steak and Cheese (which consisted of 2 hamburger patties and all the fixings, fries (which came with the sandwich) and for dessert I had a hot dog with chili. Then I drank 2 PBR tall boys to wash it down. I was amazed at myself, but I think everyone who saw me was kind of sickened. I thought it was incredible, but maybe it's just gross. Whatever, I need my food energy. That's what keeps me going.
We camped out behind the store with part of the group of 5 with whom we started in Yorktown. We all drank a few beers and reminisced about the day.
The main lessons learned today were, eat more, pay attention to directions, enjoy the ride/scenery, and most importantly, the Appalachians aren't as scary as I thought. Don't get me wrong, today was the toughest day I've ever spent on a bike. However, I learned a lot about how hard I can push myself and succeed in accomplishing a goal. It took a lot of mental fortitude, but we made it through one of the toughest parts of the trip. I'm stoked, and I guess maybe I can call myself a man now after all.