Rocky Knob (BRP mile 167): BRP - VA-8 to Woolwine - VA-40 - 860 - BRP; w/ DntW; 34.7 miles, 2hrs, 46min, 12.5 mph avg pace.
1st Qt. tot: 20 rides; 755.3 m.; 47 hrs, 31 min; 15.9 mph.
Apr tot: 13 rides; 666.4 m.; 42 hrs, 58 min; 15.5 mph.
May tot: 14 rides, 803.1 m.; 50 hrs, 39 min; 15.8 mph.
Jun tot: 6 rides, 272.2 m.; 17 hrs, 43 min; 15.3 mph.
YTD: 53 rides; 2497.2 m.; 158 hrs, 51 min; 15.7 mph.
Main event (?) for the weekend. Staying at US Park Service Rocky Knob campground at BRP mile marker 167.
Dave had never done this ride before. I think he said he had never dropped off the east side of the BRP previously. He'd always gone off the west side and from car travel to see various sites in the area, was convinced that the east side was more precipitous than the west side. Afterwards, he concluded that his previous perception was correct.
Virginia highway # 8 off the east side of the BRP down to Woolwine is V-E-R-Y technical. I could smell my brake pads even BEFORE we got to the hairpins. I had to learn F-A-S-T how to be better at "pulsing" the brakes so as to not overheat the rims and . . . kill myself. First "technical descent" ever for me. I may go online to a mapping site and figure out the number of hairpins and the elevation descended (and the number of miles to get that descent).
Virginia highway # 40 promised to be interesting. There was a big yellow sign on VA-8 before the turn, and again on VA-40 after the turn, warning tractor-trailer rigs not to use VA-40. Very scenic for the first miles: repeated big rollers requiring the 30-25 or at least the 30-23, and the fog lines kept disappearing. Then it got tougher. We knew we were in for some fun when we saw the 15 mph curve sign -- instead of descending a hairpin, we were about to climb one or more. In the event, it was only one hairpin -- the rest was just hard, straight climbing until we got to VA SR 860 (like a NC SR backroad). It was about mile 21 of our ride.
We took a break, supposedly so we'd have fresher legs for 860, which would take us all the rest of the way back up to the BRP. I write supposedly, because another reason might have been to allow at least two heart rates to come back down a bit.
The first thing 860 did was give back all of the elevation the last climb on VA-40 had gained, probably including the hairpin. That descent, on not the smoothest of surfaces one might like to ride, brought us alongside a creek -- Shooting Creek. Shooting Creek was to be our more-or-less constant left-side companion until the last little bit of climbing which would pop us out onto the pastures around and above the BRP. There were quite a few little stream tumbling down on our right, most going under 860 / Shooting Creek Rd below us on hidden culverts, but some spilling across the roadway. In many places there was a constant stream of run-off water rapidly running downstream along the very edge of the asphault and then the entire contents of the roadside "stream" would spill across the road whenever the kant of the road would change. Nothing dangerous, though -- or at least it didn't seem dangerous.
The Shooting Creek gorge was beautiful in that it was a COMPLETE tree canopy tunnel for the entire time that the creek was our companion. I would hate to think about doing that climb exposed to a hot sun for the whole distance!
The road was not as steep as the NC state park road up to the top of Hanging Rock, but it was steeper than Sauartown Mtn Rd, and longer than either of those easier climbs. I could see Dave ahead of me most of the time, but he gradually edged ahead. Finally, I decided, when holding 4.0 mph seemed impossible, that I did not know how much longer this climb would continue -- Dave had "reconnoitered" on "veloroutes", but he didn't remember how long the climb continued -- and if it continued on for another two or three or four miles that I'd never make it. So, I dismounted and started walking / pushing the bike. I came around a corner and saw that Dave was doing the same. A bit more walking and I came to where Dave had decided the road was "flat" enough to re-mount and continue the climb. I re-mounted at the same point -- having walked almost exactly one-quarter of a mile.
After the restart, the slope had obviously relaxed (?) a little, and 5.5 mph almost seemed easy (no -- it was still work, but it was 5.5 instead of 4.0 or 4.5). It turned out that only four-tenths or forty-five-hundredths of a mile after we re-mounted we popped out of the tree tunnel into pastureland and the road did truly flatten. There was even a descent or two, immediately followed by small ups, and then, and then, we were descending a little hill to the parkway! (It was about mile 27.3 of our ride.)
One annoying thing occurred just as I pushed off to re-continue (?) the climb: a horsefly took a big bite out of my back right atop my spine andbetween the shoulder blades -- that location that no normal mortal can touch. I concentrated on the climb and that put the pain out of mind, or at least reduced the noticeable pain. When we got to the parkway, I started to shivvy out of my jersey while asking Dave to brush the pest away -- it felt as if it was still munching away. I didn't have to lift the jersey; the horsefly was on the outside of the jersey, enjoying its meal THROUGH the material of the jersey. Dave brushed the horsefly away, killing it in the motion; he did mention later that I did have a sizeable welt.
We later agreed that if we had known that we "only" had seven-tenths of a mile climbing left when we each independently decided to dismount, we each could have soldiered on without dis-mounting.
Wonderful! All we had left was seven miles of rolling parkway (Dave had thought it might be as many as 13 miles). Parkway descents could be taken full out since one could be confident that there would not be sudden turns or bad pavement around the curve, and the ascents, although in the 30-25 (maybe the 30-23) were as picnics compared to Shooting Creek Rd.
Nice scenery, excellent ride.
Tired? No, not at all. R-I-G-H-T-!
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The following includes a mistake in that I forgot to map the exit ramp off the BRP onto VA-8, so the route is 1/2 a mile short, blah, blah.
http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=40580
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