Almost Heaven

After a farewell breakfast I made my way up the mountain to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. It was going to be nice to have real campsites and cooler temperatures but I knew it was going to come at a price. I night before I did a little too much research and found out the the 450 mile Blue Ridge Parkway has over 45,000 feet of climbing (Mt. Everest isn't even 30,000 feet). This bit of knowledge can play some pretty strong head games with you but I did my best to push through.

The Parkway is full of cyclist so I was able to ride with different groups from time to time. The conversations would always lead to horror stories that sounded like something out of a Tolkien novel, of climbs up vertical cliffs, people pushing their bicycles, and lack of supplies from stop to stop. None the less the conversation would end with something like, "but I'm sure you will make it".

After the first day I had only gone 70 miles. I pulled into camp and my legs felt like noodles. I kept saying to myself "did I really only go 70 miles, maybe my computer is broken." I had a little bit of doubt creeping in.

After pitching my tent the neighbors from the next site over came by to here what I was doing, I gave them my elevator speech and they invited me over for dinner. It was good to be with other people for a change. Up until now I was usually quietly hiding in some clump of bushes hoping no one would find me. Although the company was nice I had to get some sleep. I couldn't shake the thought of the next mornings challenge, a 13 mile continuous climb from the lowest elevation on the Parkway to the highest elevation in Virginia.