Up at 4:30 this morning to the loudest whippoorwill I’ve ever heard….these woods are full of them. Must have heard 6 or 7 different ones last night and they kept whippoorwill-ing (or whatever you call it) all night. And these aren’t your normal, sing once, wait 5-10 seconds and sing again kind I’m used to in TN…these go constantly…I don’t know how they breath. I made a recording of one directly over my tent this morning at 4:30…I’ll try to upload it here—I didn’t need an alarm clock 🙂 Packed up camp and on the road by 6am….going to be a lot of climbing today. Nice cool morning, but I think it’s going to be another hot one.
Topped a big hill about 14 miles in and saw The New Day Cafe….stopped in for breakfast—eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, coffee and orange juice. Ate and listened to some old timers talk about the Amish—evidently one of them sold his saw mill to a 27 year old Amish man and he was mad that he took all the electrical and hydraulic equipment out of it. Said he told him “this is America and you don’t have to do what that leader tells you.” The young man told him “he did if he wanted to live in the Amish community and that’s where he wanted to be.” Good for him 🙂
27 miles down this morning and am feeling sleepy….to the point where it’s not safe for me to ride….about to fall asleep on the bike—yawning constantly. I stopped in Ellington at the Dollar Store got a Diet Coke, Gatorade, some beef jerky and a candy bar….took a catnap in front of the store.
11:30 it’s HOT….cranking up these steep hills going west and the air is stale—no movement—sweating gallons, grinding out every pedal stroke and being annoyed by biting flies with the sun directly overhead and no shade—miserable conditions climbing. It’s nice to get to the top and feel the cool breeze coming out of the west….this is hard work!
These mountains are pulling every ounce of energy from me today. I’m pulling up in my shoes a lot today to change up the muscles I’m using bike shoes and pedals I clip (lock) my shoes into—don’t see how anyone would do this with flat pedals where you can only generate power on the downstroke. Sweating so much and am so wet from it when I stop to take a pic or jot a note having trouble getting my iPhone to turn on….seems the home button doesn’t like wet fingers—-I’m sweating on the phone screen so much when I type I hope it’s at least water resistant. No cell service all morning.
Got to the top of a huge hill, stopped for some water looked at my garmin and knew I was about to go down a monster steep drop on the other side, so sat on the side of the road under a tree for a little relief from the sun before going down and got swarmed by nats and biting flies—was like they just descended from the trees. Said to heck with it, got on my bike and headed down the mountain. After climbing that mountain I was completely drenched with sweat, but by the time I got to the bottom of the other side my shirt was completely dry from the wind. I hit a new speed record going down that at 47.5 mph — I was going so fast there was a little hump/rise about 2/3 of the way down and I actually pumped my brakes because I was afraid I would go airborne like jumping off a ramp…that was fun 🙂
1:20 just topped another killer climb….see storm clouds ahead of me hear thunder—yes, I could use some rain right now….it’s 95 degrees and the sun has been baking me since about 10am.
Finally made it to Eminence about 1:45 and am eating lunch at Ruby’s Family Restaurant—a welcome rest with air conditioning—53.8 miles down. Debating whether to call it a day here and recover some or push on another 20 or so miles to Summerville. Called the Rusty Gate Inn in Summersville and they had a room, so decided to go for it. A guy in the restaurant told me I had a big climb out of town then a big drop to the river where there was an old mill I should stop and look at—I thanked him and did stop when I got there….very cool 1890s mill at Alley Spring — pics below.
Pulled into Summersville about 5pm and got my room….nice, clean room with AC and shower — $40 including tax. I’ll take it! 🙂
In 76 miles today I had 6,463 feet of ascent—that’s a lot of climbing—steep, quad burning, climbing.
Going to bed early—feeling good and strong.
