Hello, again! When you're on top of a mountain (yes, it was a mountain -- Lewis Mountain) and inside a national park, "WIFI" is not a commonly used word. One of the women inside the park looked at me funny when I even mentioned "internet."
So far, we've biked at about a 13mph pace. As Carl from Maine explained, you go up the hill at about 5mph and down the hill at about 25mph and it all evens out to about 13mph. Which, considering the hills we have been encountering and the mileage we have been racking up, that is a pretty good little pace. I was at about a 13mph pace until mile 65 yesterday which was in Sperryville, Virginia. Our rest stop at mile 65 was Sperryville EMS/FD. Sperryville is a small town just outside of the park with some really great people! They put together a great rest stop, thank you! I got off my bike here and just rested on the ground. In retrospect, I have not been hydrating or eating enough (yes, I should know better) and it all caught up with me last night. I iced my back at this stop and did a lot of eating/drinking to get ready for our twenty miles to the top of Lewis Mountain. I'm so happy no one actually referred to that climb as an actual mountain. It wasn't until I was in our room where I saw the paperwork saying, "Welcome to Lewis Mountain...." Anyhow, from the rest stop, we started on our journey. I was riding for a bit with Ben from Maine. Shortly after leaving the stop, he asked me, so what songs are we going to sing to each other to get us up to the top?" I said, "I'm not sure either one of us is going to have enough lung capacity to sing."
Once we started the climb, I had a 5mph pace with 15 miles ahead of me. I stopped after 30 minutes to just have something quick to drink and eat. After that for the next two hours, I stopped every fifteen minutes. And to clarify, I and others rode for 2-3 hours at a 5mph pace. If you see the photos, there is a short tunnel you have to travel through. It was completely PITCH BLACK inside the tunnel. I was peddling my little heart out to get to the other end and hoping my wheel wouldn't catch anything I couldn't see or that there wasn't some monster waiting to eat me inside of this thing. With all these things swirling through my mind, I began to hear a car. I turned my head and didn't see any headlights (peddle faster, peddle faster!!!). The car swooshes by me. Oh thank goodness. Then, I hear another car. Oh, good grief. I'm still not out of this tunnel!! I thought at this point, death by bear would be better than being a hood ornament. Swoosh, they go by me. Once I made it out of the tunnel, the last vehicle had stopped right there at one of the scene overlooks. I yelled and waved, "thanks for not killing me!" The driver started laughing and said, "No problem! Keep riding!"
So, I keep peddling. I eventually catch up to Mike from FDNY EMS. I started to ride in front of him when all of a sudden a coyote ran across the road. (More 'good griefs' and more wondering of who exactly had this fantastic idea to take this huge detour into the park!!). I eventually heard last night that someone saw a small black bear as well on their ride up. As I got farther and farther up this beast, the temperature began to drop, the winds began to pick up, and the skies began to get dark. I had two support vehicles pull up along me and warn me of the changing weather. They asked me I wanted to get in and I said I'd stop when someone told me to or if it started to rain. Five miles from the top (ten miles into this thing), I took my moment rest. I tried twice to get back on the bike and physically could not due to the steepness of the hill. I had also stopped so long that my legs just couldn't go anymore and then it began to rain. Tommy and Jason of Johnson City EMS of Tennessee eventually found me and brought me to the top.
Getting to the top and being able to look out over Virginia, is quite accomplishing. We were all extremely fatigued.....
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