63 miles
Sorry but I didn't take many pictures today.
After leaving Radford I went through Christiansburg, an unremarkable larger city. After that the scenery changed to the typical Virginia hills and farmland.
A bit past Ellet I finally met Vreny; a cyclist from Switzerland who is riding from San Francisco to Yorktown. For the last two to three states I had been seeing her entries in guestbooks and hearing from people like Rose and Charlie, who ran the guest house that I stayed at in Kentucky, that she had just passed through. She has taken a vacation by bicycle every year since 2009 and has ridden through Alaska and ridden the North American coast from somewhere in Canada down to southern Ca in addition to taking trips in Europe.
We both took a break a bit down the road at Catawba. A store that was supposed to be there was closed and I resorted to finishing off some stale wheat thins that had been in my panniers a bit too long. We then both headed about a mile the wrong way before turning around and getting back on track.
The combination of the transam maps, the transam signage and VA road markings can be a bit confusing and even in conflict at times. In Radford, for example, the maps had me going through the park along the river while the transam bicycle route 76 signs put up by the city or county sent me through downtown (I think someone wanted the business). I don't remember what the source of the confusion was at Catawba but it was nothing that obviously messed up.
In Daleville I stopped for lunch at Subway and at a grocery store before covering the last two miles or so to Troutville.
The city park ended up being full of cross country cyclists and Appalachian trail hikers that night. When I arrived a couple from Switzerland who were riding east to west then down into Mexico were already there along with a couple of hikers. Vreny showed up later and so did Roberto, a cyclist from Italy.
Left to right: Marie Anne and Tom (background) from Switzerland, Vreny, and two hikers I talked with quite a bit but whose names I didn't catch. After talking with me the younger of the two hikers is now thinking about riding the transam trail after finishing his current journey.
The park also had its share of pokemon players. It was another poke stop.
I took a shower at the fire station before settling in for the night. A set of train tracks ran right by the park but thankfully only one train passed through during the night.
Troutville sunset:
No comments:
Post a Comment