Day 7

Mileage: 80
Total mileage: 528

Lots of climbing today, I got the last big  mountain out of the way this side of the Rockies. And those MS folks are holding on tightly to their lead!

I left Wytheville around 8 today. The visitors center wasn't set to open until 9, but as I was packing up around 7, the volunteers started showing up to open. They were wonderful and didn't mind in the least that I had spent the night in their yard.

Breakfast was at a small diner in Rural Retreat. I totally missed it on the first pass, and almost rode straight out of town, but I was hungry so I asked directions to a restaurant and got sent to this unsigned building I had passed. Sure enough, I'm happy I got turned back. I had 4 eggs, toast, hashbrowns and sausages for 4 dollars. Great start!

I've gotten into a system for riding the Appalachian countryside. I set my watch timer, and when it hits 30 minutes I take a break the next time I top out a hill with no momentum. Never takes more than 5 minutes to find one. I eat a snack, check my maps if I need to and drink water/take pictures. Today I got a little distracted during one break tying suture knots with my twizzlers.

Most of the day was spent in Mount Rogers state park. I had about 10 miles of consistently graded climbing during one stretch and it was glorious. Much better than the constant up-down of the countryside. At the top of one climb I crossed a county line and hit my new high elevation for this trip: 3700ish feet. It's not that high at all, but it'll be a long time before I break it again. I took a picture at the top, and really like how from that one sign, you can probably tell exactly where in the world I am.

On the back side of that climb was the descent into Damascus. It follows a beautiful river, and when I stopped and climbed down the bank to take a picture, I realized there was a nice spot that wasn't visible from the road. So I took a quick (and cold) swim/bath and felt much better for the rest of the descent.

The Appalachian trail literally runs down the main street of Damascus, so I met a bunch of hikers who were in town refueling (hastily wolfing down food). I ate lunch with a bunch of locals though and noticed a theme that came up in conversation for the third time on this trip. After they asked where I was from, we started talking about UVA and the hospital. To them, UVA is a semi magical place, where they send their toughest cases and we quickly and easily figure everything out.

One guy told me about his slipped disc: 'I had back pain for years and no one could ever figure out why. Then they sent me to UVA, gave me an MRI and figured it out within hours. '

I suppose I knew that we were the last resort for a large area. I've even reassured an applicant who wanted to know if we get interesting cases that 'all the interesting stuff from the surrounding countryside gets funneled here,' but it was a bit of a sobering realization that we're the backstop, the catch-all for so many people and have that breadth of responsibility start to sink in. For reference, I heard similar attitudes about UVA from a veteran in Lexington and a store clerk near Bumpass.

From Damascus I rode through Meadowview, decided I wanted more miles for tonight, and continued on to Hayters Gap. It's a valley between two steep climbs on either side and the only nonresidential building in the whole 'town' is this amazing elementary school that's been converted into a rescue station and a library.

I stopped in at the library and met Pattie, the librarian who keeps this whole place afloat. She recognized me as a trail rider immediately, most stop in for water before attempting the climb out of the valley. I was bombarded with fruit, juice packs, cold water and Wi-Fi and got to chat with her for a while until the library closed at 7. She gave me permission to sleep outside tonight which was surprisingly a nice feeling I've taken for granted until recently. It's nice going to bed somewhere, not worrying about being woken up and told to move in the middle of the night. Cool change of pace.

I'm sleeping under the big tree tonight (last picture) and even found power behind a vending machine to charge my phone. What more could a guy ask for!?

Oh yeah... to catch that MS group tomorrow =)

G'night!