Woke up this
morning to continuing wind, rain and fog at the top of Mt. Roan. We broke camp
early and headed down the mountain toward Damascus, VA. Karen and I had talked
about leaving the area and moving north to get out of the rain. I’m glad we did
not do this.
Roxanne checked the weather radar and predicted we’d have until
late in the day to avoid the rain. So, we decided to get in a bicycle ride on
the Virginia Creeper Trail before the rain came again.
The Virginia
Creeper Trail is an old railroad right-of-way that’s been converted to a
recreation trail. The section we rode started at White Top Station and
descended into the town of Damascus. We caught a shuttle van in town and went
to the top to begin our ride.
The
approximately 17 mile ride is all downhill and follows Laurel Creek most of the
way. The relatively gentle grade allows for moderate speed and for mild
pedaling effort. Much of the trail is a canopy of greenery. Along the way, you
go over about 45 bridges as the trail zigs and zags across Laurel Creek. We
only saw a few other riders on the trail, so it seemed like we had it all to
ourselves. It was a welcome change from the stormy night before.
As we got to
the end of our ride, we stopped on a bridge to look at the creek. That was when
we had another reptilian encounter: right on the rail at waist-level was a huge
king snake taking in the afternoon sun. Karen pointed out that there was not
just one snake, but two. There was another one hanging from a tree limb next to
the bridge rail. We snapped a few photos and then moved to the other end of the
bridge.
Just then,
from the other side of the bridge, we saw two young girls approaching us on
foot. The snakes were between us and them and we decided to see if the girls
would notice the snakes. One girl (about 7 yrs old) was walking next to the
rail holding a snow cone in her right hand. Her sister (about 11 yrs old) was
just to her left. The younger one’s snow cone was inches from the rail as she
got to about a foot away from the snake. That’s when she saw it, and you’ve
never seen someone jump out of the way so fast – she moved four feet to her
left in a blink of an eye – and, the snow cone was still intact and in her
hand! She let out a nervous giggle as she passed us and continued on as if
nothing happened.
Once we
stopped laughing, we put away the bikes and had lunch next to Laurel Creek. The
weather was holding up well and after lunch we drove up to the top of nearby
White Top Mountain to spend the night.
Similar to
Mt. Roan, the road to the summit was a winding, steep and narrow ride up the
mountain through beautiful forests full of new spring growth and wild flowers.
Also similar to Mt. Roan, when we reached the top we were enshrouded in a cool
misty fog. White Top’s terrain has different vegetation than Roan’s. Here,
there is low scrubby grass with wind-stunted evergreens dotting the hillside.
In some ways, it felt similar to the coast of California near Monterey. After
we set up camp and went for a brief sight-seeing hike, the weather started to
deteriorate again. We sat outside with some cocktails for as long as we could,
then the wind and rain returned. It’s kind of weird when the wind is blowing,
it’s raining, and it’s foggy all at the same time.
Next:
Farewell to George and Roxanne
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