A Weekend in the VA Mountains

This past weekend we took a trip to the mountains of Virginia. It is an area we have visited before with the Boy Scout troop, but this time we went without the scouts. I have been riding consistently again for nearly a year after I bought a new to me cyclocross bike. You can read more about that here. After more than 2,800 miles on that bike since last June, it needed some more work. The headset was pretty much shot and would not be repaired in time for our planned trip to Virginia. So Gina suggested that I get a new bike. I ended up getting a Giant Revolt Advanced 2 from Giant Wake Forest.

We arrived at our rental house very early Saturday morning. 1:30am in fact. We found a place to stay that was literally steps away from The Virginia Creeper Trail. Saturday was to be a day we went hiking at Grayson Highlands State Park. We met Gina's co-workers at the park just after 10:00 am and started our hike. We have camped at this park before with the Boy Scouts but have never hiked much of it as the focus of those trips was biking the Creeper. This time though, we headed out focused on a couple of peaks in the distance. You can get a glimpse into the hike here.

The scenery was fantastic and the rocky terrain was challenging as I don't much hiking, and definitely not like this.

After our hike we parted ways with Gina's co-workers and found lunch, which was challenging in this time of COVID-19. We ate at Subway which had limited toppings for our sandwiches. After lunch we stopped at the local grocery store to pick up some other food for the house.

We planned to meet up again with our hiking party for dinner in Lansing, NC. It was interesting for Gina and the kids, from Lansing, MI, to be in a town in NC with the same name.

We stopped at the house in which Gina's friends had There were plenty of bedrooms and old factory equipment inside.

Sunday was, by far, the day I was most excited about. The reason we chose to stay on the Creeper trail was because of my intent to ride up to Whitetop Station. The previous trips with the Scouts we had always shuttled up to the top and ridden down. From the first time I went, I always wanted to ride up.

This trip was giving me that opportunity. I was on my way just before 7:00am so that I would be able to meet Gina and the others at the top at 10:00am. The ride was great and even a bit chilly. When I left it was 55 degrees (F) and foggy. On the way up the trail was not crowded at all. Just a few others were out at that time. It made for a very relaxing ride up. I finished my ride around 9:30am and waited for the others to arrive. Once we all were together again we went down the mountain. This was the first time that I was able to leisurely go down the mountain. My previous two years I was always grouped with the faster scouts. Last year was not leisurely at all as Cameron crashed and had to be taken away by an ambulance. This year though, we had no crashes and a relaxing ride down the mountain. You can see the details of my ride up here and the ride down here.

Rental Bike 2018

New Giant Revolt Advanced 2

At the top