We went to Dairy King for breakfast then headed to Adventure Damascus to rent bicycles and ride the Virginia Creeper Trail. It’s an old rail trail that’s about 34 miles long, although we only did about 14 miles of it. They shuttled us up to the north end, minus three miles that are closed due to erosion repair, and then we mostly had a 2% graded downhill back into Damascus. The weather wasn’t the best, cloudy and it kept sprinkling off and on, but it was a very beautiful trail. We went over lots of trestles and were having a great time until Bass’ rear tire popped. It sounded like a gunshot, it was so loud. Of course, my cell had no signal to call for a replacement bike so we slowed down and he kept riding on the rim for a few miles until he decided to hitch back instead. Stretch and I kept going and made it back just before Bass. A cop had stopped for him and called the bike place to have them send out a shuttle.
We went to the Mountain Manatee for delicious vegetarian burritos for lunch. I only wish they were larger portion sizes. Then resupply at the dollar store, which was wiped out of hiker food, back to the hostel to catch up on phone calls, and back to the Blue Blaze Cafe for dinner. We ended the night playing Trivial Pursuit, sort of. The hostel only had the cards, not the board or any pieces. Also there were several people here who could play my mandolin so we enjoyed some music as well.
This post sounded a lot more ominous than it was. I thought you had an encounter with a pervy creeper.
Haha. The trail is named after a vine called the Virginia Creeper.