Hitting the BIG hills (= Mountains)

A post that was written on June 6, but I couldn't post it then because the internet I used that night didn't work well. I'll be posting later today or tomorrow about our last few days!

Day 10: Winston-Salem to Taylorsville, NC (65 miles)
If I had blogged about Day 10 on that day, I would have said it was one of the hardest days to that point, because the day after the big century ride seemed just as hard as the century ride itself. Go figure. But since that ride, we've hit the mountains so read below... Just wanted to say thank you to the church we stayed at in Taylorsville! Thank you to Nancy, our wonderful chef for the evening and morning, and thanks to Jen Barry's mom for greeting us when we arrived! It was wonderful to have welcoming faces greet us!

Day 11: The 1st Whopper - Taylorsville to Altamont, NC (82 miles)
The windy, swampy flatlands and the rolling hills of North Carolina have finally brought us to our first really big challenge of the summer--the Applachian mountains. Actually, seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is something I've been yearning for ever since I first decided to do this bike trip. So, despite this being extremely hard, it's SO beautiful.

Seriously, this ride was probably the most physically challenging task I have ever undertaken. In particular was a stretch on 181, which was 13+ miles straight uphill. It was so hard that many people resorted to taking breaks by walking their bikes up the slope. And if one did bike up it, you had to use a special trick to ease the slope--sidewinding. (Going side-to-side up the path instead of straight up.) I was really stubborn and absolutely refused to get off my bike and walk. So I biked really slowly (like 3-5 miles an hour, whereas normal speed is probably about 15 mph), and I took lots of breaks. Check out that hill...I was tired:


We cross the Eastern Continental Divide:

I realized that at some point, biking becomes a mind game. Through my determination, I could make my legs pedal one more revolution, get through one more sidewind, get up to the next curve with the hope of a downhill, and eventually...make it up an entire mountain. Amazing.

Day 12: Altamont to Asheville, NC (79 miles)
We spent the day biking on the Blue Ridge Parkway. By no means was today relaxing, but yesterday's challenge helped reset my definition of "uphill". Even a 6-mile steady uphill didn't feel as difficult as it would have before yesterday. Knowing that I conquered one mountain really helped me get through the day.

Along the way, I met a few interesting people. One of them was a park ranger/cop car that followed me down the first big downhill of the day (which was SO wonderful, after all the climbing we did the day before!) I didn't realize it was a cop car, until I pulled off at an overlook with the rest of the B&B crew. We joked that he was going to catch us for speeding, but really he just wanted us to move to the side of the road when cars want to pass.

What a privilege it was to have the views that we did. Here are some of the sights.
First, one of the Altamont area's main industries is Christmas trees... Find the bikers!


Our Altamont dwelling for the night prior:


Some of us at an overlook:


The view from just about any point along the parkway: