Out of the mountains!

Wytheville to Catawba, Catawba to mallard duck campground 

No matter how I try to convince myself otherwise, I feel like these rides were kind of intermediate rides, just trying to get from one set of mountains to another. The landscape was very hilly, and covered with farms. For a good chunk of these two days, I had mountains on both sides. Pretty, but I was itching for some big climbs. A few things are notable. The city park in Catawba was gorgeous. There wasn't any running water, but they had a port o potty and a fantastic view of the Catawba mountains. The mallard duck campground was also beautiful. The tent sites are tucked away by a little river, and the evening light made the scene very romantic. Some nice folks from an rv site offered to feed me! Oh, man, that food was good!

Mallard duck campground to Charlottesville 

This is the ride I'd been looking forward to since I left Damascus. From the campground, I snaked along the river for awhile before ascending about 2000ft in roughly 3 miles. That climb was insane. Steep, long, unforgiving. It scratched my itch for climbing, and then some.  After the big climb, I rode along the blue Ridge Parkway for 27 miles. This was full of beautiful vistas and long ascents and descents. I even ran into some other riders! I decided not to take pictures because of the haze. The haze made it so the colors felt flat, and it smudged out the contours of nearby mountains. I just hope it wasn't related to air pollution. After the Parkway, I made a quick descent down to sea level where I encountered even more hills. For some reason I had it in my mind that once I got out of the mountains I'd be done climbing. This is not true. I hit more steep rollers, all the way to Charlottesville. In all, a good ride, but very hard.