UNO MAS!
Note well: I may never, ever, have said this before, but I'm looking forward to day off my bike!
Today, left the Shenandoah Valley, short climb up over the Blue Ridge, crossing the southern end of the Skyline drive, fast descent down to the Piedmont. A pretty section of the ride, but not really any views because of the thick forests.
Then rode across the entire Piedmont to Ashland which is right near the fall line, where we'll descend the last couple hundred feet to the coastal plain. The Piedmont itself is lots of rolling hills. Supposedly jumbles of various bedrocks crunched up when America was in contact with Africa - several decades or more ago. The bedrock is then really old, and really worn down. And, has had a lot of filling in with sediments worn down from the higher Alleghenies. So, as we rode along, we saw occasional outcrops of various kinds of rocks - mostly granites and metamorphics. Mile after mile of short ups and downs, hard to keep a steady rhythm. Slow going because of the terrain, a headwind, and really tired legs.
Lots of forest interspersed with large farms and towns.
Passed Montpelier, home of James Madison - 4th president. And, lots of signs pointing to various Civil War Battlefields. Closest to Chancellorsville and The Wilderness. The northerners won Chancellorsville, but then retreated. A year or two later, under US Grant, the northerners didn't do as well at the Wilderness, but advanced anyway putting enough pressure on Lee to eventually finish the war.
Stopped at a "re-enactment" encampment by the Montpelier civil war re-enactors. Pretty interesting. I'm not too sure why someone would like to put up a tent, get out some old clothes, and sit around looking old all weekend, but..... Got to hear a long discussion of how them Northerners had a big advantage of having most soldiers equipped with rifles (accurate out to 300 yards) while the South was limited largely to smooth bores (accurate only to about 100 yards) even out to the end of "the war". The locals still seemed a little annoyed at having lost the war.
We're in Ashland, like Richmond, at the edge of the Piedmont - the fall line where rivers and streams head down to the coastal plain - so both the end of navigation from the sea, and a good source of water power for mills. Therefore, a popular location for towns all up and down the eastern seaboard - and the route for US Route 1 which connects all the cities on the fall line.
We're in Kudzu land now!
Note the bicycle route sign: 76 is for the "Bikecentennial Route" which we followed part of the day.
Tomorrow - on to salt water.
7.8 hr, 197.5 km/122 miles, 15,6 MPH, 90 pulse.
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