Well I must say Sunday was a character building day as we ventured to the beautiful but wet city of Damascus in southwest Virginia for a ride down the Creeper Trail in pouring rain for most of the 17 mile ride on bicycles. Afterwards we had a great meal at the Old Mill Inn before heading back to Sparta through the twisty winding mountain roads of White Top Mountains areas. Such beautiful scenery but not for the faint or those subject to car sickness.
We started the day with the alarm alerting us awake right at 6 o'clock as Nancy didn't trust my internal alarm clock. We were meeting up with Dalton's at 9 ish as they rode with us and then we were meeting the Tracy's at the Sundog Bike Rental in Damascus at 10:30. We did our morning routines and tuned into our worship service from Bridgepoint Church in St.Pete as we were skipping corporate worship at Cornerstone. After out routines and quiet times we headed out luckily with a change of dry clothes. The weather forecast was for rain but once we got to Damascus the sun was shining with some blue skies among the clouds. This is such a beautiful small town right on the Laurel River which runs the whole way down the mountain alongside the trail. There was no way we weren't going on the trail after the hour and half ride plus Ryan was leaving on Monday morning for Florida.
I knew something was fore warning me when I pulled Nancy's bike out of the back of the truck and the front tire was flat. I had checked all of the tires before loading them. Luckily one of the attendants at the shop was able to put on a new tube and even adjusted her brakes before we all loaded up on the ride to the top. We had in our back packs rain ponchos but they helped only minimally as the rain poured after about the first mile or so. At times the trail looked like the river had changed courses as we pedaled through mud holes and a stream of water. Needless to say there wasn't a dry a place on any of us and the black water from the cinders permeated our clothes. I had water sloshing out of my shoes as I pedaled. I think that was the fastest we have ever come down the mountain as we wanted to get out of the rain. We pedaled the whole way down never stopping until we reached the trails end at the Sundog. Yikes were we ever covered in mud and cinders. Thankfully we were able to clean up using hoses to wash off before changing into dry clothes.
We headed over to the Old Mill Inn right on the river. The rain continued to pour while we had a great meal of burgers, sandwiches and salads. We were the only party in the main dining room so we were well attended and like last year the food was delicious. Some of us didn't bring extra shoes so we kicked our wet one off under the table. We had a table with a picturesque view of the small dam which was used to turn the old mill wheel but was no longer there. The mountains in the distant were beautiful with the fog clouds hiding the peaks. We headed out around 4'ish for the ride back to Sparta. The rain followed us most of the way until we got close to Sparta then the sun appeared and the rain disappeared finally. What a wet memorable day. We dropped the Dalton's off and then headed home and it looked as if we may have received a little rain while we were gone but nothing like we encountered on the other side of the mountain.
I took the hose and tried to wash out all of the cinders from our clothing before we put them in the washer. The shoes and socks were black and the spray from the back tires on the bikes had a perfect line down our clothes from the rear despite having a poncho on. Ryan and Caleb didn't even wear ponchos and the rain seemed to have cleaned their clothing as they rode along. We skipped any further food for the day except for some hot chocolate later in the evening. The temps have dropped considerably since yesterday and we are forecasted for some 50's in the mornings the next couple of days with no rain. That will be a welcome change.
I watched a little pre-season football while Nancy posted on the FB page and after a hot shower it was soon horizontal time for me before 10'ish, LATER
