Laura Hamm – Ride Report
October 2020 Grand Depart
When TransVirginia creator David Landis asked me if I was racing or touring on the morning of the grand depart, my answer was somewhere in between. My husband Tommy calls it “fast touring.” I needed to be back home on Thursday, giving me five full days to complete the 540-mile route. So I was planning on big days while still getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night. Mostly I was looking forward to doing nothing but riding my bike, eating, and sleeping. Logistics tend to be the most difficult part of bike touring for me. Thankfully, Jeff Cheng and Rob Allen did all the legwork and got me to DC in time to find some empanadas along with a place to stay for the night.
Most of the TransVirginia route was familiar to me with the exception of the stretch from DC to Van Buren Furnace. Although my legs and mental state are not optimized for flatlands, I was excited to see a new-to-me part of the Commonwealth and ride two extensive pieces of bike/pedestrian infrastructure—the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and Washington & Old Dominion Trails. After crossing the Potomac on White’s cable ferry, which was attended by a single young man who operated with remarkable casual efficiency (at one point he produced a portable car charger and restarted a vehicle while concurrently mooring the ferry and directing other passengers to disembark), the route transitioned quickly from DC suburbs to rural Virginia. A pleasant afternoon of riding low-traffic gravel and pavement fueled by apples and pastries from several open-air markets put me back in the mountains near the West Virginia border. I found a lovely camping spot on Little Stony Creek shortly after dark and set up camp for the night.
Given my 8 pm bedtime and the incoming rain from Hurricane Delta, I decided on an alpine start on Sunday morning to maximize my dry riding time and try to get over Reddish Knob before the real rain set in. The sun rose on me just as I started to ride along the Lost River in Mathias, WV, and it was misty but not quite raining as I rolled the beautiful doubletrack along the German River. The chunky climb up Dunkel Hollow from Switzer Lake is one of the highlights of the route for me. It follows a creek and has just enough exposed rock and steep pitches to keep you entertained. Even though I was ~7 hours and 60 miles into the day, I felt energetic on the climb in the cool, damp conditions. (This made it all the more shocking when several days later, I realized that the climb had taken me >2 min longer than when Tommy and I rode it on our tandem bike one week prior. How embarrassing.)
The ridge riding heading toward Reddish Knob got messier as the mist turned into rain. It wasn’t a problem until I reached the final paved ascent, when my smaller front chainring began refusing to cooperate with my chain. This was not surprising. I knew my drivetrain was on its last legs when I set out, but ten-speed chainrings are not easy to come by in the 48-hour timeframe I had allotted for prepping my bike for this trip. I had two good options: stop to clean and lube my drivetrain before every climb or ride in the big ring. I did a bit of both. Luckily, my bigger front chainring was still in decent shape, and I frequently ride a single speed, so I don’t mind pedaling out of the saddle.
As I was climbing toward Williamsville along the Cowpasture river, a pickup truck pulled up beside me, and the driver looked me up and down:
“You know I thought you were a man the way you ride that bike.”
Not surprising; I am generally man shaped.
“You alone? You know what’s coming don’t you?”
I assume this means more rain coming from the hurricane.
“You really don’t want to be outside for this one.”
I realize how difficult it is to explain to someone that I enjoy riding my bike all day in the rain.
“I’ve got a camper just down the road. It’s dry and warm. Just me and my dog.”
The dog seems nice. He is laying in the passenger seat looking bored.
“I’m making chicken.”
What kind of chicken? Is it fried? Should I warn him to make extra for Jeff, a fried chicken connoisseur who will be coming along in a few days?
“At least let me drive you and your bike down the road a ways.”
Turning down kindness on a bike tour always feels wrong. Tommy and I have met so many interesting people in this way, both as cyclists and as hosts. It is one of my favorite things about traveling by bike, and one of the main reasons I prefer to tour rather than ‘race.’ But the hour is too early to settle in for chicken. I am hoping to make it to Douthat State Park and find someplace relatively dry to sleep for the night. The not-unpleasant drizzle that persisted all afternoon turned into a proper downpour right as I hit the pavement leading into Douthat. Not wanting to set up my tent in the rain, I roll on to Covington and splurge on a hotel room (Specifically, a room at the Magnusen Hotel, for which I have sentimental feelings stemming from a stay there under similar circumstances with three mountain biking friends. The Magnusen has coin-operated industrial laundry and the correct amount of feral cats in the parking lot. Its proprietors will not noticeably judge you for how poorly you look or smell.)
This is not the first time I have found myself in want of hot food in Covington at a late hour, when only the drive thru of the Taco Bell is open. The drive thru will not serve cyclists or pedestrians. In my experience, attempting to plead with the drive thru attendant through the closed window shortly before 1 am while soaking wet will elicit fear rather than sympathy (understandably so). I settled for Cup Noodles from the Shell station. I let my body decide how much sleep it needs, and I did not wake until almost 8 am. I was nervous about how I would feel in the morning after riding almost 170 miles on the day, much of it in a stouter gear than I would have preferred for a loaded bike. I could feel the toll the day had taken in my knees and lower back as I went to sleep. But the good night’s rest and beautiful weather that the hurricane left behind had me feeling completely revived in the morning.
The next two days were magical; I enjoyed amazing weather as I rode through familiar territory. The weather leading up to the grand depart—plenty of moisture and sunshine during early autumn combined with cool but not freezing nights—set the stage for brilliant fall colors, and they did not disappoint. Beyond leaf peeping, I found a closed bottle gentian in bloom at the very top of the CC Camp Road climb (closed meaning that the flower petals do not open, really making the pollinators work for the nectar). Two police officers ran me out of the old Pulaski train depot shortly after nightfall as they were concerned about “funny business” in the park. Tommy met me on the New River Trail and camped with me at Foster Falls. I had perfect weather to take in the unique landscape of the Grayson Highlands at the top of the Whitetop Mountain climb. I ate apples as I slow rolled the Creeper Trail into Damascus in the late afternoon on Tuesday. After a quick gas station meal of pretzels, canned fruit, and Miller Lite, I lay in my sleeping bag under the bridge in the Damascus town park and waited for some others who I knew were not far behind. I thought that maybe I should have taken longer since the glorious fall weather seemed likely to continue.
Overall Impressions: The TransVirginia 550 route is incredibly well thought out. Once outside of the DC area, the route manages to be very rural and low traffic while also having frequent opportunities for resupply and lodging. The forest service roads on the route provide plenty of prime camping spots, and you never go long without a natural water source. The route is also accessible to a wide variety of cyclists. Those not interested in carrying sleeping gear can ride it while staying in hotels & cabins. The Valley520 route is somewhat more approachable than the main route as it omits a good bit of climbing and some rough gravel sections while adding more resupply & lodging options. For me, the TransVirginia was a tour of places that are already special on a personal level—where I mountain bike with my friends, where I got married, where I take my family when they visit. For those unfamiliar with the area, the route provides a phenomenal tour of Virginia’s diverse landscapes and rural communities on roads that could not be much better for cycling.
Setup: I opted for a rigid mountain bike with 2.2” fast-rolling tires. I prefer the flat bars and fatter tires as they make the rougher gravel sections fun and comfortable without feeling overly slow on the smoother stuff. A more traditional gravel bike would also be fine. I’m hoping to return next year with Tommy on our tandem.
