A pun...."she breaks the rules"

We’d been traveling around I-81 for several days, over it, under it (but never on it), along the frontage road beside it.  There was always the rumble of big, BIG trucks to confuse the ear.  But we made a hard left turn and dove south west not away from the interstate but toward Damascus.  We’d missed our planned arrival on the weekend and were now hoping for Monday.  A couple of good days and keeping the food bags light meant we were within range on Sunday and could have made it until we discovered that Trail Days was happening in Damascus that same weekend. 

Damascus is a hole in the wall deep southwestern Virginia town that would have died like so many others we pedaled through recently except for three things.  The rails to trails conversion park called Virginia Creeper Trail, the TransAm (our route) and the Appalachian Trail.  Of the three, the Creeper is much my favorite for its gentle grade, plush surface and tendency to stay near a lovely, rushing creek.  It is also a favorite of many, many less ambitious vacationers as the four bicycle shuttle services in town can attest.

Fortunately for me, the TransAm has an officially sanctioned alternate route along the Creeper for the final 11 miles into town to enjoy….but not yet.  Sam and I attended Trail Days many years ago and we both have a clear recollection of what a circus it is.  So we waited out the free eating contest, the Patchouli parade and general mayhem in favor of a two room, hiker/biker hostel in Troutdale (all services closed).  Approaching town, we saw an exodus of smiling trail-days-gladdened, slightly hung over, AT hikers who promised they had left SOME food and a very small quantity of beer (I would need it to be sorghum, of course).   The hikers neglected to mention that they had also left a town full of very irritated and tired citizens and shop keepers.  There are two hostels in town and one of them featured a  keeper who was stomping around the hostel yelling for people to, “Go hike somewhere!”… it appeared to be the sentiment of the entire town.

Nevertheless, we took a day off there so we could mail ourselves some equipment to Berea.  We are having a trial separation from another 6 lbs of gear and sent another 9 lbs to Sam’s parents to ‘hold’ including our cool weather sleeping bags (traded for summer weight).  That done, we jumped on our unloaded bikes and rode into Tennessee for a look at Backbone Rock (see pictures).  “The world’s shortest tunnel” (20 ft) blasted through a ridge of resistant rock by a long defunct timber company.  

you can walk across the top

It was nifty but the following day we blasted off for Kentucky and were pleasantly surprised to find the border to be The Breaks " Grand Canyon of the South"; one of only two interstate parks (Palisades being the other).  A break is an abrupt and dramatic change in the terrain.  Go to google earth and see how Pine Mountain range just drops into a maze of smaller and less organized hills.

After a half day tour of the major overlooks, we headed down the mountain and ate a very generous BBQ lunch and rolled to Freeda Harris Baptist Center who opened their gymnasium doors for us.  Little Red Riding Hood brought over some soup beans and corn bread (had to pass on the bread b/c I thought it might have wheat).   The only thing was the rules.....they had me on the spitting.