5/5/01
Another zero mile day. Yippee! ! ! Paula and I packed up the car and drove to Damascus, VA. The first order of business today was arranging bike rental and shuttle to Whitetop Station. The shuttle was scheduled for 11 a.m. so we took off to a road crossing on Hwy. 58 of the AT to leave some sodas in the stream for thru-hikers. Then we caught the shuttle to Whitetop and began the 17 mile bike ride down the Virginia Creeper trail back to Damascus. The trail is an old railroad bed modified for foot or bike travel and basically you don't even have to pedal with the gently graded downward slant back to town. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride through forests, alongside the river, and past farm country. There were a lot of weekenders with the same idea so the trail had quite a bit of bike traffic. We enjoyed a late lunch at Dot's, then checked in to Maples B&B right on main street in downtown Damascus (the town is basically 9 square blocks and is quaint and as mentioned earlier, is very trail friendly). After a relaxing afternoon on the lawn reading, watching the birds in the garden next to the old house, and repacking the pack, we ate a late dinner at Quincey's (the famiy size Calzone ....yummy!) then called it a night. It was the perfect day to be in a small mountain town in Virginia to relax and enjoy time together. Today's statistics: low 52 degrees, high 80. Sunny. Mileage: 17 miles on a bicycle but it doesn't count.
