Day 10 - Damascus, VA

After the sky having been overcast the last few days I finally had sun again. The temperature though wasn't that high, perfect riding conditions.
As often when leaving a town I had to ride on a highway today, even two lanes for some miles. One would think that's dangerous, but a two lane highway is actually safer than a narrow highly-trafficed county road because the cars have enough room to pass.

At a town called "Rural Retreat" I left the highway for a really nice backroad. Farms, cattle, rolling hills, hardly any traffic. The gigantic clouds scattered over the blue sky had the same effect as mirrors in a room: the countryside felt much bigger than it actually was. Can't wait for such a day in "flat-as-a-pancake" Kansas!

There were two climbs to do, each about 1000ft. They weren't steep but long, I'd always prefer that.

At the top of the first climb I stopped by the side of the road, still on my bike. A car pulled over and a guy with a santa-clause-style beard came out, "Want some cold beer?" he asked, picked a can of "Busch" from the cooler on his back-seats and gave it to me. I said thank you, he got back in his car and left. No more words.

Came across several creeks and rivers. Eventually I found a place where I could access one of them. Wading trough the cold mountain water totally reminded me of California, where wouldn't miss a single swimming hole last summer. 

Reward for all the climbing was a beautiful long downhill along a rocky river valley, again it felt like (northern) California. That kind of curvy downhill where you're faster than cars, in fact a car stopped to let me pass :D

Damascus lies on the Appalachian Trail, with 3.500 km one of the longest hikes on earth. It takes about half a year to complete it, with only few towns along the trail. Being one of these trail towns, Damascus has several hostels. I stayed at "The Place". 6$ for a bunk bed, can't beat that.
The area is also popular with cycling, I saw at least 5 bike rentals in a town of 1.000!

Met two cyclists today, both riding from San Francisco. The first guy was from the US, he told me he had felt like in a third-world country in Kentucky...
The other one was a German from Hannover, riding to New York City.

Tomorrow my last full day in Virginia!
By the way: I'm just about 2 miles away from Tennessee right now and on today's ride I missed North Carolina by the same distance.
Thought about riding to Tennessee for the sake of a picture, but Google street view told me there's no "welcome"-sign on that road.

(Last three pictures from yesterday. If anyone knows what kind of bird that is on the picture, let me know. there were at least 5 of them)