Days 49 and 50.. 10.23-24.2013. 48 miles from St. Paul to Damascus, VA, then 40 miles to Boone, NC

As in any touring trip there are places that you tab as places you really want to see/stay. Both Damascus and Boone were those kind of places for us. They are both big "adventure" towns as I would call them. Damascus is right on both the Appalachian trail and the TransAmerica trail. Boone, is a college town (Appalachian State University) that attracts many tourists because of its mountainous landscape, great food, and amazing fall colors. Boone is also a really big town for biking, both road and mountain. So both places we decided to spend a night. 

The weather has been the coldest we've had on the trip, which is understandable since we are in the mountains and it is late October. But luckily both nights we were blessed with roofs over our heads. 

In Demascus we stayed at "the place." it was a hiker/biker hostile set up just for AT hikers and TransAm bikers. It was only $6 per night. There wasn't heat, but that was almost nice so that we could actually use our super warm sleeping bags without overheating ourselves. What a perfect little place. Bayu, the caretaker there, has set up a facebook page which would probably show up if you searched "the place damascus." Bayu was great and was a fun host to talk to about many things including routes, his past hiking trips, and the history of the town. In Damascus, a town of 500-1000 which is almost purely run on hiker/biker/adventure community, has the AT Trail Days in May which last a week. Over 20,000 people come through the town in that week to hike the AT. How crazy is that?

The place

Our beds for the night

 Hiker board in The Place

Our ride into Damascus was nothing short of spectacular. We rode on the Virginia Creeper Trail. It was not paved, rather it was a very hard gravel, peastone combination. It was just flat and hard enough to trust my little road tires on it. Half of the trail was covered in leaves and it ran right alongside a pefrectly crafted river, and there were a ton of wooden bridges. How fun for a leasurely 15 mile jaunt into a great little town!?

Creeper Trail

Its Fall time that's for sure

Theres the river

In Boone we stayed with the Gaws. Peter and Cynthia were amazing hosts. Peter works with Samaritan's purse as a relief aid master, and Cynthia is an English teacher at App State. The met in Kindergarten in Laguna beach California. They just moved to NC this past winter. We had the amazing priviledge of being their first stayover guests in their new house which they moved into this summer. Peter actually used to be a big time firefighter, and also bike across America/Canada when he was 16! Unbelievable. It was funny how little has changed in bike touring as we shared many stories. So they both are really big into cycling, and also the water crisis on the world! How about that for a connection? When they lived in CA a few years ago they, and their small church, raised over $50000 for a super deep well in Kenya at an orphanage they had been to a few times. It was actually with Living Water, who partnered with Peters company Life Water. Sweeeet!!

Our time with the Gaws was extremely fruitful and it just reminded me of the believers in Acts as they shared lives together and just built each other up in the faith. We had many good hours of faith building conversation here in Boone. Cynthia even had some fun helping us plan our route for the last 4-5 days of riding =)

The riding has been absolutely spectacular. The fall colors, and the cold air has heightened our senses to a new level. I am so glad that we got to have this experience in the Apps at the end of our trip. I find myself smiling almost all day while we are riding and I just can't stop. We even got to ride through a few snow flakes today! And we saw the tops of the mountains beside us getting a nice full coat of snow. What a great memory. Also, in just today, we rode through 3 states! 3 states in one day, how about that! Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina. It was very surreal coming to our last new state sign of North Carolina. Hmmph. 

Cap

Tennessee!!

One of my favorite roads, top 5 of the trip. 

The last state!

Won't see another one of these. 

Snowy mountain up top

NC

We are in Appalachia!!!!!!!

In Boone, I also stopped at Magic Cycles (check them out if you ever want to ride in Boone!) becuase I needed some bike work done because my shifting was completely out of wack. Turns out that my cable was almost completely frayed through that I needed to shift gears. I thank God, like seriously thank God, that I made it to Boone without it snapping because I definitely couldn't have climbed the mountain coming into town in my highest gear. 

Well, more to come, but not too much more. I am so encoureged by how God keeps blessing these two completely underserving guys, and I hope you are too. 

God bless,

Tailwinds, more like today!

Mark