Excluding travel days, I was working at three full days, one of which was supposed to be crappy weather so that would be tourist day.
Yet another life lesson learned but when the local bike shop offers to look at your maps and what routes you intend on hitting and maybe offer some advice, you take said advice. I waived off the help as I printed out beforehand of what the stupid internet said would be a good route. With that, rather than starting at maybe the middle portion of Mill Mountain (a mountain) at one of the other trailheads, I started pedaling at ground level, up, up, up.....
I've seen others do it and can't recall if I've ever completed the task on the trails but the hotel's complimentary breakfast came up that first day. No blood left on Mill Mountain but some waffles mixed in with oatmeal were unfortunately. Hurl aside, the view atop the mountain was beautiful.
Day two was out at Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, a huge ass trail network. I had my map ready but flagged down some riders just finishing and they gave me a good loop that my old bones could handle. No blood or breakfast left there so a good day. The rented bike performed admirably with no breakdowns. The crushed rock that the trail maintains I'm sure is a flat maker.
Day three was a lunch trip to Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech. A beautiful campus with the mountains surrounding it. No former Heisman trophy winner statues that I could see and no, I'm not going to make any dog kennel jokes in this space.
As far as Roanoke's local scene, they had their share of fancy locations with all of the patrons staring at their phones but my favorite was probably the biker bar just east of downtown. It was a 100+ year old box with an old fire station ceiling. Good, simple bar food. Pool table in the middle. And had ashtrays (more on that in a minute). It reminded me of the Wixom Bar in a way. The television either had Bonanza, Gunsmoke or some old western television show on while the patrons sipped out of those small beer glasses and smoked their Pall Malls. I found out Virginia recently stopped allowing indoor smoking but from what I could gather from the bartender, I believe the higher authorities are currently looking the other way for establishments where the majority are smoking so smoke on!! All good people there and had a great time hearing the stories.
Attached are some non-hurling views from the rides.
Happy riding season!
Trail Head
(cell phone users may need to use this link to view the attached)
(put quality settings to 1080 for best picture quality)
