Sep 6 Climb and then Do It Again Amid Beauty

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/102186667

  We were concerned about rain today from the forecast. It was wet outside this morning, but not actively raining when we started.   About a mile away from where we stayed, we entered Shenandoah National Park and started up Skyline Drive.  As we climbed up onto the Blue Ridge and afterwards, we rode in and out of the clouds hugging the mountains, so it was a moist ride at first. Gradually the clouds lifted and we dried off.  We were pleased that we did not get rained on and instead had some blue sky this afternoon.  In the morning we were excited when at some of the viewing spots we were able to see the valley below because the underside of the clouds were just high enough to give us a peek.

 As the clouds lifted we got better and better views, even though the day  has been a little bit hazy due to the humidity.  We had wonderful views both looking over the Shenandoah Valley and also east over the Piedmont area of Virginia.

   Besides being thankful for the beauty of the vistas, the mountains, the trees, the butterflies and the woodland sunflowers along the road, we were also thankful for the low traffic.  The first 40 minutes on Skyline, we only had a few vehicles pass us.  

   Something we expected about our ride today was a significant climb into the park. It was about 3 to 4 miles at about 5%. (Partway up, we met a park employee coming the other way in a pickup yell out his window that farther ahead, the climb gets worse!--and it got easier) We also expected to have hills in the park. What we weren't mentally prepared for was the length of the hills.  We'd have 1 to 3 mile uphills and downhills, so we would zoom down at 25 to 30 and crawl up at 3 to 4 miles an hour.  We started out at 600 feet elevation and ended up at 3630 feet plus all the ups and downs inbetween.  Interestingly,  we had more elevation gain today than our biggest day out west, so tired legs tonight.  

   Since the weather had sounded iffy, we had booked lodging for tonight instead of a campsite. A  friendly front desk person upgraded our room so we would be close to the dining room.  She hopes that when she is done with her work here in a couple of months, that her next work will be doing front desk work at Death Valley.  We had a waitress  who is a great-grandmother, and started waitressing here when she was 19 and has worked here for 43 years except for taking 6 years off for kids.