Biking the VA Creeper Trail

Aug 4, 2007 –

Several of us met the Pirate Express at the Grayson Highlands Campground on Friday Aug 3rd. Our plan was to bike the VA Creeper rail trail on Saturday. Katy & Darian were in training for a 100 mile road ride the next weekend, so they chose to get up at 6, drive to Abingdon and ride up the trail. Marion and I chose to meet them at the top and ride back to Abingdon with them.

Instead of parking at Green Cove (the postmaster we consulted for directions wasn’t sure about Green Cove’s location), Marion and I parked at Whitetop Station, the generally accepted top of the trail. We rode down the trail and stopped at Green Cove to wait for Katy & Darian. They arrived about five minutes after we did. But they had ridden uphill for 32 miles (in 3 hours) and we had only ridden downhill for 3 miles (in a leisurely 20 minutes).

The rest of the group decided to meet us at the Baja Cafe in Damascus for lunch. Even though it was pretty hot out, we ate at the outdoor tables in a little alley beside the store. We had the area all to ourselves.

In the afternoon, we continued riding down the trail and enjoyed such sites as

And a yardsale!

Darian fell in love with a cast iron frying pan and Marion gave him $30 just to see him try to ride away with it.

And he did!

We finished up the evening with a cookout back at the Pirate Express.

See more pictures at: Webshots

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Maui – Part 2

The post for the trip was getting kind of long, so I’ve created a second one to hold the next parts. This is a continuation of Part 1

July 26, 2007

Brian and Don went mountain biking today, on the Makawao Trails. These trails were about halfway up the volcano, and basically formed a loop, going 2.5 miles up one side of a big gulch and then coming back down the other side. It was all forested. We especially enjoyed the smooth trail tread – there were very few rocks or roots. The downhill was fast and fun!

Here’s Brian riding up along a gulch.

Oops.

Later in the evening we drove up to Lahaina and went to the Old Lahaina Luau. We had front row seats for the show. The sunset was beautiful. The buffet was great. I had octopus salad, pork wrapped in seaweed, and yellowfin tuna. Ok, truth be told, I had at least a little of everything on the bar. And it was all pretty good!

Front row seats!

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July 27, 2007

I got everyone up before the crack of dawn today so we could drive up Haleakala so Brian and I could ride at least part of the way down before the daily clouds built up. The clouds had been starting up around 9 am most days. We pulled out of the condo parking lot at 5:15am. We took some pictures at the summit. It was 42 degrees. We were on our bikes and rolled away at 7:23am. The girls went to Kahului and shopped a little before returning to the condo. They waited by the pool for us to call for a pickup.

Our ride plan was a little different than what most people ride on Haleakala. Instead of riding back down the paved road, we struck out on the old cinder road that used to be the only way to the top. It’s now called the Skyline Trail and is mostly unused except by a few hikers and bikers. The upper part looked like the landscape on Mars. We passed through the Kula Forest Preserve on the way down, and then through some upcountry towns, to Kahului, by the airport, and finally to Kamaole Beach Park where we stuck our feet in the ocean. In about 6 hours, we went from 42 degrees at 10,023 feet elevation, to 90 degrees at sea level. A great summit to sea ride. It would have been much harder in the other direction!

On the beach at last!

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July 28, 2007

Today was a day to relax. After a leisurely morning on the lanai, we headed down to the beach in front of our complex to snorkel. There is a neat sets of rocks and reef jutting out from shore there. You can see it behind us in the picture below.

After snorkeling, we hung out by the pool and watched the ocean most of the day.

We did venture out to Kihei for a classic Hawaiian plate lunch at the L & L Diner. Then it was more hanging out and eventually watching the sunset.

I even caught the full moon rising over the ridgeline of Haleakala.

July 29, 2007

Today is Sandy and Don’s 18th anniversary. To celebrate, we took a helicopter tour of Maui.

While we were flying around the island, Donna and Brian spent some time at Donna’s “happy place”.

The rest of the day was spent in much the same way – enjoying our “happy place”.

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