Out of The Mountains! Day 20 - 28

I've finally finished the Blue Ridge Mountains!! 48,000ft of climbing was a huge challenge, but the climbs led to some pretty amazing views and descents. I'm now rolling through Georgia in the very last remnants of the foothills enjoying the speed of more level ground. I haven't posted in a long time so I'll try to catch you guys up for the most part.

By the way, you can now subscribe by email on the right side to get an email whenever I make a post.

Day 20
I camped out last night at a campground not far from Blowing Rock that turned out to be very crowded. My neighbor invited me to his fire with his two little girls where we made chai tea and smores. It was a lot of fun! I was 2 days out from Asheville with Mount Mitchell(6600ft) in between us, so I knew there was a lot of climbing to come. Did a lot of climbing and camped out about 10 miles from the peak.

Day 21

Woke up ready to climb, and climb I did. Mount Mitchell was a five mile detour from the parkway and when I reached it it was overcast. Everyone coming down said it was so foggy that you couldn't see anything, so I decided not to make the climb to the top for a view of some fog. It was all downhill into Asheville and the cruise down was more enticing. The 4,000ft descent into Asheville was an awesomely long and fast ride. Those long descents are always and adrenaline rush! I got

into town, found a place to stay from warmshowers, and decided to take a day off to check out Asheville. The couple I was staying with, Jerud and Ching, made some great dinner while I took a nice shower and did laundry. Felt very refreshed after all that!

Day 22
Today was my explore Asheville day. My number one priority was to get a new rear wheelset, which

I found by 9am for only 40 bucks, leaving me the rest of the day to see this great city. I rode the historic bike route around the whole city, which gave me a pretty good overview of the city as a whole. I really enjoyed that and even came across a tumbleweed tiny home, which I think would be really cool to build one day. I got some delicious fish tacos at White Duck Taco and walked around the Arts District for a while. Met a lot of nice people and enjoyed everything about the town. Got

dinner with Jerud and Ching at a food truck, which was a first, and went to UNCA to see a documentary about a blind mountain bike rider.

day 23
Rode out in the morning with Jerud. I broke off on Blue Ridge Parkway and he headed for work. It was all climbing today, starting at 2,200ft going all the way up to the highest point of the parkway at 6053ft. Took a lot of energy to climb, but at the

end of the day I was only one day out from the end of the parkway. Camped out at a little overlook.

Day 24
Did some climbing this morning, then it was all downhill to the finish in the Cherokee. Cherokee was a Native American Reserve; it was a decent little town. Continued on to Sylva where I had a warmshower lined up. A guy named Ron let me

stay at his classic bike shop. It was cool to see all those bikes and he gave me a great deal on some waterproof panniers(bicycle bags). Got some mexican food with his family and chilled out the rest of the night.

Day 25
Cruised on down to the town of Clayton and camped out behind a Home Depot. Nothing too

eventful today.

Day 26
I'm still in the Great Smoky Mountains, but it's finally starting to flatten out as I make my way more Southeast. Covered 80 miles today, my highest mileage day so far, to reach the town of Athens where I found an awesome guy on warmshowers who had down some extensive touring himself. He made me some great food and then we went to a bar for some live bluegrass music. Enjoyed the music and people of the town. There's a big bicycle community there so I fit right in.

Day 27
Brett, the guy I stayed with, hooked me up with a big breakfast and gave me an old riding jersey and some gloves to make things more comfortable. One of my favorite places to stay so far. I headed out South and soon came across some guys getting ready for a group ride who I ended up talking to for a while and getting advice on my route. About 15 miles into riding my left pedal started to lock up which made riding quite a challenge. I searched for the closest bike shop and rerouted in that direction, which was slightly more West than I wanted to go. There happened to be a warmshower in the town who I contacted and got a prompt reply. Luckily my pedal worked for the most part, but did continue to lock up from time to time. Made it to the warmshower around 5, which was a beautiful home on Lake Sinclair. They were a really nice intelligent couple with two cool dogs. Appreciated the place to stay as well as the good conversation.

Day 28
Enjoyed my stay on the lake and even got some fresh eggs from their chickens for breakfast! Headed down to local bike shop where they discovered that one of the bearings in my pedal had been crushed. They swapped out the bearing and got me all fixed up. I'm sitting in a coffee shop in town now(Milledgville, GA) finishing this blog, then I'm heading for Dublin to camp out for the night. I'm gonna try to update this blog more often now that I'm out of the mountains so I don't get so far behind. I'm still having a great time out here and should make it to Jesup where my meditation is in a few days.