The Rough Road to Beckley
Date : August 8th 2008
Day: 63
Miles: 75
Destination: Beckley, WV

Today was a challenging day on the bike for many reasons. Riding through West Virginia brought on the return of real climbs. The other difficult part about the ride today was that the road conditions were very poor. The shoulder was not very large for the first half of the day but the cracks and holes in the pavement were. Luckily, at the point where the road got pretty bad there was hardly any traffic so everyone was able to call things out well and dodge around as necessary.

The other good thing about the ride today was the scenery was very beautiful and very different. At some points you could look over the far side of the road and see a large valley full of trees packed so tightly it was a wonder if any sunlight even hit the ground. Other times vines covered a flat area along the road for at least one hundred yards before there were any more trees. Sean pointed out to my pace line that today was the first day we had seen a stream running along the trail since Colorado so that was a welcome return.

The end of the ride had some city riding but it was pretty low key and everyone was happy to get to lodging, which was provided by Mountain State University. We all got a little more excited when we got there and Cindy Hungate had dropped off fresh watermelon and cantaloupe and a cooler full of water to tide us over till dinner. After we all had a snack we got showered up and loaded up in the vans for dinner. The people of Mountain State Center for Independent Living provided us with a wonderful lasagna dinner and we were even welcomed by Nick Rayhall, a congressman, and the police chief. After dinner some people went to go see a movie and everyone else headed in to get some rest for the big day we have ahead of us tomorrow.

Stephen Sanger
Cyclist
Theta Epsilon – University of Kansas

Today's Photos
The Journey So Far