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For Ron's 4th Annual 50th Birthday, five hearty mountain climbers scaled the heights of Shenandoah National Park on Sunday, June 23rd. Linked together by a rope of asphalt known as Skyline Drive, we pulled each other up and down, 50 miles over and across the backbone of the Blueridge Mountain chain. Our accents and descents were exhausting and exhilarating respectively. Our strongest riders and mountaineer newcomers, Mike, "you call this a hill?," Showalter and Hans, "Mountain Biker," Martin led the way from the start. Steve, "new triple cranker," Grudziecki, was not far behind. The rest of us caught up on one of the many overlooks that punctuated the journey to the Elk Wallow lunch stop. Chaz,"I'll bike anywhere," Kerschner, was the only one lucky enough to see a bear and Ron, "SoooooooEeeeeee," Fine, was the only one unlucky enough to catch his own, "Charlie Horse," heading uphill from lunch. It's true, it is cooler in the mountains. We thought it was warm at the heights but coming down to about 1000 feet we hit a wall of hot air with a 7 degree rapid temperature change. Our 36mph final descent was slowed only once with a stalled car perpendicular to the road. Pushed aside we were off to the bottom and home after a stop to the custard stand for a Brittany Spears and Tutti Frutti shaved Ices, Banana Split and frozen Banana dipped in chocolate rolled in Peanuts. Ain't biking great!? John,"I need another gear," Burwell |
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PS. Team DC note: Years ago on Skyline Gil,"Chilly Dog," Hofheimer, got us singing the, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," as we climbed the mountain. I tried to get the other mountain men to sing along this time with little success. CLICK HERE if you'd like all 20 verses of, "The Ballad of DC," and at the end find a website dedicated to the memory of Disney's version of David Crockett, 1786-1836 |
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Return of The Mountain Men!