It rained a lot that night at Joe D’s which added to the anticipation to our first day on the road.. There were flash flood warnings and we had 3 rivers to cross in the George Washington forest today. It was overcast at Joe’s hollow in the morning with a low cloud ceiling down at treetop level making it hard to read what the weather would be.
We had a great breakfast, loaded up the bikes, took pictures and we took off. Finally!!, what a relief to be on the bike feeling the engine plunking away and the wind on my jersey …..the die was cast…no more trip preparation, no more thinking…. we were just moving. This is Joe’s backyard so he lead zig zagging across Page valley going west across the Massanutten mountain range and moving west to catch the TAT in George Washington Forest. It was a hot & humid so we did not bother to gear up for the temporary rain dump we went through … getting wet felt good as we moved west through Mennonite farms in the Shenandoah valley.
Our initial goal was Brandywine VA, 75 miles away, were we would pick up the TAT. As we approached the TAT riding on the highway in the GW forest, you could see that all local rivers were high and brown with sediment from the daily cloud bursts every day the week before. We came to our 3 stream crosses (one right after the other) and they were not a big deal. Maybe a foot water at the most but had a slippery rock bed which required attention. You look ahead and just keep moving making small balance adjustments until you get to the other side.
Deer are frequent on the TAT and we saw a beautiful scarlet red fox. Deer make me nervous because they are unpredictable and bolt out of anywhere. There were blue Chicory, white Queen Anne’s Lace and yellow Black Eye Susan flowers in higher elevations where forest road was open to sunlight and we found blooming pink and white rhododendron when we wound down the mountain into dark shaded forest river valleys. We went up and down the mountain following the TAT all day as we move southwest. We camped at Pleasant River Campground on the Cow Pasture river which had really bad showers but our riverside camp spot was both private and scenic.
