Biking from DC to Big Meadows Campground

2022-07-19

Day 1

Left DC on sunday

took w&od to purceville

had a nice BLT bagel for lunch

got soaked near bluemont

somehow broke my bike pedal, i think on some gravel hill

only noticed after i stopped riding for the day

stayed at bears den hostel

Day 2

followed transvirginia until i took some paved roads and diverged to front royal

got this part of the route from cycle.travel

got to front royal and ate big calories at the mcdonalds

biked a little bit the front royal library and hung out for an hour as huge rainstorm passed around 3-4pm

Entered shenandoah national park. had to pay to get in.

Uphill was hard. I'm not the strong of a biker. pulled into lands run parkin area around 7pm. there was one car in the parking lot.

I pushed my bike down the fire road and saw two women coming up back to the parking lot. so i assumed i now had the place to myself. set up my tent right on the trail. against the rules. i also didnt have a backcountry permit.

Day 3

biked to big meadows campground. i took lots of breaks, but never got off and pushed my bike. i took a whole lane and made cars pass me, and they all passed pretty safely.

Over all a lot of climbing. but I had my new bike with panniers so i didnt have a backpack which was a great change. and my new bike is not a kids bike. i got some knee /ankle pain from pushing myself too hard on the elevation. and i got a weird shoulder pain that lasted like 5 days after i was done riding. it was like a pinched nerve or something