September 10, 2020
We had a really quiet night at Walmart in Summersville. It was nice to have access to satellite and watch some of the Tour de France while having breakfast.
Planned our route to Caldwell so we could avoid those narrow country roads. It gave us the chance to see the New River Gorge Bridge. We stopped at the visitors center which was closed but we were able to visit the viewing areas using a dramatic wooden walkway.
The bridge reduced a 40-minute drive down narrow mountain roads to less then one minute.
Route 64 heading into Lewisburg/Caldwell area had some very steep grades. Views of mountains were awesome.
We went right to the trailhead in Caldwell. Lenny had some repairs to do on his bike and we wanted to ride a few miles to check out trail conditions. Also to be certain Lenny’s new axle and tune-up corrected his shifting issues.
While eating lunch at the trailhead a bear ran across the road. It ran thru a field, looked very confused and went into a corn field. That’s our bear sighting for this trip, no more needed.
The few miles we planned turned into 13 out to mile marker 16. Lenny’s repairs to his bike were successful. Heading back it started to rain and then pour. We have ridden in rain before but never to this extreme.
