A ride on the Creeper

For over a week now me and a couple of guys at work have been planning on riding the VA Creeper trail. Most of these folks are not regular bike riders but the Creeper Trail is probably the easiest off road ride in our area. The plan was for me and one other to start at Damascus and ride the 17 mile uphill stretch to the White Top station to meet the rest of the crowd (who were planning on taking the shuttle up), turn around and head back down to Damascus where we would eat lunch. I then planned to head towards Abingdon after lunch to complete the rest of the trip, 67 miles total. Well those plans were changed when the rain started and one by one my crew started backing out on me. I knew this would happen, most of them are not cyclist and some own only Wal-Mart bikes. Tuesday afternoon I still had one willing participant but he ended up backing out on me at the last minute as well. Oh well I thought, I'm used to riding by myself and I did this ride alone last year.

According to the radar the rain looked like it was done with us but the weather man was still calling for a 70% chance of rain. If I wanted to get any amount of riding in this week off road this was my best bet. The Creeper is rideable in just about any weather as long as you don't mind getting wet and cold.

My attempt last year was a success which I completed on my cyclocross bike. It's probably the fastest and most efficient way to ride the Creeper but coming of the top of White Top I was miserable. There are quite a few rocks and ruts that can really beat you up at high speed. This year I decided to take Mary as my weapon of choice. 29" wheels, steel frame, lock out fork, it had to be the perfect combination. Last year I started in Abingdon but this year I started in Damascus which proved to be the best way to go. On my way to Damascus I drove through some rain which had me second guessing my trip but when I arrived in town it had stopped.

At home I had attached on old rear fender I had in my parts bin and a homemade front fender made out of a plastic jug and some zip ties. I only made it a half mile in when the rear fender fell off. What?.... I stopped and reattached it with some zip ties only to have it fall off again a mile and a half down the road. I gave up and tossed it under a tree just off the trail with the intention of picking it up on the way down. I'm still not sure what the problem was but the homemade fender worked flawlessly and never fell off once.









My ride up was smooth and rain free but I did run across alot of debris and downed trees. When I reached the top I stretched a bit had a banana and some skittles which turned out to be a very nice little mood lifter. I think Skittles will become a staple for me on all of my long rides. The ride down was awesome, I was flying & jumping everything in site bunny hopping over all of the debris and small down trees that had slowed me on the way up. As the trail flattened out and I started pushing a harder gear my drive train began to ghost shift on me. I must have knocked the rear derailleur out of whack hopping over all the little trees. When I reached Damascus I thought about having one of the mechanics at a bike shop look at my derailleur but I realized I was running out of time and needed to keep moving.




One of the many bridge crossings.




Looking down off the bridge.


I did stop at my truck to drop off the worthless rear fender and my unused rain jacket. I only got rained on a couple of times on my ride but as sweaty as I was a rain jacket wasn't going to help anything. After a peanut butter and honey sandwich I headed towards Abingdon with only an hour and a half left to spare. I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish the ride today so I split my time and rode on until I had to turn around.




The river level was high and moving fast from all the rain.







Upon my return to my truck I realized that I had left my camelbak wide open with my wallet, cell phone, and cash exposed. Unbelievably nothing fell out and I had stuck it all in zip lock bags to prevent it from getting wet. That was a close one.





Hopefully next week I will return with all of the original crew to complete the ride. Even though the Mary was a bit slower and about 10 lbs heavier it was definitely the more comfortable ride.

Have a good one

Later