Spring Training 3 - On the road again

Amazon delivered.

Seriously. Before 8am. 

And Marc had my bike road ready again before 11. Amazing. 

Look at that derailleur!! Sweet.

For obvious reasons, we chose a road route today.

The Black Mountain Town and Country loop on Ride with GPS, which is actually a loop with 3 out-and-backs: Laurel, Walkerton and Montreat. 

Black Mountain is a very cute town (with little shops, a brewery, visitors center, natural foods shop, you get the idea). 

The ride out took us on a bike path, around a baseball diamond and even past a group of people practicing hammer throwing 😳. 

Up we climbed, past many religious retreats, old and new. 

(And perhaps haunted??) 

And into a valley with beautiful farms, cows, a dairy.  The mountain here is also the source of some lovely rocks, everyone wants nice landscaping, right? 

Our first out-and-back was a winding road along a valley, taking us to "Laurel", a gated community of retirees enjoying fresh mountain air and amazing views. 

The next out-and-back, to Walkerton, had much more elevation. Beautiful houses and farms, a pony, and .... a few dogs who were very vocal about our arrival. Our turnaround for this one was the North Fork Reservoir. 

We had lunch at the Mountainview Church (I think they might have more than one named that!) and admired the flowers and enjoyed the sunshine. 

The final out-and-back was a climb, into a very beautiful little town called Montreat. (Mountain + Retreat). Known for one famous inhabitant, Billy Graham.  And home to Montreat College and Conference Center. 

The town welcomes you through rock archways, no trucks allowed. (Photo courtesy of internet as it was actually quite a busy little section of road). 

And had a BIKE PATH and we climbed up the main road to the College and Conference Center to find very impressive buildings, a small lake (Lake Susan) and a very nice local runner who stopped to chat about bike touring. 

Our new friend (Hannah) had tales of cycling in Norway and Peru, and gave us advice for local routes and local pubs. 

We were happy to be at the height of the ride, and we coasted back down to Black Mountain, enjoying the blooming trees and even a deer, the ride was much more peaceful than yesterday's one-gear descent. 

A stop at the Trail Head Pub for a cold drink and a snack, and we made another friend. George Nostrand from Rutland Vermont. He kept us entertained with stories of the entertainment business, he is a singer, songwriter and manager of other bands... He was full of advice and stories.  Once home we looked him up and listened. 

A fun day of exploring and meeting new people. 

A good day on our bikes. 

Spring has sprung!