I was really dragging by the end of today, even though the distance (85 miles) was less than the 111 miles I did a few days ago when I felt fine. It may have been that I didn't eat enough. I had breakfast at McDonalds. I find it hard to eat enough fast food to get properly stoked for a long ride. Lunch was a pear and 3 bagels with PB&J.
The hills here are short and steep, up and down all day long. Although I did 5000 feet of climbing today, I bet there wasn't a single hill over 300 feet.
There was a sign on SR 52 indicating the road ends several miles ahead. I
met a similar situation once before (7/3/96) and was able to ride through
the construction, so I decided to chance it again. Unfortunately, this
time a bridge was missing across the river, and from my conversation with
the bridge construction workers, it looked like about a 15-mile detour to
get across. Fortunately, it was their lunch time and one of them kindly
gave me and my bike a ride across the river in their motorboat.
Transferring a bike with loaded panniers between boat and riverbank
is an interesting acrobatic challenge, but I managed it without mishap.
On the other side of the river is the old Jackson Ferry shot tower where gun balls were made in olden times by dropping globs of molten lead 150 feet into a vat of water at the bottom of a subterranean shaft. A bike path on an old railroad line runs right past. I checked out the tower, ate my PB&J lunch under a tree, and pushed on to Christianburg.
I hit 2 or 3 miles of unpaved road on SR 608. The road was well graded
though, so even on a road bike it was no problem.