Day 17: Hopewell VA to Yorktown VA. THE END!
Onward to the Atlantic! We had about 100km to cover today, and we wanted everyone to be at the terminus by about 2:30, so an early-ish start with knives down at 8am. The first 11 miles were a reversal of yesterday's last 11 miles. Oh, the things we do to put a roof over our heads. Some women didn't feel the need to ride that, and "took a bump" in the van. Their decision may also have been influenced by the fact that it was drizzling rain as we left the hotel. I was a little bit more cautious on the metal grated surface of the bridge today and walked that part. At the end of the 11 miles, we turned right onto the Virginia Capital Trail once again. It was really a lovely bike trail. Hardly any bumps caused by tree roots growing underneath. No pot holes or obstacles. We rode this for the next 30 miles. What a nice mental break from shoulder-less roads.
As is the tradition on these rides, Chef Sue manned the SAG vehicle for the day and gave both of our marvelous SAGs the chance to ride on this final day. Many of the riders were fairly close to each other throughout the day. Some of the usual suspects were well ahead, but the rest of us didn't get too spread out.
If I thought I saw a lot of historical plaques yesterday, there were even more today! In some cases they were four or five plaques deep. Just too many stories to tell! It was a short commute from the end of the bike trail to the Colonial National Historic Parkway. That was also a pretty easy ride. The surface was a rather bumpy aggregate/chip seal finish, but it was quite wide and traffic was light. Again - a great mental break after what we've been riding for three weeks.
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| I'm pretty sure I took a picture at the same place on the Atlantic Coast tour |
We made a detour in the historic town of Williamsburg. We spent a day here on the Atlantic Coast Tour so I didn't feel the need to look around. It's the type of place where you really need to spend a day or two.
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| The Governor's Palace |
After Williamsburg we headed back to the Parkway and continued on to Yorktown and the Yorktown Victory Monument. My apologies to all of the other tourists who couldn't take a decent picture of the monument as our celebration went on for some time. I was on a bit of a mission towards the end and didn't stop for photos. There were some nice beach areas and lots of views out to the water on both sides of the parkway. The last few days the water levels everywhere have seemed rather high. Probably remnants of Hurricane Ian.
The fellow in the upper left in the above photo is a photographer from the local paper. They also sent out a reporter. We'll see if we make the news..........
We are staying at a hotel in Newport News tonight, so Cy and Sue had to load up all the bikes. We filled the van, the SAG, and one private vehicle and off we went. I'm always happy to just hand back the rental bike at the end of the tour and not have to deal with getting it back to Canada. Once again, the bike gave me some mechanical issues but riding Chef Sue's bike for the last three days worked out just fine.
It didn't feel to me like a terribly big accomplishment. Maybe because my other "epics" - Southern Tier, Atlantic Coast, and Sierra Cascades - were full end-to-end journeys all in one go. This one was 4 parts spread out over 5 years and I missed the third section. It probably meant more to those 7 riders who were able to complete all 4 parts over the last 5 years. Satisfying, but not huge.
Stats for the day:
Distance: 62.84 miles / 101.1 km
Elevation (Garmin): 1639' up, 1668' down / 500m up, 528m down
Elevation (RWGPS): 699m up / 708m down
Weather: Once again the temperature ranged from 9C to 12C. We started out in the drizzle, which progressed to a bit of rain. Then it stopped, then it drizzled again. The sun is supposed to start shining again tomorrow..... At least we missed the worst of the hurricane. Pretty strong and cool winds, but thankfully mostly a tailwind.
Ole! Ole! Ole!
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