Barbara Howe diary: On Sugar Mountain

This month's special recovery tip is to spend many, many hours in a car; it makes your legs feel great. Well, not really but I thought I'd try it anyway. I joined Shannon G., her brother Chris, our bikes and cases in Chris's Audi sedan for a haul from Vermont to the city where corruption and destruction spring forth, Washington DC.

Chris was a hero and drove the whole way through sun, rain and traffic, and stopping to fulfil our eating requirements. We stayed at his place in the Adams Morgan neighbourhood, enjoying scrumptious dining and urban cycling. One evening I took a metro train ride to the furthest reaches of the orange line to visit my Auntie in Annapolis. On the way home some of the District's finest inhabitants sat behind me and engaged in a rather loud inebriated and nearly violent argument. Of course they stayed on until my stop.

Chris played hooky from work for a day trip to Gambrill State Park near Frederick, Maryland. The trails there are super fun with lots of rocks, some roots and a few riders (mid-week). I must have forgotten how to ride a bike because in the first ten minutes I hit the ground twice and drew blood.

Thursday afternoon we flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, and met my father at the airport. Two hours later we were in Boone, North Carolina, enjoying a meal with the rest of the team. We then drove in the fog and dark up an ever narrowing gravel road to our home for the weekend, the Hilltop Hideaway Cabin. The name says it all, the cabin was at the end of the road at the very top of a mountain and in the morning the view was breathtaking.

To read the complete diary entry, click here.