Friday, July 2, 2010

Day 1: Yorktown to Jamestown (21 miles)

July 1st, sunny in morning, mostly sunny in afternoon, beautiful weather

Today is the actual starting day of my journey. When I checked with the hotel manager around 10am, my bike arrived.
The manager was very nice to allow me putting my bike together in their lobby. We chatted a little bit. I promised that I will send them postcard when I finish my trip! All the bike fine tuning, especially for the brakes, took me lots of time. It was almost 1pm when my bike was ready.

There is a Walmart within walking distance from the hotel. So I went there to do some grocery shopping. Then I took a taxi from Walmart to the Yorktown beach. I was lucky enough to find a mini-van type taxi, otherwise my bike just won't fit in. The taxi ride was around $25. It was pretty reasonable.

Yorktown is such a beautiful area right next to the York River. Before I started my ride, I enjoyed a late lunch at the beach. Then I dipped the rear tire of my bike into the York River.
I went up to the Yorktown Victory Momentum and took a few pictures there.
It was almost 5pm, I met another biker who just finished his journey! (Hey I didn't get your name. Do drop me a message if you are reading this!) I gained a lot of motivation after talking to him.

Since I started in the evening, I followed the short route suggested by Ikenberry to Jamestown. It was an absolutely amazing ride along rivers,
into the wood, and over a few creeks;
the sunset was so beautiful.
The 21 miles route was almost flat. I easily reached Jamestown right after sunset --- when the sky was still bright. Unfortunate, the Jamestown Beach Campground described in Ikenberry was closed!

I went up to the ferry harbor and asked a few people in cars. They didn't know any campsite close by. One couple was extremely nice and offered me to go across the river and camp in their backyard. I worried that it may delay my second day schedule so I didn't go. (But, thank you so much! Good people are everywhere.)

I pedalled around the area and ask more people, including construction workers and local kids. They didn't know any campsite that I could reach within half hour neither. Instead of riding in dark (and kill myself), I decided to camp at the Jamestown Beach Park. The park was actially close after sunset but I was able to get in by just walking around the gate. I finished the leftover from lunch and setup my tent quietly...

The beach was small but beautiful. And the night sky was dark enough that I saw lots of stars --- kind of remind me Arizona (I went to college and grad school there). I didn't use the Galileoscope. Instead, I took out my fisheye lens and took a couple wide angle pictures.

It was an enjoyable day, time to bed. Good night everyone.

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