Dan Casey

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Somewhere between Boogie's Pro Wrestling Camp and the Clyde S. Angle historic country store, the road through Alleghany Springs turned up. It curved left, wound right, went over rushing streams, past a small waterfall and crossed from Montgomery County into Floyd County. The grade hardly ever let up. About three miles and 2,500 vertical feet later, I rolled up to the now-closed Clyde S. Angle store where most of my bike pals were waiting.

Boogie's Pro Wrestling Camp and Museum ("open to the public 52 Sundays a year!") is one of the attractions on this ride. It's along Virginia 637 near Alleghany Springs. "Hey Dan! What took so long?""Gee, Dan, do you think you could ride any slower?"The other guys howled.Sometimes in this job you've got to endure taunts. This day, on a 68-miler I call the Alleghany Springs Loop, most of the chiding was coming from my good pal Dick Bradshaw.

The Ride

Now closed, the Clyde S. Angle store along Va. 610 in Floyd County is a history old country store. Across the street is a monument to Clyde S. Angle erected by his wife. Here, Robin Morris and Lynn Bradshaw roll up to the other waiting cyclists. As of November 2003, this is the longest ride on this Web site. It's a hard one, folks — there is a lot of climbing. But if you take it slow (never mind Dick,) enjoy the scenery and indulge in plenty of breaks, it's eminently doable in five or six hours. Take your low gears along, if you've got them, and an energy bar or two.We started at Patrick Henry High School along Grandin Road in Roanoke, and from there made our way through Salem, then west along U.S. 11/460 to the pre-Revolutionary War hamlet of Shawsville, where we turned east, climbed Poor Mountain (the biggest in the Roanoke region) then made our way to the gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway, on which we streamed back to Roanoke like shooting stars — after a little more climbing, of course.The total climb is 3,800 feet. But because it's a loop, the laws of physics dictate that there's that much descending, too. And most of that comes gratefully at the end, when your legs are aching, your lower back is sore and you'd kill for a beer.

About Shawsville

This 2- to 3-miler that climbs the backside of Poor Mountain is the hardest part of the ride. On the surface Shawsville doesn't look like much. There's a small collection of churches, a gas station/convenience store or two, a weekend flea market, plus homes that spread out from its center. But the town, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, is fairly rich in history.The first explorers passed through the area around 1671, when about the only thing there was a stream that wound through a green grassy valley. Since the early days, this community has been attacked by Indians, inspected by George Washington and, in the 19th century, visited by thousands of seasonal cure-seekers who flocked to the healing mineral waters of two 19th century resorts, Alleghany Springs and Crockett Springs.What brought Washington to the area was Fort Vause, an 18th century frontier outpost that the then-general inspected during the French and Indian War. He called it "a place of great importance." You'll have to take that at face value because centuries later it's not exactly clear why. But the natives apparently agreed: they sacked the fort and destroyed it in 1756.

Notes

Dan Casey | The Roanoke Times

Now closed, the Clyde S. Angle store along Va. 610 in Floyd County is a history old country store. Across the street is a monument to Clyde S. Angle erected by his wife. Here, Robin Morris and Lynn Bradshaw roll up to the other waiting cyclists.

Related

Map

• Map of the ride

The Route

• Start at Patrick Henry High School.
• Go straight across Grandin Road on Avenel Ave. SW.
• Turn right on Belleville Road SW, left on Brandon Ave. SW and follow it for slightly more than 3 miles, across Virginia 419.
• Turn right on E. Riverside Drive and follow it for about a mile. It intersects with Colorado Street (stay straight across Colorado) and continues along the river to Eddy Avenue.
• Make a left on Eddy, then a right on Piedmont, which brings you back to Riverside.
• Follow Riverside until it ends in a T-intersection on Duiguids Lane, and make a right.
• Take Duiguids across the tracks to West Main/U.S. 460, and make a left (west).
• Follow 460 to Shawsville, (which is about 7 miles past Dixie Caverns).
• In Shawsville, make a left on 637 just past the Citgo.
• Follow it to 653 (when 637 veers off to the left, stay straight) and begin climbing the backside of Poor Mountain.
• Follow 653 to 610 where the climb ends and you'll find the closed Clyde S. Angle store. There's a monument to him across the street.
• Take a left on 610 and follow it to U.S. 221.Cross U.S. 221 on 610 and go about 2 miles until you see the parkway across a field on your right.
• Cross the field and head north (left) on the parkway. You'll climb gently for 2 to 3 miles before you start a rip-roaring descent down Bent Mountain.
• When the parkway flattens out, just before the ascent up Buck Mountain, you can get off at the path under overpass above Back Creek.
• This puts you in the Starkey area, from which there many ways back to Patrick Henry.
• Or, you can make the 1-mile climb up Buck Mountain and follow the parkway a couple more miles to the Roanoke turnoff at Fishburn Parkway, hang a left and come back through town via Mill Mountain.

This is not a ride for the faint of heart, or someone riding with an 11-23 cassette. The total vertical gain is 3,800 feet. Most of that is done on 637 a few miles south of Shawsville, as you climb the backside of Poor Mountain. But there's also some climbing to do on the parkway, before you get to the 6-mile descent down Bent Mountain.There's a convenience store along U.S. 11/460 on the right soon after you turn off Duiguids. There's also a convenience store/Citgo on the right side of 460 in Shawsville. Load up with liquids here, because there's a long climb ahead.There's another store at the intersection of 610 and 221. This is the last one on the ride.