Dan Casey

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More than 100 years ago, the wonders of the Catawba Valley were already evident to southwestern Virginians, and probably to folks far beyond.

Between parallel mountain spines that define the valley was tucked Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs. Heated mineral waters, supposedly with curative powers, were the health spa's featured attraction. Eastern Virginians flocked there to escape the heat and malaria of the summer flatlands, in part lured by patent medicine-like advertising that was popular in the day.

"No fogs or dampness; dyspepsia, hay fever, lung, heart, throat and female troubles relieved," touted one of the resort's advertising brochures from 1889. The spa gave way to a tuberculosis sanitarium in the early 20th century, where thousands of Virginians were treated for that deadly scourge, "consumption." The advent of antibiotics rendered that use mostly obsolete, and in the early 1970s the sanitarium became a state mental hospital.

But not a hell of a lot else in the area has changed.

The great green rolling swells are still there, dotted with farm tractors, cattle, milk cow and the fences that keep them. Old, small homes and cabins are tucked along Virginia 779, which parallels Catawba Creek, one of Roanoke's prime sources of drinking water. There are no tract housing developments (yet!) and weekend traffic on the dipping and curvy two-lane road remains light.

What a perfect place for a quick ride, a bunch of us weekend road warriors from Roanoke figured. So as 1999's dry summer came to close, we loaded up our road bikes and drove over Catawba Mountain.

The ride

The air was dry as John Coates, Jim Ellison, Josh Meltzer and yours truly parked our cars in the U.S. Post Office's parking lot on Va. 779 just off U.S. 311. This sun was out this Sunday afternoon and the sky was a deep blue. But everything else was green. This is one of Catawba's hallmarks: huge swells of cleared land covered by hay and other grasses, edged by evergreens and deciduous trees that climb up the mountainsides. Even the water in the creek has an emerald tone.

Dan Casey | The Roanoke Times

Virginia 779 in all its glory: narrow, winding and rolling

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• Difficulty (10-point scale, 10 is most difficult): 5. There are no mountains to climb on this one. Instead, the twisty road is steadily rolling, a series of quick ups and downs.Eight or 9 miles into the ride, you'll come to a fork in the road, with Va. 600 being marked toward the left. Bear right, continue on a couple miles to the cement plant, than backtrack to the fork and take 600. It'll bring you back to Va. 779 a mile or some from the post office.

• Getting there: From I-81 south, take exit 141. At the stop sign at the end of the ramp, take a left onto Va. 419. Go to the stoplight at the bottom of the hill and make a right onto U.S. 311. Take 311 over Catawba Mountain, and a right on Va. 779 at the bottom. The post office is right there on the right.

Our object was a quick 20-miles, most of it a loop. Mark Taylor, outdoors editor of The Roanoke Times, had described it to me. It's the cycling portion of the annual Blue Ridge Bicycle club biathlon.

The route is simple: Va. 779 north from the post office to a large cement plant; turn around, and then back on a different road, Va. 600, for the most part. It'll take you about 2 hours. That, combined with the proximity of the starting point to Roanoke (it's about 15 miles from downtown) makes it a great afternoon ride.

Notes:

Except at the very beginning, across the street from the post office, there are no stores to buy snacks or to get water, although you can always knock on a private home's door and ask for some.

The store across the street from the post office does not sell beer. (There is one, 2-3 more miles up U.S. 311, that does.)

The post office is posted with no-parking signs and warnings that you will be towed. This hasn't happened to me on the two occasions I've parked there. But both of those were Sundays when the place was closed. I'd be careful about parking there any other day of the week.

The Catawba Community Center is a few hundred more feet down Va. 779. There is public parking available there, but with warning signs that you may be towed.

Nearby churches may be more forgiving  with the use of their parking lots.