Biking Across the U.S (hopefully)
Kalamazoo - south haven - Zeeland 74
From Kalamazoo I was pretty set on doing a shorter 50 mile day, and shooting straight to my next destination - Holland, MI. Somehow though, the woman's words a couple days ago of 'always go to the lakes' stuck out in my mind... so I felt like I had to hit a small town more south on the Lake Michigan shore called South Haven. This would give me more precious time along the shore, and in the end what's a couple handful of miles? Plus there was a sweet trail that led directly from Kzoo to the shore. Riding along the trail I totally misjudged the amount of rain that fell while I was soundly sleeping in the Kalamazoo crack den. Coming to a stop for a road crossing I completely misjudged a mud puddle and slide about 10 feet through it on my shoulder. Burned a hole in my pannier, frame bag, and elbow. But, the extra miles and slight stumble were totally worth it for the shoreline vista AND the tailwind I got for the next 30ish miles. Crashed with a dude named Jonathan who has done more than 17,000 miles of bike touring across the U.S. Pretty awesome to take a break and hear his stories. When he caught a glimpse of my bike I apologized that it's not really a traditional touring bike, and not a great bike in general. 'Dude' he said 'it's perfect - it's the bike that's going to take you across the country'. Knock on wood for that one... but I guess any bike is perfect if it does what it's supposed to.
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Hillsdale - Kalamazoo 72
Holy smokes, so many farms. I mean I get it... it's Michigan/the Midwest, but come on! It was mainly backroads and highway riding that interworked into a grid. So whenever a paved road turned gravel it was pretty easy to find an alternative route. For about 5 miles of the route I got to ride an almost abandoned road due to a couple "road closed" signs. I rode in the middle, on the right side, did some zigzags... and pulled off to water some trees wherever I wanted. It was awesome. I think when I get back to Durham I'm going to invest in a couple of those signs and put them up whoever I feel like riding. People didn't second guess them... they just turned around. I followed a winding path that ran right along the Kalamazoo river into, well, Kalamazoo. I found the cheapest motel since it was storming all night. Out and about on town I learned it's totally a crack/prostitution flop house. I woke up the next morning alive (thankfully). Toledo - Hillsdale 74
Crossed into Michigan early in the morning and... farms, farms, and more farms. If this is what this part of the Midwest is like, I'm terrified of what happens past Lake Michigan. Better make sure I have some good podcasts/book on tape handy. I stopped in at a coffee shop and asked the woman's advice on which route to take. Looking at the map she said "oh, if you go that way there are lakes. Always go to the lakes." I went towards the lakes. After a pitstop at a used book store specializing in the Wiccan, mysticism, and occult genera (no joke, but I did find a Steinbeck I haven't read) I ended up in a campsite outside of Hillsdale, MI. Apparently there was a 'do not drink' ban placed on water, but my lovely camp neighbors gave me a couple bottles of water. It's hard to convey sarcasm on this, but they were a little terrifying... and I'd already drank a water bottle full of it. But I got my bike cleaned and greased down, so there's that! Huron - Toledo 75
The days definitely run together on this trip. At the end of the day yesterday I kept checking the weather, getting disheartened because it was showing the exact same 10-20mph headwinds for the next day. I couldn't figure out why the weather would be the exact same. Finally, after rechecking it a million times I realized I was reviewing that same days' weather.... so of course it would be the exact same. If you look at today's weather thinking it's tomorrow, it's going to always be the same as today. Pretty soon I'm not going to know what date, day, or month it is. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that different, but I got to hop on a pretty sweet paved trail that took me halfway to Toledo. On the trail a guy named Alan caught up to me (slowed down for me) and chatted for most of the trail. Definitely helped keep my mind off the wind and log some quick miles. I think from here on out, any non-trail path I take is going to almost exclusively be through farmland, which is only going to exasperate the issue of days/time running together. Toledo is a little... rough... so thankfully I had a place to lay my head at a dude named Larry's house. Great guy who hiked some of the Appalachian Trail and (which I'm pretty jealous of) bikes some of the Natchez Trace trail, a paved parkway that goes from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN. But I guess I have to focus on this trip first. Bratenahl - South of Huron 58
Woke up early to miss Cleveland traffic and head along the shores of Lake Erie. Started off stoked to hit highway 6, my old stomping grounds from my Lake Erie/Ontario tour a couple years ago. That faded pretty quick as a stiff and blustery headwind kicked in, making miles a little tough. Everyone talked about the prevailing western winds during summer months... but since I have a limited vocabulary It went over my head. I ended up working my way inland after 35ish miles along the lake, hoping it'd be a little calmer. It wasn't. But, the good thing about traveling west is the sun is on your back in the morning and really only up in your business towards the end of the ride. Ended up finding a campsite and calling it after another 20. For every headwind there's gotta be a tailwind on another day.... that's the only way karma works. Lisbon - Bratenahl 89
Sally got me all situated out the door with a pannier full of homemade cookies, and even biked a couple miles up the trail the see me off. Reminds of Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers) quote... "When I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say "look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping". The people are the best part of this trip. After the last couple climbs to get past the Appalachian hills (Ohio foothills?) I got on state route 14, which had a huge shoulder and took me straight to the trail to Cleveland. When biking a ton of miles in semi rural areas I learned quickly that this whole world is one big bathroom. Side of an old barn... bathroom. Weird turn off that may lead to a farmhouse... bathroom. Middle of a flat road with no cars... definitely a bathroom. Only exceptions are places of worship and graveyards. Random port o potties or side restrooms... not a bathroom, they usually smell and are gross. I got onto the towpath and hike/bike trail leading into Cleveland, which though beautiful in parts (went through Cuyahoga Valley Nat. Park) was a little confusing. At one point I took the wrong trail and cut back on a highway thinking it would lead to the path I needed. While crossing a 300ish foot bridge spanning the valley I looked down and saw this small paved trail running along a river... the path that was supposed to 'link up' with the road I was on. Multiple swear words were said. After getting situated I rode this awesome old canal trail most of the way into the outskirts of Cleveland, then through rougher south Cleveland, and ended at the BEAUTIFUL lakeside house of the sister of our family friends. Again, it's the people who make this trip. Racoon Creek Park, PA - Lisbon, OH 41
Yikes, it was a painful 40 miles. I kept turning on Google map's terrain view to see how bad the next hill would be. But, I have zero clue how to read a terrain map... so really I just turned my music up and put the bike in some lower gears. Thankfully, because I am such a strapping young buck, I only had to put it in granny gear a couple times. Fingers crossed I'm out of the Appalachians/valley regions for good after tomorrow. Have you ever watched two Star Wars movies, drank coffee all day, gotten a tour of an entire Ohio county, AND baked oatmeal raisin cookies all in one day? Well this dude has. I stayed with Sally, a retired school bus driver who makes woven cane chairs as a side biz. Once the Doppler radar showed a full day of rain and thunderstorms she graciously let me stay another day, dry and inside. Pretty perfect way to spend the day with some tired legs. Connellsville - Racoon Creek Park 85
Holy hecking heafty hilly hills. My legs are pretty shot. The day was a pretty pretty hot and a big blur. On other long trips I'd have fantasies of if food - just plates of steak, pasta, or pasteries. Now I'm occupied by images of the flats along Lake Erie and the leveled roads of Michigan. I still have another two days of north-westish travel before I can head due west. Even the road up to Racoon Creek State Park was a mile climb. And I hate raccoons... if I see one I'm going to slap it in the face. Just kidding, I'm going to hide in my tent and zip it up real tight. Frostburg - Connellsville 75
Didn't tend to my rainfly very well since it wasn't supposed to rain overnight... which it did, so woke up to some wet gear. I guess my bike got an extra cleaning. From yesterday into this morning the climb was a steady gain, thankfully spread out over many miles. It still wasn't super fun. Whenever I had something hard, difficult, or stressful to do my mom would say 'you just gotta do it'. I know it sounds like the Nike slogan, but she meant it as; whatever is facing you, just get it done. You know you have to do it and there's no other choice. That's how I look at these hills... just gotta do them. Since the start of the C&O trail and the GAP trail I've seen a billion animals. Turtles, snakes, rabbits, deer, turkey, badgers, peacocks (don't know why), chipmunks, cats, probs a million other wildlife... and now a bear. I'd just gotten past the marker for the Mason-Dixon Line and saw a silhouette come on the trail. First thoughts were 'that's a big dude'. When I realized it was a bear I thankfully had a little bit of distance, so I turned my bike in the other direction in case it charged or something. I only saw half of The Revenant, but my guess is the second half wasn't him and the bear becoming friends. I then just started singing at the top of my lungs, because that's the advice my dad gave when we were kids. Or it was just his ploy to get me to do something instead of sitting in the middle of the trail asking to be carried. The bear came back on the trail and stared at me for a couple seconds, then went back into the woods. I was singing Rocky Racoon by the Beatles, so I guess the bear just has bad taste in music. Or maybe he isn't cultured, which I imagine would be hard to be if you lived in the woods. I sped by the spot where I saw it as fast as I could, and my riding shorts were still dry. Pretty awesome day overall. Sunny and right by the Youghiogheny River. Passed over probably a million bridges and through half a million tunnels. Great day overall and they have some hiker/biker camping shelters in Connellsville park. Sweet deal. Cumberland - Frostburg 17
Hotel rooms are the best, and this one had a continental breakfast which was amazing. Not necessarily the food, but the fact that there's as much of it as you want. I totally grabbed stuff for later. The rain continued in the morning, and for whatever reason they let me have a late checkout of 2pm. So with a ton of time to kill until the rain let off, I decided it'd be a good idea to clean my bike... in the hotel shower. Makes sense right? Everything gets washed down. Nope. Not only was there three days of mud caked on the whole thing from the rough trail, every bike has a ton of chain grease that gets all over everything. So after the initial mud got washed down I was left with a plastic tub covered in chain lube that won't come off with a towel. So of course I was freaking out about getting charged to replace the whole tub. I spent the next half hour using my pot scraper soaked in chain degreaser with intermittent shower flushes to get it all out, and it still wasn't perfect. But no call from the Ramada yet. Once the rain let off I made a meager 17 mile uphill trek to Frostburg, MD. It was a steepish climb and will continue to be for a handful more miles, my legs were beat from the last two days, and the next camping spot wasn't for another 30~ miles. Before my last trips my mom would tell me to be smart and be safe. I've proven not to always be the former... so I guess I'll be the later and call it a short day. Best part about the town is a $5 all you can eat pizza place. |
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