Category: DC to California 2010

Sleeping in today, I barely made it out to take advantage of the continental breakfast. Apparently the lady at the front desk the night before had told everyone at the motel about my trip and so a couple of the staff came up to me to ask about it. I packed up and got on the road shortly after 11.

It was a cool, overcast day which made the riding pleasant. I headed out of town to rural roads and took those for a while. At one point I was supposed to make a turn onto a road called “lover’s lane” but missed the turn because the road wasn’t marked. It was poetic. After about 30 miles, I arrived at a small town for lunch. Most of the small towns I go through just have a place or two to eat in the middle of town, but this one had big sprawling suburban shopping centers on the outskirts of town – I was approaching Columbus.

After a lunch of average Chinese food, I had to ride on a very busy two lane highway for 3 miles, which was pretty bad. After that, though, I connected to a bike path which would lead me to a network of bike paths throughout the metropolitan area. This area is very bike friendly and I think I rode on my first bike lane of the trip today for a few miles to connect between trails.

As I’ve noticed with most cities, the people on the paths aren’t as friendly and usually don’t reciprocate the nod or wave so I gave up on those for the day. My trail eventually hit a detour which took me right through the middle of the local college, I think it was university of Ohio. Lots of cyclists. I talked to a friendly biker at a red light and got directions downtown where I could find a hotel.

I ate an average dinner and drank a lot. A pretty decent day but crappy birthday.

It’s only 217 miles to Louisville, which probably means more like 270 on a bike. I have 6 days to get there so I’ll be taking lots of short days for the next week.

Today’s mileage: 57 miles
Total: 811 miles

I wonder if I’ll ever get used to camping – I always wake up sweaty and uncomfortable. I got up at 7 today and packed up camp before hitting the road at 8:30. Stopped at a pharmacy for some supplies and ate a pretty big breakfast while planning out my route for the day. Turns out that I had gone probably 15 miles out of my way yesterday and the few miles I had ridden to get breakfast were also in the wrong direction. Oh well.

I headed over a few hills before reconnecting with the Ohio-Erie canal trail which I took for a few last miles before turning off on a connector trail to take me west. Just a couple miles into the connector trail a bridge was closed – it looked like it had burned down.

In order to get past the bridge, I had to lower my bike down a 3 foot drop then down a hill, across a stream, and back up a similar hill and ledge. It was a pretty big pain but I managed to do it somehow without having to unpack my bike.

Continuing on, I got a few drops of rain but for the most part it was just overcast and cool. Pretty good riding weather.

So far this trip I’ve had a few close calls with bike balance but today was the first time the bike actually fell. I hit a patch of deep gravel and the bike just sort of slid away under me. Somehow while the bike was falling, I managed to unclip both of my feet from the pedals, leap off and over the bike, and hit the ground running. Not sure how that worked, I guess I just have good reflexes. It took me several steps to slow to a stop, and I turned around, picked up the bike, and kept on going.

When I finish this trip I’d like to try running again. In the past year I tried running a few times but each time was a painful experience – arduous during the run followed by a couple weeks of knee pain. Maybe biking has given me the cardio and leg strength to get past these problems, but I don’t want to try until I finish the trip.

My ride today was through a beautiful part of rural Ohio and it switched between flat terrain when I was on bike paths and constant rolling hills for the rest of the time. A lot of it was amish country so sometimes cars were more patient than normal. Still got honked at twice, but at least all the dogs that tried to chase me today were chained up.

Eating meals every few hours, I just kept on churning the miles away. In total I took 3 or 4 bike paths with most of the rest of the time on rural roads, but still a fair share of miles on state highways which are my least favorite. I hope traffic on these roads dies down as I go west.

I stopped for dinner and decided to head for a campground supposedly a few miles away. However, on the bike path I met an older cyclist from the area and decided to ride with him. We wound up riding and talking for 12 or so miles until the end of the trail where he showed me the way to a place to stay, which was pretty awesome of him.

My odometer showed I had ridden 95 miles and so I was tempted to ride around town for 5 more miles to make it my first century – 100 mile day. At this point it isn’t really a question of if I can do it but rather just when my start and end points are the correct distance apart. In any case, I called it a day and got a room.

Today’s mileage: 95 miles
Total: 754 miles

Keeping with my trend of late starts, I didn’t get on the road today until after noon. I had a nice late breakfast with my aunt, uncle, and cousin before saying my goodbyes and getting a ride to downtown Cleveland.

I rode around the city for maybe half an hour and then headed for the top of the Ohio-Erie canal trail – the same one I rode on to get to Cleveland. I was originally planning on going 76 miles to a commercial campground but due to my late start I began to realize I wasn’t going to make it that far today.

The maintenance I got for my bike in Cleveland is definitely noticeable – the drivetrain of the bike is once again butter smooth like when I got it. I think the main thing might be keeping it well lubricated and clean, something I am not yet very good at.

I stopped outside Akron, OH for a very good late lunch at a Mexican restaurant. However, as soon as I got on the road again I had lost all of my energy and felt very lethargic. I found a campground closer to me than the one I had originally planned on and headed for it.

I arrived at the state park campground with plenty of time to set up camp before dark, ate a bag of trail mix, and added another flavor of clif bar to the list of ones I don’t like.

Today’s mileage: 61 miles
Total: 659 miles

Only one photo from today so here’s a photo my neighbor took of me as I was leaving on day 1:

I stayed in Cleveland for two rest days with my uncle, aunt, and (sometimes) cousin. Ate a lot of great food, got my bike looked over at a shop, and picked up supplies.

Today was my longest day of riding, and there isn’t too much to talk about because I spent most of the day just pushing the pedals.

While packing up camp, a couple different groups of people came to talk to me about my trip, and they were pretty impressed. I think I am finally making it to the point where I’m not just another person coming up the trail — instead people take me as more of a long distance touring cyclist.

I made a couple wrong turns on my way to connect to the Ohio-Erie canal, but I was always headed the right direction so it wasn’t too big of a deal. I really should get a compass though — at one point yesterday I found myself going southeast instead of northwest because I was surrounded by trees and couldn’t see the sun.

Along the trail there were a few points where I had to take detours for a few miles before connecting back to the trail, and for one of them a local cyclist was kind enough to point me in the direction of a shorter detour to save me a couple of miles.

Most of my day today was on the Ohio-Erie canal as I headed north towards a suburb of Cleveland. Towards the end of the day I connected to a parkway that was frequented by cyclists, I probably saw at least three dozen road cyclists, so all of the drivers were accustomed to it and did not get impatient or angry.

I arrived at my uncle’s house at 8:30 and ate a late dinner. I’ll be here for at least one and possibly two rest days so don’t expect too many updates.

Today’s Mileage: 90 miles
Total: 598 miles