Day 14: Portage Lakes State Park, OH – Mt. Vernon, OH

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