I'm biking across the country

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

Back on the road today, I set my sights on Cleveland which would be my next stop. I knew I wouldn’t make it in one day but I wanted to make a fair amount of progress.

The day started with climbing up the same hills I had ridden before getting my bike troubles two days ago. I mapped out a route of side roads I could take instead of the main road, and those were a much better alternative.
Once reconnected to the main road, I got honked at a few times. I don’t really understand why drivers are so antsy about me taking up a full lane on a 4 lane road, just go around. Once I got out of town, traffic died down but I faced a pretty big climb that I had to stop and rest halfway through. It depends on the grade of course but it seems I can’t do hills with more than 300 feet of constant climbing without having to stop and rest. Hopefully I’ll get better about that. With all the hills I did manage to break my top speed twice – first 41.2 then 42.8 mph.

I made it to the Ohio countryside and the hills continued but were more manageable. I didn’t find anywhere to eat lunch so I just stopped at a bench and ate a bag of gorp. Kind of amazing that those little bags have 900 calories, but that’s exactly what I want.

I continued through the Ohio countryside and got chased by dogs a couple times. My current strategy against dogs is to dismount and keep walking. They usually keep barking that way but don’t get too close. I haven’t had to use my pepper spray yet but I moved it closer to my right hand in case I need it.

Fuck dogs.

I connected to an 11 mile bike path which was a nice break from the traffic but it went by too quickly and before I knew it I was back on state highways with 6 inch shoulders. At one point, the passenger in a red pickup truck threw what looked like a biscuit at me. He missed. But America, if you are trying to make me not hate you, you’re doing it wrong.

Fuck people.

Not to say i had a terrible day or anything, it was still pretty good. I connected to the Ohio-Erie canal towpath for 5-10 miles before heading to a campground for the night, where the attendant was amazed I had biked there, since they typically just get RVs. It was kind of expensive but they had showers so I took one and called it a day.

Today’s mileage: 82 miles
Total: 508 miles

After all the terribleness of yesterday, I arrived at my motel to find that my chafing had worsened, so I decided to stay here and do nothing for a day.