8/15-We’re Not in the Midwest Anymore!

At least as far as the terrain goes! It was a hilly one today! Oh it was flat for the first 18 miles from Hill Lake to Chillicothe. I finished the Painted Creek Trail in Chillicothe.

A little foggy

This part of the trail had just been fixed

Hopewell Mound Group

The Cathedral Mound

Scioto River in Chillicothe.

Since Chillicothe wasn’t that far into the day, I waited until I was on the other end to get a snack and resupply. There wouldn’t be anything else until almost the end in Zaleski, some 50+ miles later. I saw a Tim Hortons. I stopped and had “real” breakfast (my banana and protein cookie were just to tide me over). They even had chocolate milk!

There was a Dollar General next door. I picked up some stuff for dinner. As I was leaving town, I saw a country market. I stopped there too and got another banana for breakfast tomorrow. 

Finally I was back out in the countryside. Today was more road riding than I’ve had for awhile. And, as I said, it was hilly. At times I felt like I was at home. 

Nice country road, going up!

What are those bumps over there? Oh, they are hills!

The route went through the Tar Hollow State Forest. Now I really felt like I was riding the D-Line through Capital Forest at home!

There was even a creek running next to the road

I don’t think we have these weird caterpillars though.

Okay, this climb was like the D-Line off Bordeaux. It hit 17%! I walked.

Pretty steep!

Uh oh!

The nice thing was, at the top, there was an equally steep descent! I think the descent was longer than the climb!

The other thing that was nice about today was the curves. No super long straight roads. 

I said, as I passed, “You’ve got a line behind you!”

Surprise gravel number 1

Nice scenery!

I came to a second surprise gravel section. This one definitely showed evidence of flooding.

Pretty high water still

Very wet road. 

Then I came to this mess. 

The only way around it was through the flooded ditch

Ah…soaking wet shoes again!

I had another climb, then a nice downhill into Zaleski. 

I stopped at the Moonville Market and got a snack. I asked the guy how far the state park was. He said three miles. Then I said, “I suppose it’s up a steep hill.” He said it wasn’t. 

I got on the Moonville Rail Trail. Let’s just say it’s not the most improved trail I’ve been on.

Walked around this one. 

“Muscle Power Only”

Just mostly grass

Then sandy stuff, but firm from the rain.

I got off at a “trailhead” to go to Hope Lake State Park. The camping area was actually 5 miles, and it WAS up a long steep hill, the longest hill I had climbed all day! Dude at the market lied!

I went into the office. The camp host was there talking to the  boss lady. I asked about a tent site for the night. Glen, the camp host asked if my bike was dead, thinking it was an e-bike. I told him it was not an e-bike, and I had pedaled it up the hill. He asked where I was riding, how long, and all that. I told him. When I asked how much I owed for the campsite, Glen pulled out his cash and said, “I’m paying for your site tonight!” How nice was that! He had the gal put me on a site close to the showers, and restrooms. Showers are free in Ohio State Parks!

I was kind of hoping on this, Day 64, that I would ride 64 miles. Then I could say I rode 64 miles on Day 64, and I’m 64 years old. Alas, I only rode 59.8 miles. Oh well, they were definitely not Midwest miles today!

Day 64 and 11 days until I arrive in DC

8/14-I Found the Blue Sky!

It took me all day, but I finally found it!

Almost forgot what it looked like!

Here’s a couple of photos from Dayton. My hotel was right next to the ball park. 

I was somewhat nervous about today. I really didn’t want to have another day in the rain. I was concerned because my dry bag isn’t keeping my quilt dry. I came up with a solution! I put the quilt and my pillow in the dry bag. Then I put the dry bag in a plastic bag, then in a thin plastic trash bag from the hotel. I secured it closed with the Titan strap I picked up off the side of the road in Montana, and then buckled into the harness on my handlebar. Knowing my quilt would stay dry eased my mind about the rain. 

When I left the hotel, it was actually not raining! I knew I couldn’t go down by the river where the route was, so I just rode straight across town until I intersected with the Creekside Trail, and the route. After awhile, there was even a bike lane! 

I was also a little nervous about a trail that had “creek” in the name. Would there still be flooding, or flood damage? Turns out, it was fine. Almost all the time, the trail was well above the creek. Plus, the creek was not that flooded. 

All good in the underpasses

This was a maybe a river, but notice it’s not a torrent. 

Things had really settled down, even though there was some rain overnight. 

I stopped in Xenia for a snack break at a BP station. I’d had chocolate milk at breakfast, so I just did a good ol’ sugar dump of Dr. Pepper and a honey bun. I saw these signs at the trailhead. 

I followed the orange one (the USBR 50 part). Not going to Columbus.

I think maybe my friend Stephanie did the red one back in June with Bebeth. 

After Xenia, the trail was called the Jamestown Connector Path. You can guess where it went. It continued through Jamestown for a bit, then it was out to the road until Washington Courthouse. 

Another one of those one lane sly dog roads.

Yes, the town is called Washington Courthouse!

By now I was almost at 50 miles, and wanting another snack. Right at a turn, there was a gas station. Perfect! Refueled for the last 20 miles, I worked my way through WA CH (for short). I have to say, it was a weird route through the town! For a moment, I thought I was just going in a circle!

Bike path

Oh, and here it felt like I was riding in someone’s backyard!

Eventually, I came to the final trail for the day, the Painted Creek Trail. There’s that word “creek” again, but it too was fine. Turns out they painted the creek…brown.

I would have gone with a more exciting color…

Nice covered bridge

I think this is one of Phil’s cousins. I saw three of these groundhogs today.

The final town was Frankfort (yes, there is Frankfort, Illinois AND Frankfort, Ohio…there’s much more to the one in Illinois). Since I didn’t need to go into the town, I just stayed on the trail for another couple of miles to the turnoff for Lake Hill campground. There’s operative word for this campground is “hill”. It was a steep climb! I had to ask where the office was. It is in a round house! I talked with Julie, the owner. It’s $40 per night. She asked cash or card. I said let me see how much cash I have. I only had $35. She said that was fine, and she even gave me a dollars worth of quarters for the shower (I only needed one).

This site had a platform. I figure if it rains, I’ll be good!

Today was 71 miles, and I finished at about 2:30. Tomorrow there will be some climbing, but I only have 60 miles. Now I’m under 600 miles to go!

Day 64 11 riding days to go (there is a cushion day, so 12 to DC).

8/13-Two Months to Get to State #10

What a difference today! I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s still massive amounts of water everywhere, but at least the sun was out!

Nice day!

Still a lot of water!

Nice to see you again, shadow!

Leaving Richmond, right away I had the final four climbs for this section. I was not at all disappointed to be going up because up meant away from chances of flooded roads. 

Soon I was back out in the countryside. 

Some final Indiana agriculture.

I rolled into New Paris. I’d been seeing signs for Amish horse and buggy. Coming toward me was a woman and her kids. 

This is zoomed in a bit because I always feel a little weird taking their photo. 

The final climb was coming out of New Paris. The route turned onto what in most places would have been a gravel road. It was a single lane of rough pavement. I thought, oh this is a sly dog for sure! Then I saw this.

Why did the fox cross the road?

I popped back out onto the regular road. I was riding along when I noticed this sign for an Ohio Century Farm. Wait? Am I in Ohio? When did that happen?

I stopped and pulled out my phone. Apparently, I had crossed into Ohio BEFORE New Paris! Geez! Would it kill them to put a sign up? Okay, so now I’m in Ohio, state number 10! 

I was getting kinda hungry. I saw there was a place in Verona. It was about 8 miles away. When I got there, the place on my map was this.

No snack here!

I continued on to the Wolf Creek Trail. 

There was a sign that said “Pete’s Station 2 miles”. I would stop there and eat the little donuts I’d been carrying for awhile. When I arrived there was a gentleman getting ready to get back on his bike. 88 year old Lesley rides nearly everyday. We chatted for awhile. He took my photo, and I took his. 

Nice to meet you, Lesley!

After he left, I sat down and ate my crumbled donuts. Pete’s Station was named after Peter Smith, a guy who was instrumental in bringing the Wolf Creek Trail into existence.

I continued on the trail into Brookville. 

Brookville depot

I saw an ice cream shop right off the trail. I decided some ice cream would be a good addition to the donuts that were already in my stomach. I was right!

Moose Tracks

The Wolf Creek Trail does what the Nickel Plate and Cardinal Greenway trails did. It ends, but after some road riding, picks back up again. The road part (even though it was USBR 50) was not the best. 

Onto the road now

When I returned to the other part of the Wolf Creek Trail, I could tell this part didn’t get much attention.

There were overgrown bushes blocking the trail in places, and the surface was not nearly as nice. But that was just a couple of miles worth. Then it got back to a nicer trail. 

At this point, I was basically in Dayton. The trail brought me to the Miami River, and the Great Miami River Trail. Of course, the river was still pretty high. 

So much debris up against the bridge

Debris from where the trail was likely under water

I came to where my Garmin said to turn left.

That’s the trail

Uh, I don’t think so! I rerouted up to the road, and discovered there was a higher up path. I followed that, noticing that I couldn’t even see the path along the river. 

It’s down there somewhere!

Since my hotel was closer than the route, I just routed to the hotel. So, I didn’t actually finish Segment 5 of the route. Tomorrow, I will start the final segment called “Steel”. That means I have just 639 miles to go!

I’m at a rather nice hotel (it was close to the route). The desk guy put me in a corner room. 

Fancy!

Since my plan is to camp tomorrow night, I thought I should take my quilt out and give it some fresh air. The top of it is wet. I knew the bottom of the bag was not keeping water out so I had put a plastic bag in the bottom. I guess the top is no longer waterproof either. I’ll see if I can get a bigger bag and put the whole thing in it. Looks like it’s time for a new dry bag.

62 days done…12 days to go!