Indiana Dunes and beyond

I had to be out of the firehouse before shift change at 7am. I woke up and my cell phone said 7:11am. I freaked, tried to figure out why the guys didn't wake me up, and got packed quickly. I left the room and they informed me that it was really 6:11am. A relief but have I said how much I dislike AT&T?

Kroger was still closed, so I went to another grocery store on my way out of town. The grocery store workers thought that it was really far away for a bicyclist. I think it was about 2 miles. Lesson learned: Don't trust advice, especially estimated distances, from people that don't bicycle.

I was glad that I hadn't tried to make it anywhere else because there were remnants of debris that had been cleaned up during the night.














I kept looking at it, doubting its existence. It's real.

I rolled into the Indiana Dunes State Park and there were signs stating that the campgrounds were full. I decided to take a hike and figure out what I was going to do. A relaxing but quite strenuous (sand is hard to hike in, especially up hill) hike through the oak forest and then along the beach.




A view from the beach to the dunes. Those hills are all sand.



The dunes move and cover up a forest. Sometimes the sands move and the former forest is revealed.





Chicago in the distance.











I decided that I had enough time and energy to make it to Chicago, so I headed out. The visitors center gave me a bicycling map of northern Indiana that gave me a visual to my Google directions. Bike paths from the Indiana Dunes to South Chicago and then a short road ride to the Lakefront Trail. I got to Chicago by the time that I said I would.
















I passed a 15.5 mile marker and thought "This city is massive."

Trying to keep up with the blog

Tomorrow I go to Madison. I have a hard time sitting down and working on the computer when it's nice outside. I'm having fun exploring.

More of Indiana than I've seen before

I don't think I really ever stopped in Indiana (except possibly a rest area) before this trip.

After a good night in Monroeville, I headed in to Fort Wayne to see about my bottom bracket, which had started making some noise the day before and I assumed was a little loose. I was excited to ride the Rivergreenway bike paths into downtown, but about 2 miles in the trail was closed for another year to expand the path network. Unfortunately I had to ride along the roads. Quickly I understood why the bike paths were necessary, no berms, skinny roads with no place for bicycles and slightly impatient automobile drivers. Fort Wayne is not a bike friendly place.

Bottom bracket declared DOA and was replaced. Thanks to the Summit City Cycles mechanics for changing out the BB and letting me hang out and learn.

A few more errands, including a jaunt to strip mall land to replace my cell phone, which stopped holding a charge a few days before. I have to say that I'm not a fan of AT&T, not only for their strip mall stores, but also because I've gone through many dead zones already.

A late start out of town and then a flat tire (3rd one), and finally when I really started bicycling I made good time but there wasn't much time left in the day and I was trying to make it as far as possible before the dark descended. A little more than an hour before the sun we went down I stopped into a gas station along the road and asked about camping possibilities. They suggested the state park. As I was finishing my snack, a woman stopped, having overheard my asking about camping, and suggested another possibility. It was close to the state park, so I headed off to see if it would work out. I had just started up the road when she came back and said that I could camp in her side yard, drew me a map to her house and formally introduced herself. I ended up spending a lovely evening with Anita and Jeff Krider.














Thank you, Jeff and Anita, for your wonderful hospitality!

A bit of garden meditation (weeding) in the morning and then off towards the Indiana Dunes. A hot, humid and sunny day, corn, soy and wheat fields, a few more hills than I thought Indiana had, and Amish and Mennonite farmers.



A sight I had never seen, really large green bales. Later I passed a flat bed truck with some stacked on the back.
















A really random sight near a grain elevator.






Some other highlights from the road: A random Amish or Mennonite produce farm from which I bought some green beans and fields of mint among corn fields (Just imagine the scent on the wind. I couldn't convert it to a picture.)

I was racing against a front coming from the west. A few miles outside of La Porte, someone stopped by and told me that the front was coming in less than an hour, enough for me to get to La Porte but not to the Indiana Dunes.

I got to the library right when the storm hit. I guess the tornado sirens had just gone off so we sat in the basement and waited for the storm to pass. Thanks to the librarians who allowed my bike to come inside.

As we were waiting, I was figuring that I would be stuck in La Porte for the night. I talked with some of the librarians and they said that a second storm was coming. They suggested for me to spend the night at the Relay for Life.

After the storm passed, I wandered around trying to get some groceries, but the Kroger was closed from a power outage. I had passed a Chinese buffet a couple of doors down, so I went back. I really wanted to write a twitt at that time "eating lukewarm food in a dark chinese buffet, stuck in la porte, hmm what to do".

I ended up at Relay for Life, which had moved from the track into the high school. Quite a carnival atmosphere. Another crazy moment: Watching cloggers in khaki shorts and dark purple t-shirts tap dance to pop songs like Beyonce's Single Ladies. Not so smooth.

I went down to the fire station right when the second storm hit. They had no power but they put me up in a room.

Goodbye to Ohio. Hello to Indiana.

The last leg of Ohio was the hardest. I encountered my first serious headwinds.
I started singing to the wind.

W-I-N-D
You're blowing at me
pushing me in the wrong direction...

I felt like I would stop and then start moving backwards if I stopped pedaling. I questioned my choice of a westerly route, but really I had to just keep pedaling.


















A celebratory snack at the state line. I thought Indiana didn't know how to welcome people into their state. I just had to go a bit further.


















A couple of miles outside of Monroeville, IN, my destination for the night. I hit 1,000 miles of bicycling!!!














Monroeville, IN. I had to stop there because I had read about the city park pavilion being available for cross-country bicycle tourists. It's true! Warren met me there after I checked in at the library. A couple from Chicago was staying over on their 2nd day of a trip from Indiana to the east, possibly Vermont or beyond. A German guy was also staying over on his 3-month cross country trip. It was great to connect with other bicycle tourists since I haven't passed another bicycle tourist since the Great Allegheny Passage.

Go West through Ohio

From the Hocking Hills, I went northwest to Columbus. The relative flat land was a welcome respite from the up and down.







Unfortunately I missed the sermon.








It was also my introduction to fields of wheat, corn and soy.







Columbus offered a day of respite and a brief visit with friends, Beth, Aaron and Dustin. Forecasts of serious thunderstorms made me question going on, but alas I rode out to under cloudy skies with a brief visit to the Park of Roses.














Some great people at the Rushsylvania Volunteer Fire Department let me fill up my water bottles and advised me on a more bicycle friendly route, not through Lima.








I ended up at Indian Lake State Park for the night.

Hocking Hills

As I was biking through the Hocking Hills, I ran across Etta's Lunchbox Cafe and Museum. Yep, a lunchbox museum, a pretty fascinating display of lunchboxes through time. I learned that in the early 1980s the Reagan administration declared metal lunchboxes weapons and that's when the plastic ones started coming out. The cafe and museum are in this old building that has a grain elevator from when it was along the railroad. It had a roller skating rink and a movie theater. It was the gathering place for the area when it was a bustling coal area. The proprietor used to undercut coal company store prices and would gather groceries while the customers watched a movie.

The Hocking Hills kicked my butt. I had to walk up 2 hills. The place is amazing. It definitely made me feel like a small part of the world (a good thing), with the cliffs and hemlocks towering above me. Such beautiful rock formations and waterfalls.










One waterfall consumed one of my water bottles. I was attaching it to my camera bag and accidentally dropped it. It rolled down the path, over the side and into the water. The bottle went through a hole in the rock. The water was moving rapidly, so I thought I had lost my water bottle, but when I climbed down to the river, it was bobbing in the shallows.

West Virginia to Ohio

I rode on the bike path that runs from Wellsburg to south of Wheeling, well most of it because the bike path disappeared in some overgrowth for a short while. Did you know that Wheeling is the home of Mail Pouch tobacco (those advertisements that are mostly fading from the side of barns.)? Wheeling also has one of the most helpful and most enthusiastic visitor center staffperson ever.



Random roadside structure: a post marking the Mason-Dixon line







Of course, my love of bicycling in West Virginia didn't last too long because construction brought two lanes with a berm to one lane, my first flat tire and then an industrial area with two-lane road with no berm and 16-wheelers (hold breath and brace for wind). I finally came to New Martinsville and a motorcyclist who is part of a bicycling club directed me across the river to OH 7. Oh how my heart can get uplifted by a newly paved, smooth wide shoulder.

An overnight stop at Leith Run Campground in the Wayne National Forest (thanks to the motorcyclist/bicyclist) and a morning that I planned on getting up and doing some hiking but I chose my warm sleeping bag over a foggy, chilly morning. Thanks to incorrect math, I thought my day was going to be about 50 miles but it ended up with around 80 by the time I rolled in to the United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary in Rutland, OH. The day also introduced me to the hills of southeastern Ohio.



I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in botanical medicine to visit the United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary in Rutland, OH. It is an amazing place, not only for the botanical diversity but also for the community that is protecting the land (the sanctuary is somewhere around 300 acres but the community has around 3000 contiguous acres that are preserving the rich heritage).

Painting and posting signs, hiking, and making some mullein and garlic ear oil with Paul Strauss.




Off to Athens on Friday. I left a bit later than I wanted and was trying to make it to Athens before the incoming storm. Again hot and humid. I rolled into town and the amount of people overwhelmed me. It was graduation weekend, not only students but their families were all over uptown. I wandered a bit and someone on the street asked if I needed any help, which helped me refocus. The storm rolled in as I carried my things up to Sara and Piper's apartment. Saturday came and off to the Athens Farmers Market. I've been told it is the second oldest in the US after the Ferry Building Market in San Francisco. I picked up some veggies, bread and cured beef bologna for the road. I loaded up my stuff and headed out to Nate's land to check it out. The humidity opened up to a rain storm and I learned how to play euchre. The storm let up and being antsy I headed out to the Hocking Hills. It was probably not the best choice, since it was like biking through a sauna.

Da 'Burgh

Tuesday afternoon greeted me with an afternoon thundershower, reminding me of Pittsburgh's ability to rain at any time. A rain jacket was useless in the refreshing rain. By the time I got to Brian's house, I was soaked through and excited that I had somewhere dry to be. That rain shower set the precedent for the rest of my stay in Pittsburgh, rain everyday.

I visited Healcrest Urban Farm, a project headed by Maria. It's still in the development stage, but it has greatly expanded since I last saw it a couple of years ago. Maria is continuing the farm but in a lower capacity (no interns) since she had Savitur Negus on my birthday (Sept. 26) last year (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them.).























I also visited Braddock Farms, a project of Grow Pittsburgh. Marshall is going into his 2nd year of managing the farm and it is the 3rd year of the farm. It is still in its infancy, so it will be interesting to see how the community plugs in to the farm as well as how Marshall balances the mission of providing food for the community as well as marketing food to restaurants.




I was planning on leaving Friday, but the opportunity to be a part of a try at the world's largest non-motorized flotilla sounded great, as well as hanging out with more people. The event was planned for World Environment Day (Saturday June 5) by Venture Outdoors.

The group I was going with decided to put in early in the morning at Duck Hollow and paddle down the Monongahela River to the point, where the Allegheny and Monongahela come together to form the Ohio. They had estimated that the distance was about 5 miles, but it turned out to be 9 (There's a reason that Nine Mile Run is called that!). We had left early enough to make it to the registration and back out towards the flotilla by 11:45am. The established time of the flotilla was supposed to be noon, but as we passed under the West End Bridge, the flotilla started breaking apart and the dark clouds released a torrential downpour. We had been registered but not in the picture. Why did they not wait for everyone to gather? The rain only lasted about 5 minutes and then the sky opened up to have a beautiful day. We had a little picnic and paddled up river a few miles to the southside and the Hofbrauhaus (German beer brewed in Pittsburgh). A bit disappointing but a fun day.




Saturday night I watched Gasland, a documentary about the natural gas industry, especially the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing of natural gas from shale deposits. They visit 24 states with current practices and talks with residents of the areas as well as some health professionals and scientists studying the impacts. There have been natural gas seepages into ground water sources causing massive die-offs in streams. The water from fracturing is in open-air lined or unlined ponds with volatile organic compounds and other carcinogens vaporizing (sometimes intentionally to evaporate more water so the company has to pay less for shipping the waste water). People are having health issues anywhere from headaches to asthma to lesions in the brain and cancer. The wells, condensation tanks and associated equipment and operations do not fall under regulations for the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act because they are dispersed and not one point source and no Environmental Impact Studies have been done, but in the area around Ft Worth, Texas, the natural gas operations are emitting the same amount of pollution as all the vehicular traffic in the area daily. Currently there is organizing against natural gas drilling, specifically the Marcellus Shale. There are leases signed for the Delaware River (affecting Philadelphia), the area containing the drinking water for New York City and even places within Pittsburgh. More could be said, but I highly recommend seeing it. They have a few more tour dates but it is going to be shown on HBO on June 21st, so try to find someone with HBO and make it a house party.

Sunday was the day to depart Pittsburgh. A cloudy morning opened up to a downpour. Brian and I waited it out and started out a bit after noon towards West Virginia. It was a beautiful biking day. We picked up the Panhandle Trail a little west of Pittsburgh. Brian turned around in Burgettstown, as I continued on. He picked a good place because the trail turned into a muddy mess and I was scraping the fenders about 15 minutes later. The trail improved towards the endpoint of Colliers, WV.



I made it out to about 8 miles above Wheeling before setting up camp for the night.

Woodbridge to Pittsburgh

Day 1: Woodbridge to Potomac Vegetable Farms, Purcellville, VA

63.5 miles

My mom dropped me off at a commuter parking lot along Route 123 in Woodbridge, VA a little bit before 7am on her way to work. I loaded my bike and took off on the sidewalk that turned into a bicycle path along 123. I used Google to get bicycle directions for my first day and I have to say that while they can be a bit vague like turn left, turn left, turn right, they were accurate directions.



In Lorton there was a prison on either side of 123. They shipped off all the inmates to prisons farther away. Now they turned the workhouses of one prison into an arts center.






After bike paths along roads, I ended up on the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail for a bit more than half the days journey. I was reminded that small towns like Herndon and Leesburg existed before they were swallowed up by the ever expanding suburban sprawl. High tensile electric wires and the smell of honeysuckle.
Contrasts of extreme suburbia with McMansions and farmland. I met a number of people biking along the road including a couple from Chicago who loves to bike rail trails wherever they go and a woman who was starting the TransAmerica Trail with a group from Adventure Cycling on Monday.


Overview of a stone quarry along the W&OD trail







A bit of farm in the suburbs.









I rolled into Purcellville around 3pm. I was doing errands when John asked if he could look at my bicycle, having recognized it as a Bilenky. He invited me down to Velo Classique, where I met Wayne and chatted a bit about bikes and I admired his selection of bicycles.

I finished at Potomac Vegetable Farms, a bit north of Purcellville. Visiting with Richard, Ellen and Aaron and the crew.

Day 2: Brunswick, MD to near Williamsport, MD


Wayne offered to shuttle me to Brunswick, MD and I took him up on it. The only route from Purcellville to Brunswick is a 2-lane commuter route with little to no shoulder and traffic going at least 55mph. Thanks Wayne!






Harper's Ferry and the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers






A second day of hot, humid weather. Passed mostly people going from Pittsburgh to DC. I was passed by someone going from Leesburg to Hancock (about 90 miles) and the next day meeting up with friends in Cumberland and going to Seven Springs (about 130 miles). I didn't keep up with him. I saw someone carrying more than me. She had her front rack piled higher than the handlebars and a baby carrier on her back with a dog in it.

The trail was muddy. I had to stop and clean out my fenders with a stick multiple times. Finally it felt like I had the brakes on and there was a constant swoosh-swoosh-swoosh as the tire rubbed against the caked-on goo. I had to remove the tires and clean off the fenders. I kept seeing dark brown clumps of leaves and small sticks in the trees, anywhere between 4 and 7 feet above the trail. It took me awhile to figure out what they were. Then it dawned on me: leftovers from flooding.


Dam #4

















The usual detour was expanded, but I didn't read the sign until after I had passed the area. Ooops!

Mosquitoes...

Day 3: near Williamsport to Hancock
42.5 miles

I started off and it was already another hot and humid day... I stopped in at the Cushwa Basin in Williamsport and saw the forecast of high 90 chance of showers.

I had been drying some laundry on the back of my bike and my shirt had fallen off. I decided to backtrack and find it. It took a couple of miles and I was ready to give it up for lost when I saw it hanging on a box elder branch on the trail. Thank you to whomever hung it up.





I decided to stop into Fort Frederick State Park. I pulled in and saw a bunch of groundskeepers hanging out on the front porch of the gift shop. No one there. Supposedly there is more during the weekends but since I was there mid-week it was desolate. A British fort from the French and Indian War era. It's an impressive walled fort with some barracks inside and the foundation of the officer's housing.


My knee was hurting so I took it slow and ended up on the Western Maryland Rail Trail (a 23 mile paved trail on either side of Hancock). I pulled off at signs for the Hancock Visitors Center and found that it had moved from in town to right along the C & O in an 1780s canal side house. They were just finishing preps for the grand opening the next day and allowed me to wander around the center. There are some great historical photos from the house and area surrounding Hancock.

I decided to focus on making my knee better so I ended up staying behind the C & O Bicycles in Hancock. I should have taken some pictures of the place. A screened-in section with bunks made out of plywood and 2x4s, a courtyard with an elevated pond with frogs, a couple of bushes, 2 port-a-pots and 2 showers converted from port-a-potties. Quite nice. I had two fellow travelers going the length of the C & O. They were going lightweight, so light that they had tubes but no pump nor tire irons. I hope they made it without any incidents.

Day 4: Hancock to Cumberland
68 miles

Thank goodness for ibuprofen, arnica, stretching and rest. My knee did well.

I finally got a decent start at 7:30 before the day heated up. I stopped at one of the hiker biker camp sites and made a second breakfast. I had passed a woman and 3 kids and wondered where she was headed. Well, Melissa had been camping at the site the night before. Her husband (can't remember his name) and her have 4 boys, I swear under the age of 5. One nursing and 2 in diapers (cloth ones). They were on day 11 of a Pittsburgh to DC ride. They ride about 20 miles a day. The boys are loving it. It's impressive! Here's all of them with one of their bikes.



























The Paw Paw Tunnel









I had been watching the sky and trying to make it to Cumberland before the sky let loose but I didn't. About 10 miles outside of Cumberland, the sky started falling. I ended up at a lock house with a porch, hanging out with a guy that I had been tagging all day long. He was biking from Pittsburgh to DC. It was his 4th time doing the trail, the second going from DC to Pittsburgh. He is taking about 4 1/2 days, going solo and lightweight, staying inside, carrying one set of clothes and some food.

The thunderstorm finally let up and we headed out. Slow going through puddles and mud and over some branches that had fallen.













Cumberland from afar looks like a lovely town. In its heyday it was the second largest city in Maryland. Lots of industry has gone away but the remnants of railroad tracks that criss-cross the city, as well as I-68 going through the middle, make it not so desirable. There are plans to make the city bike friendly but for now it's not. It is the terminus of the C&O Canal and the beginning of the Great Allegheny Passage.

I stayed at the YMCA campground, which is right across the street from the Y and next to some railroad tracks. Luckily they had a pavilion so I just set up under it. It was noisy spot with the trains banging together, as they started out and stopped.

Day 5: Cumberland to Rockwood
47.5 miles

The first section of the day is 23 miles up hill. I was daunted by it and specifically planned my trip so I did it with all the energy I could muster. It wasn't as bad as my mind it out to be. I also discovered that if I determined that I was going to make it up the hill, then I would; mind over matter. The grade wasn't very large but it was constant. I met some people who work at the bike shop in Cumberland. Kurt was riding up and down waiting for a group of bikers who were going up 10 miles. He is a fan of 1980s vintage and handbuilt bikes and owns a couple of them. Craig is a trail ranger, biking up and down the trail on the lookout for mostly 4 wheelers that wreck the trail.











From Frostburg, I end up riding up the hill to the Big Savage Tunnel with a couple on a tandem (Gary and Mary Ann), who are training for the Race to the Lake MS 150, a Multiple Sclerosis fundraising ride from a little north of Pittsburgh to Conneaut, OH. They talked about the pros and cons of tandem riding and the tours they have gone on.


















I passed through the tunnel and the clouds had parted and there was sun. The best weather yet for biking. Lots of people coming down the hill. I finished going up the hill to the Eastern Continental Divide. I had gone from about 650 feet above sea level to about 2300 feet. After that, it was downhill!





Salisbury Viaduct





















I stopped off in Rockwood and called about campsite availability in Confluence. It was Memorial Day weekend and I figured the area around Ohiopyle and Confluence were busy with whitewater rafters and hikers. Nothing available, so I stayed in Rockwood at a place called Husky Haven. It is named after Huskies. The couple used to have a number of huskies that they kept in an area where the campground now is. The huskies used to pull a sled along the trail. They retired the dogs and in 2007 they opened the campground. One husky is still alive at 14.

Day 6: Rockwood to Cedar Creek Park
69 miles


Out by 8am and in to Ohiopyle by 10:30. There were a ton of people around. I had wanted to make it to Fallingwater but with so many people around and nothing at Fallingwater available until Monday afternoon, I decided to continue on. Before I left, I took a short hike around Ferncliff, a peninsula that juts out into the Youghiogheny. It's made of some hard sandstone and has resisted erosion more than the rest of the bedrock. Back in the day of trains, Ferncliff was a destination for Pittsburghers, and automobiles ended its popularity.

The trail was populated with people who don't know how to ride on trails. There were some close calls even with me ringing my bell, shouting "Excuse me" and "Passing on your left" for as far ahead as I could. I have now learned to avoid Ohiopyle on any fair/warm weather holiday.

I learned firsthand about chafing today. I knew the equation: sweat/moist skin and friction = chafing and now I understand it. Sorry, no pictures.

Made it to the campground and had a relaxing evening. I talked with John, who is planning on doing the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal in the fall on his recumbent, and is just exploring a bit of the trail.

Day 7: Cedar Creek Park to Pittsburgh
40 miles

I had a great start at 8am. Another humid day.


West Newton trailside sculpture








I talked with a bicyclist in Boston and he recommended to take 837 in to town, so I did. It wasn't too bad. I got off at East Homestead Ave and took it through the mall that occupies the space where the Homestead Works once stood. Across the Glenwood Bridge, and racking my brain about how to get over to my friend's in Homewood. I decided that the most direct route goes up a long hill or I would go up another hill or all the way to downtown. Who knows if the route I took was the best one but I did end up pushing my bike up most of Hazelwood Ave. Pittsburgh has lots of hills.

Even with the hilly route, I made it to my friend Brian's a little before he took off for a wedding.