Google is out to get you and other lessons

(This is Susan. Brice is occupied watching the Red Sox v. Yankees game.)

Geography lesson: There is a tiny sliver of West Virginia between Pennsylvania and Ohio: Who knew? Hence we had the enormous satisfaction of crossing a state in a couple* hours.

*Would have been faster if not for faulty routefinding and the subject of this post…

So, in writing out the directions to get us from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, WV, I got distracted somewhere in the middle — somewhere amidst Scott’s Franzia/mango sangria — and skipped over an entire set of directions in between the Panhandle Trail and Wheeling. What I wrote down indicated that the trail would take us all the way into town! Fantastic! Simple!

Well, when the Panhandle Trail ended in an ignominous snarl of weeds, we turned to Google to guide us into the city, which was still 30ish miles away. Since we’d been mostly following trails the whole way up, we hadn’t had much experience with routefinding. I cooked up some quick Google maps biking instructions on the iPhone, which would lead us along small country roads over to WV route 2 south.

We soon learned that Google’s overarching preference for the smallest roads possible in its biking directions had led us up an impossibly steep gravel road to an inglorious overlook above the Brooke County Landfill. Winding around the dump on increasingly hostile gravel, we were approached by concerned dump truck drivers. We’re all good, we assured them, and had them point us out the back gate of the truck area to our next road. Soon the idyllic paved country road will appear! we assured ourselves.

Nope, still enormous loose gravel, and, what’s more, more hills winding through a completely abandoned wilderness! Deciding to lose some dignity instead of skin, we proceeded to push our bikes up and down hills for the next 2 or so miles to avoid slipping on the gravel, until we did finally hit pavement. Long story short, we finally made it to Wheeling — after almost 70 miles of total biking (much of it into the strongest headwind we’ve hit yet) and a couple more wrong turns.

We were fortunate to have Harry and Karen, members of the touring cyclist hospitality network Warm Showers, waiting for us in their lovely Wheeling home along with an entire plate of deviled eggs, a platter of grilled chicken and other goodies, raspberry lemonade (!!!), and the eponymous shower. We stayed at their place last night, ready to set off and do 60 miles today. Having learned our lesson about roads, we reviewed the route carefully beforehand. Harry warned us of a few hills we’d encounter on the way.

We crossed into Ohio along what used to be the longest suspension bridge in the country (the 10th St. bridge, for those of you following along at home) and set off along route 40 for about 20 miles. After that mileage, route 40 would end somewhere after Morristown, and we’d take some county roads to Salt Fork State Park–which really looked on Satellite View as if they must be paved.

The hills were brutal. A steep, several-mile climb after we passed Blaine, which we knew we would face, was followed by unending rolling hills that would normally not be too demoralizing, unless of course you happened to be propelling 60 pounds or so of equipment with your own body.

Oh, and did I mention all of this was in an approximately 50-degree steady drizzle?

Our IT band syndrome has been doing ok after some cleat adjustments, but Brice had been developing some problems with his other knee, which he’s dislocated several times, most recently in an unfortunate game of paintball in 2011 during which he also contracted Lyme disease. Especially after the difficult day yesterday, he was having a lot of problems getting up the hills. We thought, ok, let’s make it to Morristown, eat lunch in a cafe, and reassess.

Turns out Morristown is one of those towns that you pass through before you realize you’ve hit it. Rte. 40 came to a stop at the end of a steep decline at nothing but the entrance to the next road on our route, county road 100 north–uphill and wouldn’t you know it, unpaved. At this point, also, we were very cold. We had waterproof stuff on, but it just didn’t keep out the cold. We hadn’t put our warmest stuff on because we were ok as long as we were moving, but now, at the bottom of this hill faced by yet another gravel road, I was starting to shiver. It was not the best moment.

Needless to say, we trundled back up the hill to a tiny roadside motel that is in what must be Morristown. The motel’s decor has not been updated since about 1960, but then again, neither have the room rates. We took hot showers, ordered pizza, and are watching tv. We’re ditching the camping idea and are instead heading west on state routes tomorrow, first to either Pleasant Grove or Zanesville, and then to another Warm Showers host in Circleville the next day. And yes, we are taking that gravel county road 100, but south, for 4.7 miles, but after that, no more county roads, and no more gravel roads as much as possible. I’ve also written out much more detailed directions that tell us where motel and food options are and exactly how much distance there is between various towns and other landmarks, just so we always have in mind what we’re about to get in to, distance-wise. We’ve also realized we have to put on our warmest gear early, not after we already get cold.

The nice thing is, the hills really flatten out from here on out. Circleville, in fact, seems to be almost completely flat. We’re looking forward to that.

We’ll see how Brice’s knee does tomorrow. Hopefully the extra rest today after the hard day yesterday does good and tomorrow we can actually get some miles.

Stats:
~30 miles today (69 miles yesterday)
9.7 mph ave today (11.9 mph ave yesterday)
~3 hours riding today (~6.5 hours yesterday)