Ohio

And out of Pittsburg.

Monday I drove into Pittsburg to Verona to Dirty Hairy’s bike shop. Closed on Mon. And it rained off & on. I want a rest day. A played out river city. Gone are the paying jobs that built the large houses along the way. Steel gone overseas.

Into rural Ohio.  Found a small airport just off the beaten path outside of Beloit. GPS locates the airports. Sleep in parking lot, no hassles.

Finished drive to West Branch SP East of  Akron. Read trail reviews on trails. Plan is Wed I stop in Stow, OH @ LBS to remove cluster from freewheel. At 12:30 i have an appointment @ an Norcold fridge service center in Akron to energize my frige as i do not think it is working efficiently. Then down to Dad’s.  So the ride location supported plan, although, just south of here this AM I drove thru light rain.

Drove to park headquarters to learn about the trails. Met w/ the ranger. He told me the trails were open. Drove back to bike TH, saw official sign saying trails open. At TH an unofficial sign said don’t ride wet trails. I was perplexed. Official signs say open but trail appears to be muddy, too much to ride. But then maybe today is not considered muddy enough to close. I rode out. Trail map from state sucks as trails are not named and North points to bottom of page. Trails on ground have Carsonite posts coded w/ information on a map not available @ TH. And it was muddy. And rooty.  I was thrown down by a complex series of roots sandwiched between 2 trees just a handlebar width apart. Lofted front slightly to clear a root. Wheel came down on a raised root running almost parallel. Just the right root at the correct spot just swiped my front wheel out from under me. Right side spill again. I feared landing on my ribs and consciously protected them. Only fall because I paid the roots respect by hitting them as straight on as possible at best and at worse w/ no lean.  Lake side trails are easier. Other side of Cable road was move involved as described. Dense woods that was saturated. Wandered down a snowmobile trail attempting to get back to TH. Wrong turn w/ no trail markers. Found way back to TH.

Just horribly muddy. Legs have bits of leaf mold hanging off. My bike almost looks like it was camouflaged. Talked to ranger again about trail conditions. I said too muddy to ride and they should be closed.

Paid for campsite in park for shower and lots of h2o to clean my bike. Contrasts: XG costs $ but it comes w/ legal ownership of a place to sleep. Downsides are population density. Dirtbag camping is free (yea), rule free, perhaps trespassing w/ potential of being rousted or confronted, not surrounded by smoking wood fires or smell of charcoal grills, sometimes loud traffic noises and lights. Require selective harvesting of a sleep spot. No legal  public lands causes me to find a city spot. Lately i have  been sleeping @ small airports that the GPS finds.

Since leaving Sedona on 4/5 I have been thru 13 states, ridden in 11 of them. Managed to make my 2 events.  Fell several times, rode 760 miles.