Day 4 - Evening Report

Every day that goes by we seem to encounter new challenges accompanied by new stories. Today was not an easy day. We knew this when we shoved off this morning and began the day. We set out to cover ~115 miles of tough terrain (up to 9%+ grade climbs). The day was basically book ended by craziness as far as "hills" go. We weren't entirely sure we'd make the whole distance today. The first 1/2 of the day went well. One stroke at a time up the hills and then coasting for a few miles and then back up another steep climb that made each of us wonder what the heck we were thinking and how we were going to make it to the top, let alone the end of the day. We made another visit to our friends at Orrville Cycling & Fitness to get another bike tuned up and then onward we went. We met a very talkative police officer when we stopped for lunch. After lunch things went smoothly for a few hours. Then we hit that second book end and, aside from the struggle to climb the never ending hills before us, things got a bit more interesting. Once we hit the hills, we kinda split into 2 groups. One that was able to tackle the hills a bit more ferociously, and another group, my group, who figured we were in this to finish, so we'd better pace ourselves.

Eventually we ended up so far behind the other group, we could no longer see them. Not a huge deal, we'll just meet up with them the next time they break for Caleb to go to the bathroom for the millionth time today. So we followed the directions to a T, until we reached a dirt road that didn't look the least bit inviting. We rode past to scout out what was up a ways. Nothing was up a ways. We were officially in the middle of po-dunk-nowhere. Seriously, we were beginning to get a bit unsettled about not knowing where we were or how exactly we were gonna get to where we needed to be. I found some very friendly guys sitting on their front porch drinking some shine, who were absolutely no help at all in their 4:00 pm stuppor. With no choice left, we began walking down the dirt road, knowing it was supposed to take us to the next highway we needed. Dave patiently followed behind us in the van, until he saw the hill we needed to climb. We got out of his way so he could keep up his speed, but it was too steep a gravel road to make it up with a 2 wheel drive pulling a trailer of this girth. So now what? We tried the backing down thing. Not so sucessful; it was a narrow, steep gravel road with a ditch on both sides. Luckily God was paying attention and within minutes after the van and trailer were pinned, Steve shows up. Who is Steve you ask? Steve was a God-Send. Steve drove an F350 Dulley pick-up. He offers a tow, to which we accept. For some reason I brought my tow strap. He gets Dave up the hill, that I believe had 2 false peaks and then disapears into the sunset off into a mountainous field to who knows where.

We eventually did get to that highway we needed and we rode until it got dark and Mark told us we had to pack it in for the day. So we loaded up the trailer and headed for the hotel, to which the other guys had arrived to minutes before. They aren't entirely sure how they made it there, but they did and had some navigational adventures of their own, including a down hill that lasted a few miles weaving through the mountains. For their familie's sake I won't mention that they tackled said roads well after the light had faded behind the hills.

Anyways. We met back up at the hotel, swapped lots 'o stories about the past few hours, grabbed some food and went to bed.



Here are the stats for the day from the guys that went the whole distance:
Ride Time: 8:09:33
Today’s Distance: 126.2 Miles
MilesTotal Trip Distance So Far: 446.65 Miles
MilesAverage Speed: 15.5 MPH
Max Speed: 36.9 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.

The WiFi connection here is a bit scetchy, so I'll post some pix next time I get a chance.

Here they are:

Towin' us up Graves Rd. hill.
















Us with Tow Truck (F350 Dulley) Steve. Not sure why my eyes are closed.