Found My Paw

The majority of this tour has been solo with just a couple of days riding with other bike tourists that happened to be heading in the same direction.  I was pleasantly surprised when my father, my paw, took up my suggestion to meet and ride the C&O Canal path.  One month ago Bill Cherolis traded up from a 2-wheeled recumbent to a three-wheeled, low slung rocket trike.  The trike affords the same comfortable position as two wheeled recumbent, but a benefit that many 65 year olds are loathe to admit a need for – stability.   Getting started, riding slow, and climbing hills the trike are hugely improved.  The only drawback is the width.

2nd Day - Shoving off from Hancock

Dad chose the C&O Canal over the Great Allegheny Passage.  On paper that seems to be a prudent choice to avoid climbing the Eastern Continental Divide, but in practice the National Park Service does a poor job of trail upkeep on the C&O.  Instead of firmly packed stone dust, the C&O is a mixture of double track, dirt roads, some single track, and a very little quality stone dust.  This is an issue if your bike is wide (a trike) and one wheel is in the middle grassy island of the double track.  We upgraded to wide tires on the trike before setting off out of Cumberland and dropped the tire pressure, but it was still much slower and more effort than Dad was expecting.  Sixty miles felt more like ninety – and he thought sixty was a sporty target.  

Fort Frederick - Restored British Fort from French and Indian War

Luckily we had dry weather prior to and during the three days of riding.  With rain the C&O can turn into a muddy, soft slog.  The temperature peaked out on day one at 91, but much cooler on the shady trail.  Days two and three were perfect early Fall days in the 60’s and 70’s.  After maxing out on the first two days, Dad opted to take a short third day and head into DC early with my Mom.  Mom was graciously running sag and meeting up with us for dinner and the hotel stay.  We bit off a bit more than Dad was ready for, but he still had a great time (I think).  The roughest spot for him was on day 2 when we realized that he’d misheard me and that instead of almost being done for the day at 61 miles, we actually had 7 miles left.  Dad discovered his fourth wind.

Enjoying a trail side Paw Paw snack.  Like a banana except FREE!

Along the trail I found oodles of Paw Paw trees.  One of the canal tunnels along the route, the Paw Paw tunnel, is aptly named.  This time of year these native understory trees have delicate ripening fruit that tastes like a custard-like mix of banana and mango.  After picking fruit, I’d hustle up to catch up to Paw (intended) who was dutifully plugging away at the double track.  In addition to the several I consumed on trail, I gathered a bag and made a smoothie type dessert while visiting Christopher and Tania for dinner in DC.  You won't find this fruit in stores, but all you have to do is take a walk or bike ride to fill up a bag at the right time of year.  The fruit is made more special by its season.

Desert Rose Cafe with Rose in yellow.  Coffee, sandwiches, and bike tubes.

We both noticed that the trail signs for near trail and city amenities is sorely lacking on the C&O.  It was explained to us by Desert Rose (yes, that’s really her name) at a coffee shop (Desert Rose Café) in Williamsport that the Park Service doesn’t allow any advertisement or signing on park property.  The city signs and maps were amazing on the connected GAP trail, and the city economies were noticeably benefiting more from the trial patrons.  It blows my mind that the Park Service doesn’t lease a 15’x15’ sign area to each town or chamber of commerce for a welcome sign and map of local businesses.  If we’re spending tax dollars on the trail, wouldn’t we want to get a maximum economic benefit to the cities along that trail?  Get better at that C&O, it’s embarrassingly short sighted to prohibit signs.  This linear park is different from a scenic national park.

Bike racks are coming to 95 Park Street and BiCi Co!

BiCi Co. Thoughts – When I was foraging the plentiful Paw Paws, I thought about how BiCi Co. will be a similarly local and sustainable enterprise.  Rather than expensive and inappropriate carbon fiber bicycles from China (extractive economy), BiCi Co. will support recycling and reuse of existing bicycles that are already available and under used in the Hartford metro region.  Rather than dropping used bikes into the waste stream, whole bikes and parts will be repurposed on Hartford streets as city bikes and useful transportation.  We’ll harvest useful parts from bikes we can’t save and hearken to a sustainable and efficient model that respects and values using up something entirely and fixing rather than wasting.  We’ll forage among used bikes – providing a legal resource for inexpensive bike parts – and nourish our community both with enhanced mobility and community connections.  Local money, spent locally on an environmentally sustainable mode of transport.  Bicycle commuters tend to contribute more to their local economies by shopping local and having more disposable income than their car driving peers, great news for Park Street and the Spanish American Merchants Association members.  Now we just need more bike racks on Park Street and Sharrows.  Center for Latino Progress is creating some momentum by installing bike parking across from the building this Fall!  Stay tuned to the BiCi Co. Facebook page for the latest information on our Fall bike programs.

A contested dam during the Civil War

Son of Paw

Crossed a lot of viaducts.

Recently added cliff side tow path.  Amazing to ride!

Trail hugging the cliff.  Where are all the people?

When Dad realized we had 7 more miles to go.  Map consulted.

Crossing into Harper's Ferry

Mom and Dad at Harper's Ferry

Dad with John Brown

More on John Brown later.  A very interesting figure from US History.  

Great Falls along the C&O just outside of DC.  Amazing!

The bike infrastructure in DC was off the chain!  Hartford take note.

 I'm sure there is going to be a follow up blog post on how behind Hartford is relative to bicycle infrastructure.  Stay tuned for that.  After seeing DC, and countless other cities, blowing our doors off the City of Hartford needs to get focused.  Increasing downtown and neighborhood residency requires us to embrace biking, walking, and transit to keep the machine from locking up with single occupancy vehicle traffic.  This is not a new concept.

Trip out to Mt Vernon with the folks.  This looks fun.

Faithful Servants, eh?  Will discuss more later.  White washing slavery.

Arlington National Cemetery

Finally.  Some global leadership on consumerism and global issues from the Catholic Church.

Leaving DC, I have to detour around the Pope.  My folks are purposefully making a trip towards the White House and saw him once already in the Fiat Pope-mobile.  I'm keen on the Catholic Church finally getting a clue on the damage that hyper-consumerism and waste causes for both out soul and the planet.  Seriously folks - look at your life and ask if serves your neighbor and your grandchildren - including your neighbors in entrenched poverty and urban ghettos.  All human life is equal in value and wearing blinders that focus on a your tiny suburban unit is pretty f'ing evil if you consider the implications.  Don't be evil.

Changing a spoke in front of the Hilton.  Klein tool worked great.

Fuzzy, but great dinner with Whitney, Christopher, and Tania in DC.

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The Art of the Camp

I get incredulous looks from folks when they hear about my typical bike touring accommodations.  Certainly, one could stay at hotels, or line up a string of friends and WarmShowers hosts.  Even state parks with ready electrical outlets and community bathrooms are upper tier lodging when I'm traveling.  I appreciate the luxury of a bed, air conditioning, a door that locks, and the all important shower.  Having access to a washing machine to wash away the road and start fresh is a gem.

View from a stealth camp.  Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

What I'd like to share is that the value of these luxuries is amplified when you stealth camp.  I often say, "You can't be happy until you've been sad."  That's my logic.  Those swaddled in silk pajamas, pillow top mattresses, and climate control don't truly appreciate those amenities.  When I get to a quiet, secure, and comfortable bed - it's Heaven.  Sleeping on clouds for a week at least.  If I forget I'm in Heaven, I can think back on the road and it's Heaven again.

That's not the only reason.  You think through reasons and details during a long tour.  The next reason to stealth camp is minimizing overhead.  If you're going to take off work for 6-7 weeks for a bike tour, and you're not disgustingly wealthy, the cost of the trip is of import.  Even a state park will run you $15 - $25 a night.  If you camp in a "dispersed fashion" at (or near) a state park, but then catch a shower on the way out in the morning, you just saved as much as food is going to cost for that day - doubling your range if financially limited.  WarmShowers is also a good financial option, since hosts will often feed you dinner and maybe even breakfast, but it's difficult to line up a host for every evening.  A tour that combines WS hosts and stealth camping can be had on a shoestring budget.

Far off the beaten path in pursuit of what looked like a pond. Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

The last value of the stealth camp is the isolation and novelty.  I've had some of the most amazing and private camping spots on this past trip.   When you can stand around and air dry for 30 minutes in the sun after jumping in a pond - that's a freedom not many experience.  Try that in a State Park and you'll have a different type of lodging for the evening.

Do These Things

• Trust your gut feeling.  If a camp feels sketchy or not right, don't stay there.
• Start looking early.  Well before you need to camp, keep an eye out for good looking parks and wooded parcels.  
• Be prepared for rain.  My first long tour was with a hammock that didn't have a rain fly, and that significantly cut down my camping options.  Hammock camping can be super light, but you should get one with a fly.
• Plan your water supply.  You'll need enough water to get to camp, for in camp use, and then enough to get to your next refill.  I've been carrying 3 large bottles late in the day, and I have a filter bottle for backup if I need to pull from a lake or stream.  When you're riding during the day you may only need two bottles full.
• Bring toilet paper.   A bit more than you need for two days.   Stealth camps nay not have a bathroom.  Be a good camper - bury your waste.
• If you're going to "publicly" do an informal camp, it doesn't hurt to ask first.  I camped at a grassy trailhead in the small town of Millersburg, OH in Amish country at the recommendation of a Boy Scout troop that I passed on my way.  I followed up by asking local recreational cyclists if they thought it was acceptable to camp there, they said, "Sure.  Can't see why not."  
• If you know (or intuit) that the park or trail is going to get busy in the morning, get up early and move on.  
• Keep an eye out for free or locally accepted informal camp spots.  These often occur along popular through riding bike paths.  For example, the C&O Canal has a primitive camp site every five miles along it's length with well head, a grill, and a port-a-john.
• Have a helmet light or headlamp.  Stealth camp setup often happens at dusk or even at dark if you're running late.  An advanced technique is to scout a trail, catch a late snack, and just at dusk duck into the trail and set up camp after the last folks are likely to wander by.  Also after park staff has left for the night and potentially closed the park gates.  A headlamp makes this much easier in the dark.
• Bring a pair of comfortable (test them / acclimate at home) earplugs.  Your spot may look great, but be fifty feet from the train tracks or US interstate.  
• *** Initially not on the list. *** Learn what poison ivy and similar itch inducing plants look like.  It's a good idea to learn about stinging nettles too - although that is just a temporary skin fire.  My physiology is particularly well suited for stealth camping.  I don't get poison ivy and no bumps from mosquito bites.  That's why I forgot it in my first list of important things.  I've heard there is nothing worse than squatting to go to the bathroom in poison ivy and finding your nether bits covered in oozing, itchy patches for weeks.  Funny (not funny) story about my youth.  My brother, David, gets severe poison ivy.  I found it hilarious to pluck a section of vine and chase him around with it.  He'd get an itchy tattoo for weeks wherever I was able to swipe him with it.  I was a horrible child.

A roof to keep the dew off.  Photo credit Meghan Tarkington.

Things Not To Do - Some of these are Lessons Learned

• ***NEW*** Do not camp among the boulders near the base of a tall cliff.  Those boulders got there by falling off the cliff and tumbling along.  In the middle of the night, you have a remote, but entirely avoidable, chance of getting smashed by falling rocks.  A frightening night listening to rocks cleave off a too close cliff in the Hudson River Valley helped create this rule. 
• Camp below the high water level on a river, creek, or beach.  Be a bit conservative here.  A tidal river can quite sneakily rise overnight and all the sudden you're sopping wet and your gear has floated away.
• Ignore trespassing signs, particularly ones with guns on them
• Keep food in your tent.  Unless you want to intimately meet a raccoon or bear, put your food far from your camp.   I keep it double bagged in my touring dry sacks.  When bears are a concern, the food gets hoisted into the air on a tree branch a good way from the tent.
• Do not start a forest fire.  If you don't know how to contain a fire, put it out all the way, or ascertain if the conditions are just too risk - do not start a camp fire.  Be careful with your camp stove.  Another reason to think twice about your camp fire is that it is an obvious camp giveaway and locating beacon if you are trying to keep a low profile.
• Pick a swampy spot.  You'll get eaten alive.
• Leave your bike unlocked while you take a hike or sleep.  I just sleep better, and this one time a drunk Quaker on the Earlham Campus green tried to steal my bike while I was sleeping right next to it on the ground.  I always carry at least a lightweight cable lock, and the amount of effort to lock up and unlock is negligible.
• Camp 20 feet into a well used trail, unless you're okay with every damn dog walker strolling by at 6am.  Go in at least half a mile.  That weeds out all but the most ardent walkers.
• Try to do this in a big city.  Camping under a bridge in a city with a lot of valuable gear and a transient population is a great way to get robbed.  I've camped several areas in Hartford, but that requires a lot of knowledge of the area.  Not something you're going to have passing through on a tour.
• Expect to get the perfect spot every night.  Some nights you might totally strike out and have to go to a "backup".  Getting a great view is a challenge for stealth camping, because a view means that you're potentially visible too.
• Neglect to dry out your gear.  This is a camping basic, but on this trip I've had to take extra steps to keep things from getting musty.  With stealth camping you sometimes have to get up early and pack up wet.  The dry out may be at the end of the day, rather than the beginning.
• Freak out about every noise you hear during the night.  There are animals in the woods.  Toads hopping in the leaves certainly sound like a person sneaking up on you when your lizard brain is engaged.  

Cliffs are pretty, but don't camp too close.  Falling rocks do happen.

There are backups.  Camping behind a church is usually okay, but be up and gone by services.  You can often get a spot behind (or even inside) a fire department if you stop and ask.  When you are super rural, and it's nothing but farm fields, pick out a farm house that looks well kept and you can ask if sleeping in their back yard or field would be OK.  

What if someone comes knocking?  It happens.  Be courteous and apologetic.  Explain what you're doing.  If it's the park ranger, you'll probably have to pay the camping fee.  Maybe sing an aria.  Meghan, the opera singer, actually did this on her first night ever stealth camping.  I prefer to be a likable, harmless story teller.  I've not yet had to "move on" in the middle of the night.  But it's not the worst thing that can happen.

Happy camping!  And remember ----- the following rural roadside advertisement was the cutest thing ever.

Past - School Houses - Take it Slow

Let the Little - Shavers Grow - Burma Shave

Did you "Like" and "Share" the BiCi Co. Facebook page?   Membership drive coming soon at this new Hartford community, teaching bike shop.  We need your help to get this wheel rolling.

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The Practical Matter of Survival

First - Some exciting BiCi Co. news.  We just created a BiCi Co. Facebook community page.  This will be where announcements for the new shop go up.  Please - Like and Share!  We are still recruiting for the Fall youth Build-a-Bike / Earn-a-Bike program (online recruiting survey), and we are about to kick off a shop membership campaign.

In bike tour news, I did reach Santa Claus, Indiana this morning.  Not exactly the way I planned.  After a short mileage hot day on Wednesday, I woke up in the middle of the night with severe intestinal distress, and continued to make visits to the woods every twenty minutes and on into the daylight hours.  With potentially two more 95F days of hilly riding ahead (~100 total), I made a survival decision from my horizontal position.  A 7am phone call home brought a bail out by Bill and Sue Cherolis (AKA Dad and Mom).  Not too proud to make a phone call when the prospect of riding the next day might include an ambulance.  

Dehydrated and horizontal

Unexpectedly, I overlapped with a fellow bike tourist for the last day of riding.  Both Meghan and I rolled into Versailles State Park at exactly the same time, climbing the massive hill up to the campground.  I am not riding on a well used cross country route, so this was needle in a haystack territory.  We chatted for hours about stealth camping and touring.  Meghan was an opera singer (really!) and decided to head off on an adventure to mark a change in career to something in the teaching realm.  She is a first time bike tourist and was setting out with an extremely lightweight hammock camping arrangement carried via road bike.  After noticing the low spoke count wheels, I gave a crash course in wheel truing in case she snapped a spoke and needs to hobble into the next city with a bike shop.  We rode together in the 90F heat from Versailles State Park (pronounced verr-sails) to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge.  I will not admit to camping at a gazebo in the refuge.

A lightweight touring setup, for comparison

Another state line.  I heart riding on state highways.  That's a joke.

Prior to arriving in Versailles, we individually rode through Lawrenceburg, IN and picked up a fabulous bike path that would have connected to the neighboring city of Aurora.  This was a welcome development because the alternate state highway 50 is a monster of high speed, multi-lane, and no shoulders.  Welcome, except the path was closed (multi-month construction) and only does one find this out once you've committed 2 miles into the trail - no signs at the trail head.  Meghan and I both experienced this frustrating trail and the stressful route 50 detour.  One lesson learned in both Ohio and Indiana that bike paths are great, and state highways are a horror.  IN DOT and ODOT need to get a clue about Complete Streets.

Foreshadowing?

View from the preserve gazebo. 

Lotus in the swampy lake.  Native Americans made flour from the seeds.

A fabulous trail between Lawrenceburg and Aurora, except... closed.

Would have been great to know the trail was closed at the trail head.

Aurora, IN has a bike killer grate right in the middle of a bike lane

After coming across this "bike killer" grate, I had to take a photo.  Right in the middle of the bike lane, aligned with the direction of travel.  I stopped by the splendid bike shop in Aurora, Weber Sports, and showed it to them.  Of course it was already on their radar as an important issue and it had been brought to the attention of their public works.  This kind of stuff is what happens when bicycle facilities are designed by non-cyclists.  Stay vigilant.  Bad bike facilities can be worse than no facilities at all.

Backtracking a bit in the tour - I crossed this bridge daily between my home in Madison Township and Middletown, Ohio.  You don't realize how beautiful the river is until you come back after being gone for years.  Something to remember when we take our own city's views for granted.  Stop, take a step back, breathe - and see what you're missing.

West Middletown Bridge - AKA home territory

The remains of the homestead tree house.  Tire swing still up after 25 some years.

We had a spectacular tree house and tire swing at the homestead in Middletown, OH.  The tree house is mostly gone, with just a few floor boards remaining.  The tire swing is hanging on, although I wouldn't recommend a swing on a 25 year old poly rope.  It was worth the half mile ride up Route 122, AKA West Middletown Hill.

Shed tears at the grassed over Sunset Pool

Our wet playground and training grounds at Sunset Pool in Middletown are now buried under the lawn.   This is a particularly sad thing, but offset somewhat by the cookie and icing sandwich I brought with me from Central Pastry.  Middletown has lost its amazing pool, but appears to be growing a functional downtown area with restaurants, coffee shops, and retail.  Was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity for lunch and catching up with a grade school friend, Christina Slamka at the new coffee shop - Triple Moon.  Christina's parents have owned and run Central Pastry since 1984.

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Be That Friendly Stranger

The kindness of strangers.  You depend on this a lot during a bicycle tour.  Stuff goes wrong.  You get lost.  Trespassing happens – sometimes unintentional.  Bikes break.  You stumble into diners at the end of the day and mumble something like, “Feed me anything.  And bring double.”  It’s a vulnerable time.  The day to day routine of everyday life, the insulation, is stripped away.  Everywhere you go, everyone you talk to, all the places you sleep, they are all new and that can be scary.

These bike path repair / pump stands are pretty awesome!

Thank God most folks are nice.  They think I’m a space alien, or European, for riding my bike all over the country, but they are friendly and curious.  This morning at a coffee shop by LakeConneaut a local fellow named Mick bought my coffee and cookie.  After blowing a rear, drive-side spoke in the middle of nowhere, I aimed for Warren, OH about 20 miles South on the Western Reserve bike path.  Warren looked sizable, and a bike path ended there.  It was also, sort of, on the way to Columbus.  While on the path, a friendly question to a passing cyclist confirmed that Warren did in fact have a bike shop – including directions.  Thumm’s Bike (and Clock) Shop in Warren has been in the same location for 109 years for good reason.  They hooked me right up and I chatted with the lead mechanic while he tutored a younger mechanic in wheel building.  I picked up some heavy, wet chain lube while there.  And right now, I’m informally camped in West Branch State Park – and counting on the goodwill of the park rangers to not roust me from this choice spot.

When I rolled out of Mount Vernon, OH on the bike path I came across Bonnie from Columbus, OH.  She offered to ride me back into the city and showed me the bike path route I would have otherwise missed.  It was really nice to have a friendly riding companion for 50ish miles when I've had so many miles to myself.   Bonnie had quite a long and storied history as a bicyclist, riding her first century on a tandem with her "bike nut" father at age five.  She has ridden many double centuries and her father was a pioneer of bicycle rear-view mirrors. 

Let’s hear it for the kindness of strangers.  Be that stranger.   One way to facilitate being a great stranger is to participate in WarmShowers.org.  Warm Showers is a reciprocal hosting website for bike tourists.  You can participate as a host, even if you never bike tour.  I’m a host in Hartford, and the more the better.  The network is international.  I used it in Nicaragua a couple years ago.  You meet amazing folks, and can offer anything from “camp in my yard” to “my little free B&B for touring cyclists.”  The travelers and hosts get reviews, so you don’t get surprised by a creeper.  As a major hub for the East Coast Greenway, Hartford metro area should have lots of Warm Shower host options - even those of you who live in the burbs.

BiCi Co. Aside - The community bike shop on Park Street in Hartford will deliver "kindness to strangers."  Strangers that may simply be visiting Park Street for the first time from Downtown or the near suburbs.  Hartford tourists and conventioneers looking for an inexpensive option to a rental car for getting around Hartford.  BiCi Co. will be a resource for touring bicyclists passing through on the East Coast Greenway.  BiCi Co. will be a welcoming community that sends visitors off with a shining review of both the neighborhood and the city of Hartford.  Be a part of it.  Stay tuned to the new BiCi Co. Facebook page for announcements and programs.

  

Akron had some neat water rolling through a downtown plaza and concert space.  Remnants of a canal.

Canal remnants and active train tracks in Akron.

Creative use of an underpass.  Come on CT DOT, get creative!

Amish country is amazing.  Baseball and livestock behind the neighborhood school.  Turnstile keeps the horse in.

Left side horse and buggy, right side bikes.  Yeah Amish multi-use path.

A barn and a stone bridge.

A really odd industrial art park in Mount Vernon, OH.

Industrial decay as art.

Felt a bit like Planet of the Apes.

Bike Stations!

Bonnie was my guide from Mount Vernon to Columbus.

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