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Friday, September 30, 2011

The past few days...


Monday I camped at state game lands after going through King of Prussia, West Chester & Quarrysville. I passed lots of amish horse & buggies and everyone waved. Went into sasquehannock state park thinking it would be an open park, instead I found myself on a road with fencing on both sides and posted signs everywhere. Managed to find a spot at the southern part of this "park".

Tuesday- passed the susquehanna river & damn was it ugly. Construction on both sides of it with water somehow flowing in converging ways and meeting under the bridge. The fog & low cloud level didn't help with the awry feeling of this whole area either. Passed through Stewartstown after hitting a dirt road and having to walk my bike up it for a while. Got yelled in town on two separate occasions for rolling through stop signs- psh motorists should know that us cyclists are above the law! Went into shrewsbury after thinking about whether it was McDonalds or Burger King that gave you a cup & self serve- unlimited refills. Turns out McDonald does as I stopped there and had a greedy amount of 4 refills. Went into the UPS store where the nice ladies asked me if I was living "out of the back of my bike" as I had no return address to provide them with for my shipment. Happily I said yes, in awe of how free I really am. Codorus state park was really beautiful, stopped there for a swim & would have camped out if it would have been later in the day. Went through Hanover & Gettysburg, both equally pleasant towns. After that it all went to shit. Tried climbing cold springs road to get into Michaux state forest. The grade was getting really steep and I had to turn around as it was nearing 6 o clock with no camp spot in sight. Blazed through Fairfield with little luck. Finally found a spot on the low side of a dam on route 116 after trying to find one on a golf course. The weather called for thundershowers and heavy local flooding. Scared that the dam was going to burst or overflow up top and take me with it I got little sleep.

On wednesday I climbed route 16 to Blue Ridge Summit right on the border of PA/ MD border. The whole town had a northern us mountain town feel, not that I've ever been there but from what I heard and saw that they were like. Couldn't resist buying a 30g protein bar when I saw it in the store, ate it like there was no tomorrow. Continued south into Maryland and then west Virginia. Went into harpers ferry in hopes of buying a sleeping bag liner to sleep in (it's way too hot for my 20 degree down sleeping bag) but they didn't have one. Had to spend more time on the freeway climbing the hill that I just flew down. Took side roads south while staying on the western side of the Shenandoah river & blue ridge mountain range (and therefore effectively avoiding some major climbing) Ended up somewhere just south of the west Virginia / Virginia border & stayed in the backyard of a church. A really nice fellow from the house in front of the church came by asking me if I needed anything. The first sign of "road magic" (as opposed to trail magic on the AT) that I've come across. Thankyou! It got a bit cold at night & I had to rely on my sleeping bag to keep me toasty. It the morning I made tea. All is good in the world.

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