Day 23: Athens OH to Elkins WV

Today wasn't the hardest day physically, but it was easily the hardest day emotionally. The rain yesterday was no fun.....we got thoroughly soaked before lunch. It was a bad day to do an extra 10 miles. Athens is where Ohio University is.....we passed a large football stadium. They play division one, but are smart enough not to schedule Ohio State.

The rain had ended by the time we arrived last night, so I assumed that would be the end of it. But when I awakened this morning, it was raining hard. We huddled under a small tent eating our breakfast at 6 a.m., knowing we had 160 miles and 6500 feet of climbing ahead. There are no days off for bad weather on this tour; the show must move on. So off we went, into the driving rain. Within minutes, I looked, and felt, like a drowned sewer rat. I started to think of a hot shower in the first 10 miles rather than the last 10 miles. Riding in the rain is dangerous......the road is slippery and it is difficult to see. Debris on the side of the road sticks to your tires, so the odds of a flat tire go way up. The majority of the riders had at least one flat today. I won the prize. I had SIX!!

6 flat tires!! Did I forget to pray to the cycling god this morning? The first was due to a small wire, the second from a deteriorating rim strip, the third from a sidewall gash caused by debris. I installed new rim tape and a brand new tire on the rear. Next the front tire went flat. Twice. Then, with 15 miles to go, the brand new rear tire got a flat. After the 4th flat, for some reason my speedometer and odometer both totally went dead, which meant following the cue sheet was a big problem. My chain came off about 8 times. I was not a happy camper by the time I crawled into the motel parking lot at 6 p.m.

Much of the problem, besides the rain, was the fact that we had to ride 2 very long stretches on the shoulder of busy 4 lane roads. Much of this was very rough, like chip and seal at best and a continual rumble strip at worst. The rain slowed down after 30 miles and finally stopped, but soon thereafter we had muggy heat, up to the 90's again, to contend with. All in all, not a great day.

Southeastern Ohio is quite lovely. The Hocking Hills that we passed through yesterday afternoon are very pretty, with thick hardwood forests and rolling hills. One thing that struck me was the relative lack of fruit trees. I understand about the large corn and soybean fields, but I expected an occasional apple tree in the yard of the farmhouses. Didn't Johnny Appleseed hang out around here?

At mid morning we crossed the Ohio River and entered West Virginia at the town of Parkersburg, which is a large lower middle class tough looking town. We then climbed a series of long, one to three mile grades, with a nice descent after each one on route 50. We were reminded every 15 miles or so that we were on the Robert C. Bird Appalachian road network. Late in the morning, we took a great sideroad with little traffic through the rural countryside. This was the highlight of the day, if today had a highlight. West Virginia, like Wisconsin, looks geologically old. There are lots of hills but nothing very high, and the hardwood forests are beautiful. We passed through the town of Weston, which, like Parkersburg, has a working class appearance. I can't say I saw anybody all day that would qualify as a "hillbilly".

These back to back 160 mile days, with the rain and the flat tires, have been brutal. Tomorrow we have our first "short" day (108 miles) since Wyoming, but we climb over 10,000 feet, as we go from Elkins to Harrisonburg, Virginia.

160 miles. 6500 vertical feet