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Monday, May 4: Toughest day yet…and I accomplished a whopping 25 miles in just an eyelash over 5 hrs!  But by God we made it though one of the tougher sections of this trip: From Lewes, DE to Cambridge, MD, out to the Chesapeake Bay. These past 2.5 days are what kept me from sleeping last Friday night, wondering just how in the hell all this goofy stuff was going to come off. Well, it did…and not completely as planned, but my goal is to alive. So anyway, I’m sitting in a Comfort Inn right now with the AC on at 61-degrees as I’m nursing a Yuengling Lager. The sun was just crazy hot today, and unfortunately I don’t do to well in the heat. By the end of the day I was a bit on the whoosy side. Feels great to just sit here on a couch, drink an ice cold beer and peck away at the computer. 


Ok, the days recap. Got my earliest start of the trip thus far - 8:45 AM. Yea, not that early is it? But by Saturday and Sunday’s standards, this was an early one! Picked back up from yesterday on the old RR grade in this little 2-farm town called Oak Grove. This first section went great: the air was cool, the morning beautiful, and the DE countryside was just great. Felt wonderful to be riding - even down the middle of RR tracks. This area we’ve been traveling through is very similar to what I’ve experienced in South Carolina - soft, sandy soil, flat farmland, boggy lowlands, loads of pine trees, thickets, brambles, and a morning air that’s just saturated with the scent of pine needles on a cloudless, sunny morning. It was cycling nirvana. 


Well, within a few miles I’d ridden right into Md, so I had one state down with 12 to go. Made it to Fedralsburg, MD at a pretty fast clip - for ballast riding that is. Knocked down a coke in this little town park that Judy was parked in, and then rode through the middle of town on this big gravel berm that separated the RR from the town’s main street. And then the fun began. So the RR paralleled this state route for about 10 miles, and I do mean parallel - like about 50 feet separating the two. Now despite the fact that this RR line is pretty unused, it’s NOT condemned. Thus, I did not want to just ride the damned thing right next to the road, so I did the grassy berm between the RR and the state route…which is knee high grass that is  angled away from the road at about 20 degrees. So I went from a cranking 8 mph to a slug’s 4 mph pace. Had to hit the little cookie and the easiest gear in the back, a pie plate big enough to bake a 6 inch pizza. I mean this thing is a biggie!


So suddenly our support strategy changed what with my pathetic pacing. It took me about an hour to cover 4 miles, and by that time the sun was up and the heat was on. I asked Judy to stay closer with the support stops because of the severe drop in mph. That hour at 4mph just plain hurt. Downed a great turkey sandwich with avocado slammed a second coke and I went back at it, trying to just keep it rolling with real quick rest stops. Now Judy had told me to just give the RR a go despite the proximity to the road, so after riding that freaking grass camber for another mile I said what the hell, and it was back on the RR with the traffic looking at me like I was some kind of freak. Problem was, was that the RR ballast had changed for the worst while I was berminating - the ballast had kind of heaved up above the ties, creating this anthill effect every 8-10 inches between ties . It was pure hell to ride on, even with my Terex style 29er. I mean the jostling was so intense it damn near bucked me off the bike. And I’ll tell you what, I’ve ridden a ton of RR and this had to rank right up there as one of the very worst. Must have been the soft soil slowly over the years just heaving up above the height of the ties. 


So I got the hell off of those and went back to the knee high grass on a slant. Did another support stop in 3 miles, some 45 min later for more coke and water. By this time the temp was well into the 80’s (high today was about 86), and a 10-15 mph headwind had developed, and I was really beginning to feel the heat & wind. Just had to keep plugging away, knowing that the purgatory would be over within another 4-5 miles when the RR veered away from the RR. Did like a 5th support stop in the little town of New Market where I downed another avao/turkey sandwich, coke and water. 


Well, the RR did indeed veer away from the RR…BUT it was still the gnarly heaved up mounds of soil between ties, which I did indeed ride for a bit. But the pounding was so intense that I bounced from berm back to the RR back to berm back to RR. Kind of reminded me of the saying: insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Well, that was me! But I kept me cool, enduring just enough of one hell, and then transferring over to the other hell. 


By the time we had gotten to within 4 miles of Cambridge I was just smoked. Stopped in this little hamlet called Linkwood for yet another support stop of water and coke and a sweet and salty bar. I decided to bite the bullet and go full on RR for the next section due to the fact that the RR was just out in the middle of nowhere. Now this line looked like it hasn’t been used in like 10 yrs. I mean it was rusty, covered in pine needles and contained ties that are split up and beat to heck, so broken in half and sticking up in the air about 8-12 inches. But by God this is American Dirt, and with about 6 miles to go I had to get this thing under my belt. So I told Judy to meet me one last time in this even littler place called Airey. Have to say that this was the topper: the middle - between rails was just a total heaved up-broken ties-pine cone coated-branch littered mess I’ve seen in some time. And to make matters worse, I tried to ride on the sides of the tracks, but the ballast was so soft - more like sand and coal where my wheels would sink down about 2-3 inches. Couldn’t win either way. 


So there were times where I just bike-hiked because it was just plain easier. What a slow sog this one was. Limped in to our last support stop about 4 miles outside of Cambridge. Did a quick coke and water and told Judy I’d call her once I got down to the marina. In the meantime she was going to find a place to stay and get some groceries. So off I limped, just maxed out by the terrain, the sun and the headwind. Now on this final stretch I found a dbl track dirt farm access road along the RR, which I jumped on like a rabid dog. Took this puppy for a good 2 miles, darn near into downtown Cambridge. 


Once the farm road ended I was back on the RR, which at this point is basically condemned nothingness, with weeds growing in it that are knee high and these feeder lines running off of it that go nowhere - like they just stop in weeds and woods. Within another mile I made downtown Cambridge, where the RR just disappeared. From there I bike-hiked 2 blocks down to the Generation marina and I was ready to call Judy to see what she’d come up with.

BUT…at that last support stop I was so beat that I’d taken my backpack off to sit in the front seat for a quick minute…and I’d forgotten to put it back on. My phone, wallet, and everything were in my backpack in the van. So as I reached behind to pull the strap on my pack I discovered that it wasn’t on me. 


Could have literally kicked myself in the ass twice over for such a stupid gaff. Thought I just may have made my day a lot longer! Got on the road, knowing where the motels were from our recon mission last year, and I headed out that way hoping that I’d either see Judy at a motel, at a grocery store, or coming or going on Rt 50. Rode up the whole drag, to the last motel/hotel, past the Walmart, past just about everything and saw no black van with a canoe on top. So I rode back towards town, by that time really feeling like a total idiot. My only hope was if Judy would call me and then hear my phone ringing in my pack in the van. 


Well, that’s exactly what happened, and she had waited at a BP right on the main drag hoping to see me riding around looking for her. And I found her with on 20 minutes of the both of us not knowing where the hell the other was. Lesson learned  - on my side!!


So that’s it. Made it. Now we have a down day for the wait for my sail across the Chesapeake. And I can’t say I’m bummed what with the difficulty of the last several days. Plus, Judy has done such a phenomenal job doing support for me, she deserves a day to do stuff for her. So we’ll just hang for a day, recoup and the begin the next portion of the trip on the other side of the bay, on our way to the C & O trail - and some VERY casual riding.