Wooster, Ohio to Niles, Ohio

Today's ride was, once again, another long and difficult ride. I recognize that my recent postings probably all carry a recurrent theme of commenting on how hard things are. But that is, honestly, pretty accurate. The past three days, plus tomorrow, constitute four very long, hard, and consecutive rides, all with very hilly terrain.

I grew up in northeast Ohio. I don't remember it as being this hilly! What happened?

We left Wooster this morning and it was actively raining hard. That is always a deflating way to get started on a ride. It felt like it did on the morning that we left Indianapolis. Happily enough however, the rain stopped after less than an hour on the road. Overcast skies persisted throughout the rest of the day, but no more rain.

Leaving the city, we did go by a fair amount of the Wooster College campus. It was nice to see that. It was deserted, as you would expect for this time of year, but a very attractive college campus nonetheless.

I am not entirely sure how we got out, as the route was difficult to mentally follow. We had a very complex cue sheet today. Indeed, today is the only day in the entire trip in which we had a two-page cue sheet, that stapled together. There were innumerable short segments of riding, with equally innumerable right and left turns. One could have the feeling that we were being led through a maze.

I know that we did go through a town called Canal Fulton. That was a cute small town. There were red brick roads in the center of the town. Those may be pretty, but riding a road bike on those bricks was no fun.

We went by Canton, at one point. Our first SAG stop was at a parking lot next to a church cemetery. That location was just a short distance from Shuffel road, which had taken us by the Akron-Canton airport. (I was impressed with how big that airport is.)

Leaving the SAG, we went through Marlboro Township and then the Town of Marlboro. During that time, we were traveling east on highway 619. It was at that time that we crossed highway 44, that going north and south, as we continued east on 619. I saw at that crossing the sign indicating that a left (north) turn on 44 would take us to Ravenna.

Seeing that sign immediately brought to me a flood of memories from my early bike riding years, back when I lived in Painesville, Ohio. That same road, highway 44, continues further north, beyond Ravenna, all the way to Painesville. In addition to being called 44, the more northern section of that road is called locally "Painesville-Ravenna Road". It starts from Painesville an intersection not far from my old home, the intersection with Liberty and Bank streets. (That intersection is where Frizell's Freeze and the Dinner Bell restaurant were both located. I loved both of those places. I wonder if they are still there.) We could bike over to that intersection and then take 44 south from that point. I remember that it was a nice initial downhill ride, leaving that intersection. We used to take that road to Chardon and back, a nice ride for us at the time.

Needless to say however, today I did not turn on to 44 and go north. I dutifully followed the cue sheet and stayed on route 619, continuing on eastward.

The ride today really was arduous. In the latter part of the day, we had a constant headwind. The unpleasantness of that was exacerbated by the deteriorating road quality. Indeed, in the last 25 to 30 miles before arriving in Niles today, we experienced probably the worst road quality of the entire trip thus far. Getting close to Niles, the road had potholes large enough for me to hide in! It was difficult to avoid holes in the road, as swerving away from one would generally only lead you into an adjacent one. That is not fun ever, but it is very much not fun when you are tired and near the end of a long ride.

Oh well. You can't always have perfect roads.

We rode 91 miles today. Everyone was tired. Very tired. Even the fast riders arrived at the destination in Niles quite late today. I did not get in until 3:45 PM. That late arrival really makes life difficult on a trip like this, as it dramatically cuts down on your post-ride "recovery time". After you clean your bike and shower, there just isn't a lot of free time left before the daily 5:45 PM group meeting ("Route Rap") when we get our briefing on the next day's ride.

Tomorrow is our ride to Erie, Pennsylvania. A new state line crossing again tomorrow! That is another long ride. Hopefully tomorrow's roads, winds, and other variables will be better than today's were.

We get to Erie tomorrow (Wednesday), and then we have our last full rest day of the trip on the next day (Thursday). On Friday, we start our final week of riding! How exciting is that? It is difficult for me to believe!