Spring 1997 - Cincinnati to Yukon
Journals - 11 April 1997
Day 11 - Shawnee Forest, OH
11 April 1997 (very sunny and warm, beautiful day; started getting cold at
night; mileage = 26.5) -- A - We are still in the hotel room. Chris is
putting the computers on the bikes, so we can avoid navigational errors
based on our inept estimation of how far we've gone. Maybe if I know how
slow I'm going, it'll be motivation to speed up (my legs don't think so).
I'm feeling pretty achy this morning -- glad we have a fairly short ride
planned today. It's warmer outside and partly sunny. I hear rain is in the
forecast for Cinti. We'll see if we get any. I started leaking this
morning; hopefully I won't feel yucky. I may buy some Advil when we stop
for groceries just to be safe. Hoping to camp in Shawnee State Forest
tonight. X - We took off from the hotel and headed for downtown and the
post office where we mailed some unwanted stuff back to Cinci. We then
went to the grocery store where April shopped and I set up the intercoms.
We rode out of Portsmouth past the murals and onto a closed road. That was
very strange and we seemed lucky to get across the concrete divider in the
middle of it. But we were able to turn off and as we headed into W.
Portsmouth toward the forest, April's chain attacked her spokes. It lodged
itself quite seriously between her big cog and the hub/spokes. I had to
break her chain, pull off the wheel, then remove my chain to use with her
cranks as a chain whip. Finally we got that straightened out. This repair
was under a carport of a very small apt building. School must have just let
out and hoards of teenagers drove by. I was anxious to leave. There was H2O
there, so I could wash my hands. So we went back down to the main street
and soon after April took a spill in some gravel. There seemed to be a lot
of people around. We did finally escape Portsmouth by climbing a huge
outrageously steep hill. There was a lot of trash in this area and most of
the road was lined with a shoulder made in the woods with a bulldozer. We
were on course just fine, but despite our bike computers, we took a wrong
turn, or more accurately, we didn't take a turn to go straight. We weren't
looking at the mileage much. We ended up popping out on 52 by the river
(Ohio) again which was very annoying. Apparently, we took Carey's Run-Pond
Creek Road instead of Pond Creek-Carey's Run Road. It's very easy to get
lost here. We stopped for rest and a snack and to plan at a park off 52. We
then rode down to 125, up about a mile, and into a Shawnee Forest area
gravel road. The sign at the entrance said closed at 11:00. Odd, eh? We
found a PERFECT spot just off the road where there was no way we could be
seen. We set up the tent and ate chili and about right after we had
finished, we were sitting outside in the power loungers and we heard
vehicles driving up and down this gravel road in the middle of nowhere.
About 2-3 passes. Then we heard one stopping and a car door slam. We were
both super quiet. We faintly heard voices and then dogs barking. It
sounded like a man hunt. I could see flashlights on the hill across the
valley. We sat there listening for at least an hour and we heard them round
up the dogs and drive around a bit. They did seem to leave just before
11:00. VERY weird! So we were kind of tense about this place, but we got in
the tent and went to sleep. At about 1:30, we were awoken by very loud,
very persistent deer wheezing and trampling, which lasted quite an
annoyingly long time. If I had a big gun, I would have become a deer hunter
last night.
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