You're a champ! I once ordered the lumberjack breakfast in Freedom, Wisconsin (on the 4th of July no less). The amount of food I was given could easily have fed three. Except got the locals who all seemed to weight well in excess of 300 pounds.

I thought about buying bear spray on my ride through the mountains on the TransAm out west in 2022. Probably should have.
It never occurred to me to bring some for the dogs in eastern Kentucky. I don't think I'd ever tour in a rural area without it from now on.

Totally agreed. And for me learning about a certain structure's significance or the history surrounding it often gives viewing it and being there so much more meaningful.

The "walk softly and carry a big stick" approach I guess. It's a method of last resort in case I get into a sticky situation in which I want to save myself from harm. So that could be really aggressive dogs, really aggressive humans, or on this last trip, geese. There was a section where I only had one navigation option because the C&O path was forward and no alternate routes. There were about 40-50 geese across the path, and about 20% of those were juveniles (I just mean younger, not that they were singing songs from West Side Story or anything like that). I got off the bike, got the spray ready, and slowly walked through giving as much distance as possible and putting the bike between myself and the herd. Didn't have to use it but if attacked I wanted some way to defend myself.

Last fall in September I rode through the C&O as well and the parks department had just opened the tunnel about a week prior to my arrival. So coincidently it was timed rather well. In fact, there were still NPS workers there cleaning up the construction site when I passed through.

The Thermacell works quite well. it uses the same formula as those spiral devices we burned when we were younger (permethrin or something like that). Give it a few minutes to establish the "bubble" around the location of the Thermacell and then you're golden.

The Thermacell sounds interesting. Mosquitos on the C&O can be brutal.

I did Erie to Pittsburgh last summer as well. Unfortunately for me, the Paw Paw tunnel was closed so I had to push my bike up and over using a hiking trail. No fun.

I use the same pannier approach. Works great.

Why the bear spray?

One of my favorite things about bike touring is discovering (for me, at least) little known gems. Cool that you rode across the Roebling Bridge. It was designed and built by the same man who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. (His son built the latter.)

Looks cool to me. I'd stay there as long as there are no squirrels, mice, or spiders inhabiting the place.

I guess we'll just have to apologize to the residents until we stumble upon the correct pronunciation - enjoy the UP!

I'd have pronounced the names of both of those cities exactly as you did. Much to my embarrassment, I've mis-pronounced other town names when I've been there. Like Havre, Montana and Cairo, Illinois. (Haver & Kayro, not Hahv-ra & Ky-ro.)

Thanks for the comment! Exactly what you're thinking about connecting the two is what I set out to do with this ride. I ended up with 783 miles over the 11 days. I'm about to write out the two days going from Bolivar OH to Coraopolis PA (basically, the Pittsburgh airport) so stay tuned. That two-day section is on YT at https://youtu.be/isY9koGon_U if you want to see what it looks like. I had to reroute it because of the closed bridge at Steubenville so I took the next bridge south along the Ohio River at Wellsburg. GPX of the entire route at https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46371730 if you want to follow what I did. Cheers!

Paul,

Enjoying the journal quite a bit. Have cycled the Little Miami extensively and have cycled the GAP and CnO as well. Your journal is showing me how to connect the mid section which might just need to happen next spring.

Haha - nothing like a good earwig to start the day. In the video, I even sing, "I churn the butter once or twice living in an Amish paradise". I have to sing off key and off tempo so I don't get tagged for copyright infringement.

Paul, I’m reading this just before heading out for my ride today. Thanks for getting “Amish Paradise” stuck in my head. I’m sure it will accompany me throughout my ride today. 🙂