I slept like the dead in the pitch black guest room at Mark and Terry’s house.

I woke up and my sore throat was gone but my general fatigue remained.

Mark made scrambled eggs and bacon and Terry made coffee and all the other things.

Terry provided me with two sandwiches on pretzel bread which didn’t get squished in my panniers.

At 8:30 I worked my way back to the Monuments route and followed it with only one wrong turn into Baltimore. It was much hillier than I expected which became a theme of the day.

I rode past the sports stadiums and made my way due north from the Inner Harbor area. The first few miles were past run down buildings. Eventually I came to Johns Hopkins University where commencement was underway. After Hopkins I entered a posh residential area.

I benefited from some pretty sweet bike infrastructure. Alas, I was also treated to a few dozen red lights which made the ride tedious.

North of Baltimore I continued my red light tour eventually finding the rail trail to York. For the next 42 miles I did not encounter a single traffic light. Yay.

Unfortunately the trail angles upward by one degree or so creating a false flat. You think you’re on level ground but you’re working hard to break 10 miles per hour.

It was quite a grind but the scenery was grand and the unpaved riding surface was surprisingly firm.

I had originally planned to stop off the trail in Freeland Maryland to camp but I had no cell signal and I wasn’t about to risk wandering into the hilly countryside only to find the place couldn’t accommodate me.

It was only 3 p.m. so I figured I’d ride another 20 miles to another campground. As luck would have it the trail was slightly downhill once I crossed into Pennsylvania. My speed jumped four miles per hour.

I managed to get a cell signal and contacted the campground. They had space for me. An hour later I pushed my bike through a field with one porta potty. Beyond that were 20 or so RVs. The notes at the campground office said $36 for a primitive site.

Not for me.

I rode the rest of the trail into York and found a dubiously named Quality Inn. I have a bed and a shower and a “hot breakfast” – almost sure to be not so hot.. I really needed to get the dust of that trail off me. The hotel had a ten percent off deal at the Mexican restaurant next store. The meal was also of dubious quality. (Yeah, I ate it.)

The hotel clerk had a bike in the lobby. It’s a 1947 Swiss Army bike. Very cool. I meant to ask him if it came with a corkscrew but I forgot.

I’m working on lining up a Warmshowers host for tomorrow. I’m about 30 miles farther than planned.

Heart

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