I don't really like to get into superlatives, so I'm not going to mention that this is the biggest single mileage tour I'm riding ever, and including the most amazing scenery in the history of scenery, and links together three of the greatest contiguous cycling trails in the United States - Ohio to Erie, Great Allegheny Passage, and C&O Canal, bundling them into one amazing, fantastic, never-before ridden route with the best mix of camping and hotel stays tour. Nor would I mention that it's going to be around 800 miles of riding over 11 days. That's just not something I would do. I'll leave something like that kind of rhetoric for another journal.

The Route

My original plan was to take off across the country riding coast to coast the first day of my retirement. But things change. Surgeries happen. Dealing with an older cat happens. But now that I'm unencumbered of any of that, I have a plan, a route, it's 774 miles to Washington DC, I have a full camping setup, half a tour's worth of rations, it's dark, and I'm wearing sunglasses. Time to hit it.

Day-by-day. Day 0 I'm driving one-way from Georgia to the Cincinatti airport, dropping off the rental car, and riding to the hotel. Then my journey begins the next day.

1. ⛺️ 72 miles to Spring Valley OH. Ride follows OTET trail along its length. Camping at unimproved campsite in town park.
2. 🏨 79 miles to Easton Town Center OH. This is a huge commercial and restaurant complex NNE of Columbus. Looking forward to meeting some former work friends and sharing dinner with them.
3. ⛺️ 59 miles to Danville OH. Easy day on the bike and free camping at the end of the day.
4. ⛺️ 68 miles to Massillon OH. Along the way stopping at a great coffee house for lunch, and then a local museum in Massillon. Free camping along the canal at end of day.
5. ⛺️ 60 miles to Harrison State Forest OH. Navigating off the OTET south and onto new trails getting me closer to the WV and PA state lines.
6. 🏨 73 miles to Coraopolis PA. Cross over the WV state line, through the entire 14 miles in the WV peninsula, and then into PA where I link up with the Montour Trail (a trail that I didn't mention in my description of the three greatest trails ever, above!). I suspect one of my tasks today will be laundry :-)
7. ⛺️ 79 miles to Connellsville PA. Back onto the Great Allegheny Passage, but first a stop in Bicycle Heaven. I wanted to visit this place last tour, but the timing didn't work out.
8. ⛺️ 76 miles to Frostburg MD. Rolling up and over the Eastern Continental Divide, and then a few miles downhill until I get to the campground in Frostburg.
9. ⛺️ 81 miles to Little Pool Campsite MD. First few miles of the day I roll into Cumberland, and then roll along the flat canal to the free camping spots along the canal.
10. ⛺️ 78 miles to Indian Flats Campsite MD. Again, rolling along the flat, smooth canal path. If I'm feeling good I can go further, but I have big days planned.
11. 🚃 49 miles to Union Station in Washington DC. Here, I pick up the Amtrak home (on the "midnight train to Georgia"), which goes overnight and then I ride home from the train station the next morning. 

The Kit

I'm going to be kitted out but not so much that I'm over-kitted. Just enough to make the tour comfortable and light enough that I can carry it over the miles each day. And there will be no mention of KITT, because that would involve more Hasselhoff narration that I'm not prepared to discuss in this diatribe ("Knight Rider," look it up :-)).

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This is also the inaugural tour of my new bike. I have been involved in dialing-in this bike since last fall, and I think I have it to a place in which it's a very comfortable all-day rideable beast. Several cool things about the machine:

• There's storage inside the downtube, accessible with a door just behind the water bottle cage (you can see in the photo if you enlarge it). I have my spare tube, multi-tool, pump, and micro-fiber cloth in there.
• It may not look it, but this bike rocks a bit of suspension. Just below the stem is what Specialized calls a "Future Shock" which absorbs road vibration keeping my hands happy. And keeping the rear end of me happy is the Seatpost, which flexes to absorb bumps. I also replaced the Brooks Cambium saddle with my long-time, broken-in Brooks Leather saddle. Now THAT'S comfort!
• The bike sports 700x42 tires, so keeping inflation to 40lbs also helps smooth out the miles over the long-haul.
• The gearing is not as low as my Niner, but low-enough that I should be able to drag it up and over the > 21,000' of climbing over the 11 days. My Niner has a custom 1x11 setup with a low of about 19 gear-inches, and this new bike's 2x11 setup has a low of around 23 gear-inches. Lots of tech talk in this bullet point, so let's just get to some pictures, shall we?

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Epilogue

If you've made it to this point in the entry, congratulations! I'm not sure I could even get this far, and I'm the author. And if you're sad there's an epilogue already, fear not. This is only for this entry. You will have plenty of time to be sad when the tour is over and I write the REAL epilogue. And then we can commiserate together as I plan the next tour.

No, I'm kidding. I've already planned the next tour - the Empire Trail in September 2024.