Mike Cox called a few days after getting back from Newfoundland. Hey, you interested in riding the Southern SOAL BDR route. Sure, if it’s not raining!
I jad to check one thing on the bike after getting back and it was fine.
Sunday, October 18th I head out. Brrrr, 38° but warming to the mid 60’s. It wasn’t bad. I had on my suit, heated jacket liner on level 3 of 10. Sweater and under armor top/bottom. Jeans, heated gloves but not plugged in but my heated grips were on HI! I waited until 9 am so it warmed up… a bit. Of course there was a head wind until Bloomington. But sunny and getting warmer! Stopped for gas just before Champaign and removed the heated gear. 10 miles from Indianapolis I stopped to walk around a bit to wake up and then ate at a Love’s/ Subway station. Must have been the cheapest gas around as it was stacked deep the whole time I ate. It was 1 pm and it was time to remove the sweater. Topped off with gas as a spot open up as I was leaving. Traffic around Indianapolis was moving well but I was glad to be leaving it behind as I headed East on I70 then hit I75 down to Dayton, OH and then 35 East. Took that all the way to Chillicothe. Got there on reserve but that was my destination. Gassed up and the Quality Inn was right there. Checked in then located Mike at the Hampton Inn. Met Chuck who was with Mike. Chuck’s an interesting guy and we all talked for for a few hrs. They went to bed and I went to my rm and watched Batman The Dark Knight. First time watching it. Christian Bale is so good.
Today we left at 9 as it was quite cold earlier and we weren’tin a rush. I had to scrape frost off my seat. It was up to 39 when we left and I didn’thave heated gear on. Sunny and no wind. 20 miles later we were on back roads doing 50. That helped. Then on gravel doing 30. Slowly warmed up. Most of the day was in hilly country on gravel roads with trees arching over us. Saw some deer here and there. Beautiful country in southern Ohio. Reminds me a lot of South Western Wisconsin. We went across two smaller water crossings and Mike said those were the only two… He was wrong as we came across two more. Both deeper with steeper exits. One of them was deep enough that water splashed up inside my suit and soaked the inside of my boot. Yeah it was wet! Mike laughed and said… you’re the one who didn’t bring your Enduro boots! In my defense he said it was all mostly gravel roads. I should have known better… especially when I saw him in his Enduro boots!
Lots of ups and downs today as we followed valleys then went up and over the ridges. Steep enough to be in first gear with no gas and still tapping the rear brake now and again. We went up one incline that was pretty steep and eroded. Got to the top and Chuck said… I wonder if that was the hill climb people talk about. I had no clue and Mike wasn’t sure. An hour later we found out that it wasn’t! We came up to one and up we went and I got on the gas to get my speed up. My suspension was set on the soft side and it was all good until we were scrambling up this climb. Bike was bounding around a bit towards the top over some rocks and erosion V’s filled with rocks. Got up and took a break… and removed the sweater and went to warm weather gloves. I had started the day with heavy gloves then medium gloves and now Summer gloves as it was a warm 68.
We had small elevation changes but I knew we had climbed quite a bit and we had to come down sometime. It didn’t show as I guess we were running along a ridge. Mike said we were turning left soon as he had his map zoomed out a bit and I had mine zoomed in to see details better. I came to the turn right as he said that… and I said… yes, and then we are starting down right away. Yep, steep and to the right it was badly eroded but on the left it was just steep and it curved and kept going down, down,down through woods that had no undergrowth so you could see a ways through them.
An hr later we got to the Shawnee lodge. They weren’t ready so we went down the road for gas and a burger and a shake at the Buckeye Dairy Bar.
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