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Saturday, May 30: I left off yesterday about picking my poison for today. I chose Hemlock! Because it damn near wrecked me. 


So I’d decided last evening to try to continue on the abandoned RR line that leads from Athens to Lake Hope SP and eventually Zaleski. The first half, from Athens to New Mansfield, is not designated as anything in the form of an official trail, and in some areas it’s reverted back to the owners since there’s a law of some sort that gives the right of way back to the land owners if the rails are pulled out and the right of way lays vacant for X amount of time. This I schooled myself on as I researched these old rail lines. Now sometimes the right of way really isn’t acted upon, and in other cased people either put up “No Trespassing” signs to keep the ATCers out, build on the strip of old line, use the old line as a driveway or personal ATC track, or the line is obliterated by businesses, roads or houses. It really varies. 

The second half of the trail, from about Mineral, a 2 trailer town just west of New Mansfield, is designated as the start of the Moonville Railtrail, and it goes all the way to Zalerski. It has no designated trailheads and is mainly undeveloped… and you know what that means! So I decided to do as much as the non-designated section from Athens to New Mansfield as I could without trespassing and then do berimator for the other sections, then I’d ride the infamous Moonville trail in it’s full length. Judy dropped me off at my finish point from yesterday and I began the day’s ride doing berm, which actually wasn’t too back. Took Luhrig Rd which parallels the old RR line. Now this is one of the sections where people have posted No Trespassing signs, used the old line as driveways, built houses on the old line, etc. So it was pretty much a done deal not to go meddling on someone else’s property. Good thing too cuz the sections of old line still intact were just bloody horrible looking. I was 3x faster just doing the berm on this 1.5 lane country road instead of thrashing along the old line. 


So we did this for about 5 miles up to a point to where the old line do this straight line through a 3 mile stretch of woodlands into the town of New Mansfield. I was intent on doing this section since it was totally away from roads and houses. Had Judy just go straight to New Mansfield where I’d meet her at the end of this segment. So Judy drives off and I enter the old RR line on what looks like a driveway next to a trailer with all sorts of junk piled up all over the property. I didn’t get but 5 pedal strokes in and this lady comes out and asked me what I was doing. “I’m riding to New Mansfield,” I replied. “Not on there you’re not,” was her response. So I asked her if there as an access to the old line somewhere else closeby. She said, “yea, get yourself on that road there, this is private property”. 


Now if you’d have seen this woman, and I use that term very politely, you’d have done just what I did - get the hell out of there. She looked frightening, and what I feared even more  than her was the potential that she had a hubby who weighed three fitty, who was sporting a dbl barrel shotgun and spitting chewing tobacco. That thought turned my lycra clad ass right around to the road. Yup, that sealed the deal for sure, so I knew from routing Judy to New Mansfield that that’s the same route I’d have to take. Wasn’t even about to try to pull a fast one on these Southern Ohio folks! Did berm all the way down Salem Rd, then more berm as I rode west on Rt 56. Some sections were good, some downright sucked. But I got to New Mansfield in descent time. And as I was riding, I thought about not being able to ride that section. More than likely, since I’d seen where the old RR line comes out on the east side of New Mansfield, and it was NASTY looking, that it quite possibly have been a complete crapfest. Maybe Miss congeniality saved me a ton of trouble?


And that was pretty darned easy actually considering all the crap from yesterday. So next up was the section I’d seen yesterday with the well worn ATC track on it. I told Judy I just didn’t know what to expect on the next segment, could be golden all the way, or it could be a little section of ATC track leading me into a complete nightmare. Gave Judy directions to Lake Hope SP and asked her to meet me at the damn. For this section there is no chance of any other support - you go all in and hope you can do it cuz the phones don’t work and there are zero parallel roads along this thing for most of it’s length. It just goes through miles of wetlands, swamps, lakes, streams and woodland. It’s part of Zaleski State Forest and it’s pretty wild. It IS THE straightest line to the state park. If I would fail at staying with the Moonville railtrail, then I’d mega miles of road to get me into the park. But hey…this is a designated trail. Even has a website. Can’t be that bad!


So I’m thinking all this as Judy drives off and I head down this great dbl ATC track. “Looks damn good,” I was thinking. “Wouldn’t it be refreshing if this thing was like this the whole way to the park,” I even said out loud to myself with a giggle. I had this one coming to me. Within a mile the ATC track ended and the old RR line turned into nothing but jungle. So I got on this paralleling road and did berm riding trying to stay with the old line. But within a mile it disappeared. So I took a left on another tiny little county road and did berm on that looking and looking to me left and right for any sign of the old grade. Then about a mile down the road I see this collection of ATC track, and just above them is the old line. BUT there are these No Trespassing signs up on the tracks that are along the road. I wondered if they applied to the sides along the old line…or to everything? I mean from what I’d understood that section was designated as trail. So I went for it and accessed the RR line. Rode on some great dbl track ATC again and that lasted for about a mile. 


But slowly, the ATC dbl track kind of petered out to just single track, and then foot trail and then it went by this dirt road…and dead ended at an old RR abutment, with a creek down about 50 feet. I mean there was zero access to get across. None of the ATC guys had blazed a trail through there. Went back out to the gravel road and saw that it went way the hell up into the hills, far from the RR line and the stream. As I said before, you get to a point of no return on this segment, and I was at the gates. I knew from the past with bushwhacking, if you open that door, you usually get far enough in so that there’s become no choice but to continue. So the road option was out, I mean going back to the start and trying to do berm on main routes, that was NOT an option. It would take the day to accomplish. What really made my decision was that this WAS a designated trail, the Moonville Railtrail. So I took to pushing my bike through a field about 300 yrds from the abutment so I wouldn’t have to descend down the steep slope to the stream, then waded across the stream with bike in tow, ascended up the steep embankment on the other side, and bike hiked the bike down the trail.


Was able to ride just a short stint, and then another abutment, another descent, another stream Xing, this one as I did a tightrope walk across a big deadfall carrying the bike, then another ascent up the steep embankment, and another shot stint of riding on this gametrail on ballast through saplings, thorns, briars, and vines. Now multiply this scenario 5 more times. NO kidding - 7 of these Xing’s. By number 5 I was saying to myself, “I physically don’t know how many more of these I can do.” and then another abutment, another creek, and more climbing and descending up steep slopes with a duel suspension 29er. Now as I went along single track actually started to appear, and I could ride these sections pretty well. They were still on golfball sized ballast and the width of the trail was super narrow - again, thank goodness for my narrowing the bars before the trip. But I would get slapped now and then by branches and raked by thorns. Thankfully I was wearing my bush pants and not even wearing cycling shoes, but my hiking shoes instead. This seems to be the theme right now for cycling: bush pants and hiking shoes - as I ride with eggbeater pedals!


So anyway, I did 7 of these things, and it was beginning to feel like Groundhog Day. Just kept going, thinking that THAT was the last one, and heck, the trail was getting more and more defined, so it was not digressing. Finally came to this section where I saw people. One guy at first, then a few more. Knew at this point I was very close to the state park, cuz all the people were there to walk through the Moonville tunnel, one of two tunnels I’d already ridden through. Felt pretty good at that point, so I continued on the railtrail, and be damned it not more than 200 yrds down the trail was this monster abutment, and a creek that had to be 5-6 feet deep and 2yrds wide. This was number 8…and I was DONE with abutments, creeks, steep slopes and dragging a bike. 


Now I knew from recon work that this area was very close to the park, and come hook or crook, I was freaking getting there WITHOUT making another damned crossing. Went back to the gravel road all the tourists had come in on, and went left, kind of remembering the road from a few years ago, and stayed parallel to the trail. Had to do some gravel climbing, but hell, that was child’s play compared to what I’d had to endure on that 8th crossing. And the road, as I’d remembered did indeed parallel, and then X the RR line. Got back on and took it another couple miles. That’s when I ran into two kayakers who were taking a break from Hewett Creek, which I’d just avoided Xing for the 8th time. 


They told me they’d just spent 9 hrs kayaking this little monster from Zeleski. Now by my count, that’s only 5 miles west of the park! This because of all the deadfall in the water they had to portage around. Told them I’d just ridden from New Mansfield and Xed that freaking creek 7x. They asked me how the water conditions along the way further downstreem. Told them it was deplorable and choked with deadfall, some of which I’d used to X the stream. And they kind of sighed in disgust. Hope I didn’t mess up their day, but also praised them for their fortitude, because they were doing something even tougher than I. Their kayaks were just loaded with gear for the weekend, and had to be super heavy to portage up and over that deadfall over and over. Wished them luck, but not without asking how far to the Lake Hope damn was? “It’s right there,” the one guy said, pointing down the road 50 yrds. And be damned if it wasn’t. I’d made it through the toughest stretch of riding yet - the “I’ll never do THIS again,” Moonvile Railtrail!


Rode up to the beach area, thinking the whole time, “please be there Judy, please be there.” Got around the bend and began looking for that telltale van with camo canoe on top - and nothing. Tried to call her and as usual, nothing on her line. I had 3G with one bar, but her phone was outside of service area. So there I sat for 30 min, going over all these scenarios, both good and bad, that could have sidetracked her. Sat in the sun trying to let my clothing dry off, the top from sweat, the bottoms and shoes and socks from wading across the stream umpteen times. Felt good to just relax, yet still felt uneasy about Judy. So I rode up this climb to the westside cabins, and this was a climb! Nothing. Back to the beach and still nothing. Decided to ride back down to 278, by now really beginning to think more of the worse than the better. I mean I had all these stupid scenarios going on in my head about what may have happened to her. Felt I just couldn’t keep her going through this shit day after day. And be damned I didn’t go past where I’d originally come out from the trail and there she was, parked there for the whole time for God’s sake. I was so elated to see her that I pretty much forgot about my one-hr spell of stupidity. Just super happy to see her!


What had happened was that as soon as I went from trail to lake, I just automatically went to the left on 278 assuming she’d be at the beach, while in fact she’d just parked to the right, just off the main road next to the damn area. Couldn’t see her from the beach, yet there she sat for nearly an hour. Nonetheless I was pretty dang thankful that we had zero issues. That’s when I suggested that we just get a cabin in the park so she could do something rather than chase my ass all over the countryside for the rest of the day. Nice park, nice day, good opp for her to get a ride in while I licked my wounds from today in the cabin. And tell ya what I was just trashed. So that’s today, where I made a whopping 15 miles of progress over the course of 3.5 hrs of actual riding, hiking, thrashing, pushing, pulling, lifting, straddling, wading, cursing, and HOPING. The hoping thing really gave me cause to think about the other aspects of this trip, and that’s making sure Judy has a memorable trip, not a nightmare day after day. Time and distance we can try to make up, sanity and enjoyment together we cannot. So here we sit in a cozy little cabin where I did the cooking for a change and Judy got to do some things for herself for a change. Funny how a little scare can really help to set you straight!