USNA 1973 Ride-2-Remember

Day 53, 25 September: Bolivar to Steubenville, OH

Day 53 started out at 0645 at 59F as we left The Sleep Inn (which we certainly do not do) in Bolivar, OH.

A quick sprint down the highway with a left turn at the top of the hill brought us to the trailhead for the Zoar Trail.

About 5 miles in, the problem with riding road bikes on trails manifested itself with another flat tire. Ever diligent Mark soon had the flat fixed and rider on his way. At the other end of the trail I waited for someone to emerge and got a photo of Doug as he finished it.

From here on, it was mostly roads to Steubenville, some country farm, others highway. It was here that once again my Ride with GPS went on a ride of its own and instead of 18 miles off course, I only went less than a mile off course this time, but to correct I had to take dirt roads to the highway to get back on course where I met aforementioned flat tire record holder. Without whom who knows where I would have ended up even after 5 resets of Ride with GPS and an earbud change. Since arriving in Steubenville, the techies amongst us have investigated and finding all settings correct, a delete then reinstall app was performed. Stay tuned, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Today reminded us of riding in Oregon, lots of climbing and lots of humidity. Ophelia’s outer bands are still favoring us with overcast skies all day and near liquid air. Streets are wet, but we only had to deal with a slight mist, although there was fog over the waterways this morning.

Climbs today had peak inclines from 8-19%, short thankfully, but attention grabbers. Most of the climbing today was in the last half of the ride making it a little more difficult.

Totals for the day were a little over 61 miles with, depending on which GPS or app you believe, 3500-4100’ of ascent.

Dave Haefner