Bellow falls.

Today was short mileage. These mountains are wearing me out. 27 miles and 1400 feet of elevation gain. Also Google maps made it a lot tougher then it needed to be today. It sent me down what it called a bike trail. It was large rocks and mostly a dry creek bed. I would have to lift my bike up onto some of the bigger rocks other places were so steep I would push the bike forward, squeeze the brakes, then walk a step and repeat. I consoled myself by searching the dense forest for moose. This trail was really out in the wilderness. It started where a dirt road ended and it looked like good moose habitat.

After a couple hours of this brutal hike a bike I stopped and ate tuna fish on tortillas. As I was sitting there I detected movement about a 75 yards away in thick brush. I hurriedly crawled over to my bike and got out my camera. Either a bear smelled my lunch or I was going to see a moose! Either way I wanted pictures. I grabbed my camera and crawled beside a big dead log to get in a great position. Poking my head up,looking through the viewfinder of the camera I was looking at two ladies who looked rather perturbed at my peculiar behavior. Telling them I thought they were moose did nothing to warm there frosty demeanor. I quickly finished my tortillas. I must be near the end of this if they were walking in. Thankfully another quarter mile and I was on a dirt road. Soon the dirt turned into gravel then into asphalt. Finally I was back on route 5 again. Google’s shortcut took over 3 hours.

Road riding is a bit more interesting then riding on the trails usually. But I miss meeting and talking with people. Sometimes at a stoplight somebody might ask where are you going? The conversation is very brief. I have about 80 more miles of roads until I’m on a rail trail. I’m looking forward to it.