Day 97

Dogs
The trail never really got better. It was like they made it over a decade ago and then never once did any upkeep on it except maybe keeping it mowed in places. There wasn't a good way to route around it though. I decided to just enjoy the fact that I didn't have to worry about cars or hills. I would often see a road beside the trail. It was constantly changing elevation. On the trail, it was so smooth that I only rarely had to change gears, and that was usually from the crappy path, not the slope. The first tunnel was really amazing. I intended on just riding through, but the graffiti on the concrete walls were so interesting that I ended up walking and checking it all out. I probably spent at least 20 minutes there. There were several other tunnels, but none were as long or as cool as the first. Most had brick walls but one or two were just rock. I got to a town, asked around for postcards, and finally ended up in a bike shop/general store. They didn't have the exact postcards I like but it said West Virginia! Now I can go full steam into Pennsylvania. It finally started raining again. I experimented with riding in the road alongside the rail trail, but the hills and just the fact that I couldn't be sure when to turn (because my phone doesn't work in the rain) caused me to quickly get back on the trail that was becoming even worse from the rain. I finally went through another tunnel. I waited out the rain for a bit. I sang and beat boxed into the tunnel and enjoyed the echoing acoustics. Then I saw two people coming. It was a long tunnel- maybe they didn't hear me. I wanted to just leave, but just about any biker eventually passes me, so I figured it would be less imbarrising just to stay put. They never did come by though. I'm pretty sure now that my mind was playing tricks on me. Or maybe they started going through, saw me and decided to go back. I have no clue. I finally started continuing on. I quickly found another shelter and a bathroom. I spent quite a while here too, just chillin. I don't know why. I think it's part of the whole slowing down thing. I might as well enjoy the trip while I still can- I have only a bit more than 2 weeks left. The rain was off and on. After this I got to a paved part and I almost freaked out because I thought I would be rocketing through the rest of te trail. Unfortunately it didn't last long. It was paved just long enough to pass over a few roads and then it was back to grass and dirt. Now, I see tons of cemeteries, but I never stopped to check them out. Part of that is I want to be respectful, part is I don't really have time to randomly stop. Some have looked really interesting though. Even though I didn't stop, it was tempting. Some tombstones were just rocks- I can't imagine what the dates on those must be. All the cemeteries I had seen so far were near a town and were well maintained. The one I passed today looked forgotten. The plants were so overgrown that some stones were unreadable. I'm sure there were even more that I couldn't even see. Most of the dates I saw were from the 1800s. Pretty crazy. I hope someone takes the initiative to clean that place up. I saw another fat spider as I made my way back to the trail. It started to rain harder and it was getting darker, but I knew I still had at least 20 minutes and I wanted to get away from this cemetery. I'm not superstitious or anything, but living animals visiting my tent at night is enough for me. I saw a few places that looked like they'd work but I continued on anyways, thinking I would find more. I didn't. The houses got more plentiful and the trail got more muddy. I couldn't camp here if I tried- there were small streams of water on both sides of the trail. I checked google and of course, I was passing through a town. 10 minutes before I needed to find camp. Crap. I thought about heading back, using the road this time, but I knew it would be a long way, possibly just as long as going the other way, so I just trudged on. It would have been too dark to see the road, but luckily there were street lamps everywhere. I passed by a small patch of woods in the middle of town- it would have to do. I ducked out of sight and set up my tent. There was a tin roof building nearby, so I could always tell when the rain picked up. I seemed to get worse right when I got into my tent. That was good timing.