Day 107- Swamp

It was so cold. I wanted to get a move on because I thought I might be visible from the nearby house's driveway, but the cold kept me inside. Plus, I knew I was pretty much golden by now: I only need to average 60 miles a day. Finally I got up and got on the road just before 9. It didn't take long before I was in Connecticut. I got into a big town and checked around for postcards- no luck. No worries, I have plenty of state to go through. I spent a long time on sidewalks. I was so close to the water that there were never any breaks between the cities. This ride had views that reminded me the most of home. I could see land across the water. I got into a small town and checked a pharmacy. They had the usual greeting cards, but I didn't see any postcards among them. I almost left but I figured I should ask. Just before I was going to, I spotted the postcard rack at the front counter. Lucky me! I told the owner about my trip. He charged me a dollar, but then gave me a free water. He came out to check out my bike, and then offered me some snacks for the road. I'm so happy to know that there are such kind folks out there. Oh yeah, and there was a parrot outside. I hope the cold doesn't bother him too much. Finally I got to a point where I couldn't see the land across the water anymore and I assumed I must be seeing the Atlantic Ocean. It felt pretty great to have another milestone marked off. I found out later that it was still part of the inlet. Apparently a lot of the land on the other side can't be seen from this side. Meh. Some other day, probably soon. I was nervous about finding camp, but I had my eye on a spot that had a trail going through it. I passed by some woods on the way and was about to call it quits for the day when I heard people talking. I stood there for a while. Finally I heard them again and saw them. They must have been hunting or exploring or something. I could have waited, but if they were in the woods, who else could be? I kept going, and quickly found the next park of the journey was a trail. When I passed by the narrow path between cement blocks that prevent motor vehicles from getting onto the trail, something caught on my water and it started spilling. Some people walked by and then back the other way. Great, I'd have to pass them again. I had to put the water bag in my basket so that the pressure of my bag wouldn't keep making it leak. There were some neat bridges I got to cross but I couldn't really appreciate the views because I was stressed about my water and stressed about needing to find camp. I found some potential spots, but with people on this trail, it would be too risky to set up my tent here. Finally I got back on a road and headed to the trail in the woods that I had spotted earlier on Google. The road turned into a one lane and the one lane turned into a dirt path. Nothing was blocking the path from motorists, so it was different from the ones I was used to. It didn't take long before the trail really wasn't there anymore. I tried following Google, but I was kinda freaking out a bit by now. I wanted to continue on to be closer to the train tracks and ideally further away from houses, but if there was no trail, then I was possibly just some guy messing around in someone's backyard. So I decided to just try to head away from the houses. I set up my tent among some small trees in the hopes that I would be more hidden, but I found out I was pretty much right next to a different trail. Oh well, it's too late now. I climbed inside, nervous as ever. I pretty much just laid there and listened, hoping no one was hunting tonight.

Day 106- Motorcycle

I kept waking up and checking if it was time to get up yet, but it was always dark and cold. Finally it was almost 7. I looked out of my sleeping bag and my tent seemed to be lit up. I guess it's time to get going. I thought I heard the motorcycle again as I was packing up, but I got back on the trail without seeing anyone. I had some steep hills right off the bat. This was a good thing though. It was pretty chilly out, so the extra work warmed me up. I restocked at a 7-Eleven. Finally I made it to New York. I checked a lot of places for postcards- gas stations, pharmacies, gift shops- no luck. Finally I got directed to a stationary store. I thought that meant like scrapbooking, which I've never had luck with, so I almost skipped it. It ended up being a card shop. They had like over 20 different postcards. Win! I knew I was going through the town of Peekskill, and I really wanted a Peekskill, New York postcard, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. The route all day was straightforward enough. I got off track once, but that was because the roads are über weird here sometimes. Some roads do a 180 but still have the same name, while others continue straight and have different names at random intervals. There was a lot of traffic all day, but I usually had a shoulder. If I didn't, the drivers seemed pretty used to passing bikers. I got excited when I noticed the river and the bridge up ahead. I figured being next to the river meant no more hills- wrong. I had several ups and downs before finally reaching the bridge. I was a bit nervous. The last bridge I wasn't able to go acrross. If that was true here, it could really screw me over by adding miles and miles to my route. Luckily there was a pedestrian path on the side of the bridge- phew. I went slow and took a bunch of pictures. The view was great. The road as soon as I got off the bridge was a blast. Lots of traffic, and no shoulder most of the time. There was a cliff face to the left and a wall keeping cars from driving off the cliff to the right. Good thing the speed limit was reasonable. I felt safe enough. Eventually I got to turn off onto a short walking path, then dirt road, then I was in Peekskill! In my completely unbiased opinion, it's a pretty neat town. It's kinda built in the cliffs, overlooking the water. This perhaps wasn't the best for bikes though. I had some real gnarly hills to climb. The path for the rest of the day was pretty easy. I turned once to get on a bike path- the rest was all the same road. I was hoping to make it to Connecticut today, but by the time 5 rolled around, I realized I needed to make sure I knew I had a spot to camp. There were a few spots just before the border, but after that, the road consistently had houses on either side. It was cloudy, so I knew I needed to find camp before 7. It's so weird. I used to find camp at like 9:30. It was only 6, but I had to quit riding. I waited for the traffic to die down a bit, then I ducked into the forest. It was kinda thin, but I hoped to get far enough in that no one would be able to see me. Then I found the water. I was hoping it wasn't this way for long, so I went forward more than I should have. My tires were almost halfway submerged in the water. I had to backtrack, all the while knowing that anyone going by in their cars would be able to see me. I went around the swamp and started setting up my tent. I could just barely see a house but I knew it was plenty far away. I picked a spot that was more in the vegetation part, but the thorn bushes and whatnot were making it more difficult than I wanted it to be. I moved everything over, even more away from the swamp, to an area under some big trees where nothing else but small ferns grew. I was a tad more visible, but I was out of the thorn bushes. I crawled inside my tent and listened to the cars going by as I planned out the next day.

Seriously, my main form of entertainment during this trip was road signs.

This was a pretty huge bridge.

Day 105- Nature

It was really windy and stormy again last night. It rained hard. I feel so lucky that I haven't had to deal with that during the day in a long while. I woke up early, just before 7. It'd be best if I got out before anyone came down the trail and heard me packing up. I left the nature preserve without seeing anyone- phew. There were lots of busy roads this morning as people were heading off to work. In order to get over into New Jersey, I had to walk my bike across a large bridge. The difference between states is usually not to noticeable, but here it definitely was. The roads were all pretty good in Pensilvania, the houses looked expensive. In New Jersey, everything looked run down. I find it interesting that people living so close by can live such different lives. I had to share the road for a while, but luckily there was plenty of space. Then I turned on a canal trail. I was hoping to make up some time here. I knew where I wanted to end up, and you never know how the rest of the roads are going to be like. Unfortunately, the trail sucked. There were lots of puddles to go through and some gravel patches. Luckily there was a paved road on the other side of the canal. Paved is probably too generous of a word- the road was uneven, bumpy, in desperate need of replacement. I felt like I was destroying my bike at times. But it was faster than the trail, and soon it got better. I was making my way over to a highway when I realized that I was kinda going out of my way. Sometimes it's necessary but in this case, there were plenty of smaller roads that would provide a much shorter route to where I was headed. I just figured that Google knew what it was doing, and that it would take longer to try to come up with my own path. Once I got to the highway however, I discovered that it was impossible to get onto. Basically I'd be merging with a lane, then the highway itself. All with no shoulders. I realized that I haven't used the walking route in Google for a while. It usually gives shorter routes, but occasionally it will try to take you on a hiking trail, with stone steps and stuff- not fun on a bike. I risked it anyways. It gave me a slightly shorter route- yay! Eventually it connected back up with the highway. Hopefully it will be less crazy there. I biked up and over the bridge that crossed the highway and zoomed down the other side. I had to stop often to figure out where to go. The hills were really no fun. Finally I made it to the area that looked campable on Google. It was another nature preserve, I think. It said it was bow hunting season and to stay on the trail. This could be a fun night. I made it really far without seeing anyone. I ducked into the trees only to find that I couldn't go any farther than a few dozen feet because of a fence. I could still probably be seen from the trail- not ideal. I walked around without my bike, looking for a better spot. I found one, but it was across a small stream and kinda far away. I still had light though. I got back to my bike and was debating if it was really worth it to go that far when I heard the jingling of a collar. I ducked down and watched as a guy walking his dog went by on the trail. He totally could have seen or heard me, but hopefully he didn't. Either way, he didn't do anything about it, and neither did his dog. I don't know what kind of person walks his dog through the woods near dark, but whatever. I decided it wasn't worth going further. I'd be too loud and too visible in the process. I moved my bike over to a spot that I hoped would be good enough and then heard a dirt bike. I thought for sure it had to be on a nearby road, but then I clearly heard it just 40 feet or so away. I ducked down again. He turned the motor off. Damn. I didn't know what to think- I just tried not to make any noise. I thought for sure that he saw me. But then he fired up the engine again and took off. Honestly I'm not whether camping or having a dirt bike here is worse- both are not permitted. After waiting a bit, I set up my tent, just hoping that was the last person. I tried to sleep, even though I was expecting a cop to come.

Day 104- Windy

Last night was not the best. I usually have my bike partially under the vestibule of my tent, but there wasn't much room here, so I just laid it down on the other side of my tent. I kept thinking all night that it was going to get stolen, I even had a dream about it. I checked on it in the middle of the night by crawling halfway out of my tent. Of course it was still there. In the morning, I packed up carefully and waited for the traffic to die down a bit. You'd think this was the middle of a big city. Finally I was on the road again. A few turns and there was a gas station. I restocked. I needed to go through Delaware. I was expecting the rest of the trip to only be about 550 miles, and that's what I was prepared for. Unfortunately, New York/this area of the country has many bridges that bikes aren't allowed on. Every time I tried to route with the bicycle option, it included a ferry. I can't use a ferry, that'd be cheating. I figured out a way to route around, and it added about 200 miles. I was planning on biking down Delaware and back up just a bit so that it wasn't just a hit and run, but now I really had no choice. At least the roads were great- I had a big shoulder the whole time. I couldn't figure out where to stop to look for postcards, so my first stop was a library. They suggested Walgreen's. I've been to one before, with no luck. Maybe different states do things differently though. I was going to check a nearby K-Mart, but there were seriously like 10 people chillin outside. There's not much on my bike to steal, but I hate leaving it right next to people, so I skipped it. There was a Walgreen's across the street, but I skipped that too. I'd have to cross several lanes, then make a left turn again- it wasn't fun the first time. So I continued on and eventually found another Walgreen's. I looked around. I didn't see any postcards, but I asked anyways and the guy assured me they did. I went back and sure enough, in the isle next to the cards, was a rack of postcards. They are hard to find in more ways than one- they are hidden sometimes. It seemed to take forever to find a post office box, but finally I found one. I made my way out of Delaware happily. I hadn't seen a place to camp all day. Pennsylvania had my back though. I headed to a walking/biking trail when it was pretty close to dark. People were leaving when I approached the entrance. Shoot, I hope it's not too busy. I passed by a few more people. I found a sign that said trail closed due to construction or something like that, but they were pulled off to the side like they were no longer relevant. I didn't really have a choice. I headed down to the left, where the sign was parallel with the path, and therefore clearly not in use. Maybe that will prevent other people from walking by. I went a ways and then popped into the forest. I found a perfect spot- nice and level. Much better than last night. Unfortunately there was a small trail leading here. There was a tree blocking the rest of the path. Hopefully no one uses it tonight! I waited for quite a bit just in case. The light slowly faded. On Google, it looked like the main path was just across the stream. No one walked by though. Finally I set up my tent and crawled inside.

Risky camp spot.

Day 103

Empty car
It took me a bit to find my way all the way back to the road. I was glad I stopped when I did- it wasn't long before I was on a road that was pretty busy. It would have been sketchy to do at night. After that, there were plenty of places to camp. It really makes me wonder how different this whole experience would be if I just changed one campsite. It would change every campsite after that. Honestly I couldn't write this day the day it happened, so I've forgotten what happened for the middle of it. But the end sucked. I could not find a good place to camp. I finally found a place that seemed good and I ducked into the woods. The traffic was stupidly busy as it always is at night when I need to find camp, so it took me a bit of standing around before I could do it. The exact place I wanted to be ended up being what was likely a river or canal with extremely steep banks at on me point. There was no way I'd make it back up with all my gear. The woods beside it were too thin, and there was a house nearby. I had a mini panic attack until I realized I had to get back out. A skateboarder went by. Another panic attack. Of course the traffic took forever to clear, but I finally made my way back out onto the road. I had found a spot on Google that was away from everyone, but it was a half mile away or so. It was basically already dark. I headed that way anyways. I found a spot on the way that looked promising. I pushed my bike into the woods again. It wasn't the best spot. There was the paved road on one side and a dirt road on the other- possibly a driveway. I couldn't see the house though. I struggled to set up my tent in the cramped space. I should leave really early tomorrow. Somehow, I fell asleep.

Day 102

Empty campground
Before I start at the beginning, I just want to mention that it is currently the end of this day. I was typing away on the previous day when I heard leaves shuffling and whatnot, just like footsteps. I really thought that some random person had stumbled upon my tent when I heard the wining- poribbsly a raccoon. It was right at the edge of my tent. I hissed at it and it ran off. Haha. Gotta love nature.

Since the flashlight people made me stop using my phone, I fell asleep fast and was therefore able to wake up earlier. Unfortunately, it was really freaking cold. It took me a while, but eventually I knew I just had to face it. I put on my long pants along with a long sleeved shirt and of course my rain jacket and packed up. My neighbor was still asleep. I couldn't see a tent, only his loaded touring bike. I would have looked harder but I'm pretty sure I saw him move. Maybe he's not asleep. By the time I left, I saw him stretching. It wasn't long before I got to the next campsite. They had a roaring fire going- I'm glad I got to skip out on that. I'm sure they were up late chattering, which would be hard to sleep through. Wow, I sound like such a grump. I guess I just have my priorities. I was putting off filling up my water again. Last time it was a huge pain, but this one must have been "well" greaced because it didn't take long at all. Eventually it got warm enough to take off my gloves, but j was dumb and so I just set them on the back of my bike and took off, like I have done so many times before. Luckily when I realized it, I only had to go back a couple hundred feet to find them. Apparently they had stayed on for close to a mile and fell off both at once- super duper lucky. I had noticed that my vision seemed a bit off, but now I could really see it. I worried that that well water was making me go blind. I finally decided it must just be my contacts. It's virtually impossible to put them in and take them out on this trip. My hands are clean for about 2 minutes after I wash them. However, I haven't even washed my hands in a few days because I've just been on the trail. I've been using just hand sanitisor. Out of all of the things I want to be on my eyes, hand sanitisor is definitely second to last, right after red hot shards of glass. So I just tried to tear up- a skill all little brothers have- to keep my contacts wet. It helped, but I still had poor vision for a lot of te day. Which was pretty scary once I finally hit the part of the trail that had bucket loads of tourists. It was a real pain to navigate around them. After what seemed like forever, they thinned out. Then the path became paved, hooray! Then a few miles later it promptly ended. I had to navigate the sidewalks of DC, which was interesting. I passed by a table with stuff for sale- ooo, a postcard! I suppose technically this is a separate territory from all of the states, so I might as well add it to the collection. One turn later and I passed by the White House. It's crazy to see something so many times in pictures and whatnot and then to finally see it in person. There were lots of people around, so I didn't stay long. As I passed through the rest of the city, I wanted to take pictures of everything. But I realized I can probably just Google pictures of DC buildings and get a much better look. So I just used my eyes. Tons of cars, tons of people. I had to pee like crazy. There was a McDonalds. Unfortunately you had to buy something first and ask for a token. I was so mad. I mean it makes sense, I'm sure they'd always have a line for the bathroom if they didn't do that but I really had to go. I decided I might as well but something. But there were quite a few people in line. I wasn't about to wait to order, wait for food, and have to ask to use the bathroom. So I just left. I stopped by a gas station- no luck. Finally there was a random porta poty. I swear I must have lost 5 pounds from that pee. I continued on, feeling much better. As I tend to do, I try to find my own way around, only using Google as a guide. So naturally instead of joining up with the route again, I passed under it. Just like my shortcut from a few days before. I rerouted. Finally I made it to a bike path. Trees! This was the part where I relaxed a bit. It would suck to get caught at night in a place like DC. At least I know there are places to camp. I passed by lots of places like this. I decided earlier in te day that 6 would be a fine time to set up camp if I had to, even though I can technically do that after 7. But I'd rather be safe that sorry, especially when I'm between DC and Baltimore. Once 6 finally rolled around, I was in an area that would probably have been the most rural place possible, but it just felt too weird quiting so early. I saw on Google that there looked to be several patches of woods ahead, so I continued on. Around 6:30, there was a parked car in the place that I was planning on getting into the woods, so I had to backtrack a bit. I entered the woods and looked for a place to hide. I imediately saw deer running away. The forest is kinda sparse, but I think I found a decent spot. I hesitated to set up my tent so early. It was still pretty light out. I waited a bit, just in case there happened to be someone else wandering these woods.

Day 101

People
I got up a little early today! I felt a little bit weird though, like I was a bit dizzy. Hopefully I can just ride it off. I found out that this particular campsite was a paid one. However, since I didn't actually use any of the facilities and I was expecting a free one, I didn't bother. If that was more clear last night, I would have kept going. The next campsite was only a mile or so away. There were two bikers there, so I'm not necessarily disappointed about where I camped. I filled up my water- a pain in the butt. You have to hand pump from the well. It took a while. I had to pump with one arm and try to keep my water bladder under the flow. The water tasted terrible because it was treated with iodine or iodide or whatever doesn't kill you, but I got used to it pretty fast. Google had worked in a shortcut, much like the one I took yesterday. Just before, I finally had data, so I looked up how many more miles I had. Google rerouted me, shaving a bunch of miles off by going more straight. It worked out so that I got 100 miles closer to my goal from yesterday's travels, rather than the 70 or so I probably biked. Hmm. I checked how far away Washington, D.C. was. It would add a bit more than the 30 miles I gained, but I figured if I push myself, I can easily make it. So I continued down the trail. Google had it's own shortcut for me this time. Again, it's amazing how difficult hills are after being on the trail for so long. I obly had to go a bit out of the way to stock up at a Dollar General. Oh and before I forget, it's finally started to get really darn cold. I wear my rain jacket a lot. It was super windy today too. Soon I was back on the trail. I felt nervous about adding miles, so I looked for roads that paralleled the trail. I could go much faster on the pavement. I switched over once or twice until it was late enough that I wanted to make sure I knew where the campsites were. I continued down the trail and stopped when I saw a sign that said "Stop! You can sleep here!" I looked over at the old canal house. There is one every few miles. They are usually locked, but I guess this one wasn't. The sign said to register online, which seemed weird. Is that like a reservation or something? That's when a guy came out of the house. Yeah, he already claimed it. Oh well, I knew there was a campground up ahead. I pedaled away and when I was probably almost out of earshot, I glanced over through the woods to the river and burst out in amazement. The sky was lit up with a rich pink. The calm river below reflected it, lighting up the whole right side. I haven't seen a sunset in a long time. There are so many trees here that the sun goes behind them first. You couldn't miss this one, even with the trees. Once I got to a clearing in the trees, the view was already past. I got to a campsite a little after 7. I wanted to go to the next one just to clock in more miles, but the next camp was over 5 miles away. There were less clouds than yesterday so it wasn't completely unreasonable to try it, but this one was empty, it's late, I might as well just call it a day. I wandered around the site, trying to find a good spot. There were only thin weeds over mud in most places. I finally found a spot with thicker weeds and set up my tent. Probably an hour and a half later, someone shines a flashlight on my tent- great, I've got neighbors. Or I'm about to be killed. Or I'm being checked out by a cop. It was weird because I didn't hear them set up a tent or anything. I dozed off just trying to listen.