Last night (the night of June 17th) was our first night "free camping." We didn't even know this was a thing when we were doing it, but ironically I learned about it two hours later while I was in my tent reading one of Charlie's blog posts on his and Maddie's website. Shoutout to them by the way as they just finished their own cross country trip 2 days ago! They started back in April and are now certified BEASTS. Funny how we're starting when they're ending. Charlie said it to me the other day – it feels as if they're passing the torch to us. Hmm... I wonder who we'll be passing the torch to next?? Any takers?? Haha. Getting ahead of myself here. But really, a big congratulations to those two, as they raised a lot of money for a really amazing cause and successfully completed their journey safe and sound.
Back to the topic: "Free camping" is when you pick a spot off the road and quickly run into the forest area when no one is looking. So we did this last night and set up our 3 tents near a stream. I wish I took a picture because it really was as aesthetic as it sounds. Falling asleep to the stream was a lot nicer and admittedly quite a bit more realistic than the "Rain Forest Sounds" playlist I usually play when trying to fall asleep back home. The ground was also super soft with leaves which was another factor that contributed to my best night's sleep yet.
Also, last night something funny happened which I couldn't leave out of the blog. To give some spacial context, Tom and I set our tents up next to each other and Owen was about 50 or so feet away. We went in our tents around 10 PM and at around 11:30 or so Owen began screaming "YO!! YO!! THERE'S SOMETHING ON MY TENT!! THERE'S SOMETHING ON MY TENT!" I was halfway asleep and he yelled so loud it startled me at first. Tom and I got out of our tents to take a look but it was pitch black dark out there. So we shined our flashlights on his tent and there was........ nothing at all. We told Owen but he proceeded to yell, saying "IT'S CRAWLING, I SEE IT CRAWLING!" I was thinking about walking over to check it out but I was already half asleep and it was beginning to get cold out so I really didn't want to leave my tent. Plus, Tom just went right back inside his tent and zipped it up for the night. So I took that as Tom assuming Owen had it under control and, well, I agreed because I zipped my tent right up as well. It was way too late for all those shenanigans. We told Owen it was probably just a combination of wind and some shadows of branches on his tent being cast from the moonlight above and let him handle the rest. All in all, the night was a success as all 3 of us survived our first night free camping.
We got an early start, hitting the road by 8:30 today as we had 55 miles to cover, our longest day yet. Originally this day was planned to be closer to 40-45 miles but we had to make up lost progress from yesterday's mishaps. Today went as well as any of us could have imagined. Dare I say, perhaps our luck is finally turning around.
Because things went so smoothly, we didn't have to rely on so many wonderful people offering us rides and places to stay, or awesome bike shop workers to fix our broken down bikes. I kinda missed those interactions. But I definitely did not miss the stress that comes with those situations. Pros and cons to everything. So today I just enjoyed the smooth ride and giant hills we bombed down. My maximum speed for the day was 34.5 mph. On a bike that sure feels more like 100mph. I accidentally swallowed a fly and got one in my eye while going down said hills. Which brings me to Lesson 3: Wear eye protection when bombing down hills, and close your damn mouth... unless you're out of snacks I guess.
Heres a close up and zoomed out image of our route today, respectively:
The stats that matter:
Number of broken pedals: 0
Number of shattered gears: 0
Number of pleased bikers: 3
Much needed Rest Day due up tomorrow here in cloudy scranton.
DAY 5
Just a rest day today so nothing to report here. Just resting and recovering in Tom's apartment in good 'ol constantly cloudy and rainy Scranton, PA ✌🏽
- mike
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