Day 11 ending up in the woods

3 views

Skip to first unread message

Mark Boyd

unread,

Aug 3, 2021, 2:07:04 PM8/3/21

to bicycletouring

My night in Owenton was supposed to be at the only motel in town. When I got there, I discovered a local rodeo meant there were no rooms. So I went to McD's to hydrate - I'd already eaten and bought breakfast at Subway on the other end of town - and headed south looking for a place to sleep.

I rode out of town about 4 miles on US 127, spotted a rarely used track and ended up spending the night without my tent because all of the land was too steep. The bugs were mostly fireflies , a few regular files, and lots of daddy longlegs. i slept pretty well despite sleeping on steep bumpy ground. Yesterday, my back was a problem and today it was much worse.

Every few miles I would stop and stretch out in the grass for 15 minutes or so. The last time I did that ended when the 911 folks showed up in a big fire truck. Those folk were fine but the idiot who called 911 because I was resting on my back with my hat shading my face, and my tents ground cloth under me just off the wide shoulder of 127 with my bike parked vertically next to me because they were concerned about me but, I guess, to scared to just stop and speak to me.

I haven't called yet but trying to find a rental car is my next step. The last two days of riding have been quite hard on my back and that has meant that, even using lots of assist, riding 25 hilly miles is really, really hard.