Leave it to the Mapping Professionals

I’ve seen this sign (above) at too many places in South Carolina. First two places I saw them were outside a high school and later an elementary school. Also, outside of a couple of churches. This one was at the hotel last night. You may draw your own conclusions on the state and health of our country.

As usual I include a shot of the first road I’m routed to by (my less than spectacular routing) my gps unit. This was SC 63 / Alt US 17, no shoulder, but very lightly used on an early Saturday morning (lucky for me).

I pedal before you as a chastened rider. I will no longer create my own routes as opposed to the Atlantic Coast Route maps—unless I’m in an emergency. 

I’m sticking with the Atlantic Coast route map I have from Adventure Cycling, which shares a great deal of the route with the East Coast Greenway. They’re mapping professionals and I’m not—no matter how creative I get with the routing. 

They naturally choose the safest routes and keep one off of busy/dangerous routes like US 17 as much as they are able. That way I won’t end up on crazy disappearing dirt roads like this one below that caused me to backtrack and get on the busier road anyway.

Although some shoulder-less roads like this are so infrequently traversed that it makes for care free riding. 

This is busier Alt. US 17 but it had a good and mostly debris free shoulder that made it a safer alertnative route.

But eventually, even though this is a state road below—it’s loosely packed sand that makes for a challenging ride (again, my own route, not the Atlantic Coast or East Coast Greenway route). 

About an hour later I caught up to another touring cyclist—Kathy S., note the lack of a shoulder on US 17 here in Jacksonboro, SC. This is a busy road, and not the safest to say the least. Luckily it was a short span.

I actually met Kathy the day I rode into South Carolina at the Taqueria las Abuelitas in Hardeeville, SC—just before Bluffton, SC. We’ve leap-frogged each other on the trail over the course of a couple of days through today in Jacksonboro, SC.

She’s riding from Melbourne, FL to Charleston, SC. She heads back to California on Tuesday. She stayed on the Atlantic Coast Route while I went off on my self-mapped route at Old Jacksonboro Road…

… which led to this: 2 miles of sandy unpaved road…

… which then became a paved road before it once more petered out to an unpaved surface… interesting to say the euphemistic.

Then back on shoulderless US 17–which looks empty and safe enough, but that’s more a function of me taking out my camera only when there isn’t a car in my rear view mirror for a mile or more. I wouldn’t dare split my attention when the speeding cars, SUV’s, and tractor-trailers are coming within two feet of me. Why? Oh, why, did I make this route up myself?!

Did I mention that I’m chastened?

No more.

Only the Atlantic Coast Route mapped routes from here on out. I made this unnecessarily unsafe for myself while attempting to be safer. 

One of the days highlights was finding the Yodi Dog Coffee Truck on US 17…

… and getting a boost from a homemade energy drink with 120mg of caffeine—that’ll get me the last 10 miles into Charleston, SC.

This is not a dirt road, it’s the hard-packed and very rideable gravel West Ashley Rail Trail—which is a nice way to enter the Charleston, SC area instead of US 17. This IS on the Atlantic Coast Route map.

The rail trail features nice areas to pull aside and enjoy the Lowcountry marsh views.

Very nicely done. Kudos to South Carilolina for this and the Spanish Moss trails.

I’m done. I’m chastened. I promise to stay on-route.

But first, a high metabolism appetite-driven dinner!

Day 22
Start: Walterboro, SC
End: West Ashley-Charleston, SC
Miles: 49.53

Tomorrow historic Charleston proper and a ride out closer to REI where I’ll get the bike tuned-up after 1,000 miles on Monday—which will probably be another day off—for gearing up for the next 2,000 miles.

But first, I need to make it safely out of South Carolina.

Yeah, I inhaled that dinner, too!

What I’m Reading:

Be the weird you wish to see.

— Austin Kleon / “Be the Wierd You Wish to See” / Substack