thee istsfor manity reader

Careful What You Wish…

I never set out to do an 83-mile day on Tuesday—in fact I’d planned a 42.5-mile day to Honey Hill Campground in the Marion National Forest. But I arrived at the campground at 12:45pm. It was much too glorious a day to stop so early. Also, the swarms of no-see-ums (tiny biting midges) were so thick and pervasive there was no way I was going to sit or lay inside a tent for 18-hours until the next morning.

Picture hundreds, thousands, of these tiny teeth swarming all about. If one stood still they’d be covered in dozens of moving black dots on one’s face, hands, arms, legs, clothes—and no-see-um bites rival that of mosquitoes or any biting bug, some say worse.

So I moved on.

Even though I’d scheduled out the next five days through Wilmington, NC, I decided on the spot to move on and skip camping and bike well into the afternoon. 

Why ensconce myself inside a tent when there were 7-more hours of beautiful daylight? So I decided to move on without any particular plan where I’d end up. Schedules be damned.

So if you look at the last post’s pictures you see a variety of roads, national forest pics, burnt churches, cemeteries, the strangest Luna Moth sighting (on the wall of a Circle K) outside Georgetown, SC—and that I, indeed, made it to Georgetown, SC.

I found lodging and after 83.1 miles—my longest day biking this trip, and my longest ever—I found  lodging by the water, inside four walls, and mercifully no-see-um free (although I was festooned with the earlier itchy bites).

My plan all along (and the cryptic birthday allusion) was that no matter where I was on the Atlantic Coast Route / East Coast Greenway I would take a break and head back home to Boston for my life-partner / wife’s—Pattie—birthday on April 1st. 

On my day off in Mt. Pleasant, when the bike was being serviced, I worked out Wilmington, NC, as the point where I could rent a car and be in Boston by April 1st. But it was cutting it close, and I was running into some difficulty arranging for a car hire in Wilmington—a convention or Spring Break?

So when I realized how much of a chunk I bit off biking 83-miles, leaving a mere 16-mile ride the next day as per plan, I thought I’d check to see if I could move the visit up a few days.

As nice as the Lowcountry waterside setting in Georgetown, SC is…

… spending a few extra days with Pattie seems like a better alternative. No contest! So I quickly came up with an alternate. 

I was able to secure a one way rental car to Boston, MA. Note here the first pannier is already in the car…

… and now the entire kit and bike. (Who’s behind that shadow?)

Yes, that’ll do nicely. 

Now for a longer day driving 880-miles, through torturous beltway traffic around Washington, DC: because 15-hours of driving is nothing next to the joy of spending Pattie’s birthday with her, instead of dodging cars, screws, nails, and every type of road detritus imaginable (and now no-see-ums).

This will be bliss!

And so, with this short break—I do have 2,000 more miles to go to get to Canada—on a bike, yesterday, I also hit the halfway mark of my goal to bike 3,000 miles this year. So Canada seems imminently doable — after this brief pause.

After 26-Biking Days:
Start: Key West, FL
Temporary Stop Point: Georgetown, SC
Miles: 1,085.7

Yeah, that’s me… and all this time you thought I was a mere shadow… stay tuned for the conclusion.

What I’m Reading:

Americans are most themselves and most likeable when on the road. We are a restless nation. Adventurism, for better or for worse, is the bedfellow of optimism.

— Robert D. Kaplan / Earning the Rockies

Day 25
Start: Mt. Pleasant, SC
End: Georgetown, SC
Miles: 83.1

Really too tired to write. Big changes on the horizon. Big Luna Moth auguries. Big birthday treats. Stay tuned.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve only got
the one death to my name, one death
and I’m not going to ruin it.

— Josh Bell / “The War Against Birthdays”

Naked Bike

The bike looked naked this morning stripped of its panniers, rack, and assorted bags—only the fenders and the small seat bag (which has the flat repair kit) the bike is pared down to is essential state. Which is much more maneuverable and fun to ride sans the extra 25 lbs of gear. 

As expected, other than a tune-up, it needed a new chain—as chains in these conditions will be at an optimum for 700 or so miles. Otherwise, after an hour, the bike was ready to go, but first I had to trash my well-worn Merrells (really hiking / backpacking shoes which I use for biking all the time) which I purposefully brought out here to use to exhaustion after two years. I also purchased another tube, at the rate I’m going through tubes—and my 650b-sized tubes being less common—I’m now carrying 4 spares.

Many thanks to Kent and Cody in the bike dept. at REI for getting me back on the road quickly, and Marisa and Sean who helped with local camping information. I’m finally using my tent tomorrow night after 1,000 miles.

At REI I also met a couple of other bike tourists—Karen and Alex—who started in St. Augustine and are going through to Virginia and Gloucester, MA, respectively. But they seemed on a tight schedule as they were in and out of the store quickly. But we all quickly agreed on one thing about the routing and US 17—Karen said it: “Are they trying to kill us?”

Finally someone who instantly, and precisely, understood exactly what we’re dealing with.

At REI I was told about the resident alligator often seen around the ponds in the area, and upon looking I found this fierce reptile:

Keep Your Distance. It will strike terror in any unsuspecting passerby.

Lunch at San Miguel Mexican restaurant featured the best Carne Asada platter I’ve ever had… there, there it is… the ribeye is below that mound of onions and jalapeño. It seriously was excellent.

Careful, more fierce reptiles about…

… bathing!

They ain’t Merrells and they sorta’ look orthopedic, but these Giros will get me through the next 1900+ miles.

Day 24
Mt. Pleasant, SC
0 Miles

A productive day despite only pedaling 5.5 (unburdened) miles to try the new tune-up out. New chain, new shoes, extra tubes, and laundry done. And I worked the logistics out for this next week. A bike trekker can’t ask for more…

… well, they can… to stay off of US 17… and I did!

What I’m Reading:

on the other end of the best steak of your life
is a cow moaning a song of agony.

— José Olivarez / “Poem with Corpse Flowers & No Corpses”

Of Credit Cards & Bridge Ahoy

Or some such distracted nonsense. Specifically because I was distracted (and maybe a two-glasses of wine lightweight) I didn’t realize until this morning that I’d left my credit card at the restaurant last night after dinner.

Not a great awakening—much less on the day I was intending to tour Charleston, SC at leisure. I instead lost four hours of prime tourist time waiting for Zen Asian Fusion to open so I could retrieve my credit card—which I assumed, but was not sure, was in the possession of the restaurant.

And it was! Thanks to the conscientious workers there I was reunited with my credit card at 11 am , and was able to get on my bike trekking way. 

Very good pan-Asian food by the way.

Back on the West Ashley Rail Trail for the final handful of miles into Charleston, SC proper.

The tidal marshes as one arrives in Charleston by bicycle.

And quickly on to the Battery 2 Beach trail.

Which runs the perimeter of the Charleston peninsula and fringed with beautiful waterfront homes.

But there’s always work to be done, and a detour leads to interior homes and streets…

… and the “birthplace of preservation…”

… this site commermorates the “seizure of the Planter”—where Robert Smalls, an enslaved man, commandeered a Confederate transport vessel and delivered it past Fort Sumter to the Federal fleet.

Much, including the historic color schemes, is preserved in Charleston, SC.

These cobbles are absolutely bone-jarring to bike on, so I mostly walked through these spots.

The area around the Old Exchange Building was the site of one of the most active slave markets in the 1800’s. Preserved for prosperity, but nothing to be proud of—history requires remembrance and accounting.

The Saffron Cafe & Bakery was an excellent lunch place…

… just in time to almost chuck-up lunch going over the 2.5 mile long Ravenel Bridge… 

… not terribly steep, but a good sustained 4-5 percent grade on the middle section…

… which was busy with walkers, runners and bicyclists.

It’s not the 7-mile bridge in the Florida Keys, but it’s much taller and pitched, and I believe it’s the next longest bridge on the Atlantic Coast Route thus far.

On to the eastern side of Charleston—Mt. Pleasant—and a significantly less busy road running parallel to the US 17 traffic madness.

Before the day’s endpoint I stop by REI—where the bike will get a tune-up and refresher, and where I’ll resupply after the first 1,000 miles. 

Even though I’m a third of the way through this bike trek, I feel the thousand-yard stare delirium. I think the difficult conditions—as it pertains to the exposure to dangerous traffic—takes a bit of a toll when one does it for many hours daily over three weeks.

I’m feeling a bit of shell shock, or traffic delirium as it were. So tomorrow the bike gets the spa treatment of sorts.

Where I’m bedding tonight, just a quarter-mile away from the REI.

Day 23
Start: West Ashley-Charleston, SC
End: Mt. Pleasant-Charleston, SC
Miles: 20.46

I started this trip in an abstemious state of mind—no drinking and eating healthy… and I kid you not, this is a manifestation of a dinner brought on by hundreds of miles on US 17.

Laundry, bike tune-up, gear changes, and no US 17 tomorrow! Dinner of Champions! I’m a traffic-shocked wastrel…

What I’m Reading:

… but the only thing ultimately worth your concern is the anguish of your fellow passengers on this hell bound train…

— Cormac McCarthy / The Counselor

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

Backcountry Roads

Coldest start yet: 43 degrees in Beaufort this morning, with a windchill of 32 degrees—winds are gusting up to 26 mph. I’ll take it over rain every time. Today’s high will only be 64.

I did some creative mapping in order to spend  as little time as possible on US 17. It’s impossible not to use the road: both Adventure Cycling and East Coast Greenway routes rely heavily on US 17 in Georgia and South Carolina, but I’m pedaling this section in a triangular shape as opposed to the arc-shaped route with numerous horseshoes that the map suggests.

This is an 80+ mile section without many services available to bicyclists. So I mapped a route to Walterboro, SC today, and tomorrow I’ll ride into the West Ashley suburb of Charleston.

I pedaled immediately to the Spanish Moss Trail where I rode 7 car and carefree miles…

Plenty of opportunities to enjoy the Lowcountry marshes and tidal flats right on the trail. 

A great blue heron on the wade for its next meal.

Another opportunity to ride through a man made structure—this one a culvert on the Spanish Moss Trail.

I noticed last week that the pollen was getting heavy around Townsend, GA, and it’s been getting heavier around here. That’s not a white stripe on my tire, it’s a layer of pollen.

US 17 was ok during the first part of the morning, especially as I was only on it for 1.6 miles, but later in the morning it was atrocious during a 7 mile stretch. The shoulder often had half an inch of gravel on it, causing fish tailing and loss of tire purchase.

But many of the roads I was on today were great. Quiet, low traffic, and drivers made plenty of room. Most of the time I could use the full lane it was so lightly traveled.

This was the only service available on today’s ride. The Albany Convenience store in Dale, SC…

… I’ll gladly support any business that supported Harris / Walz, a rarity in these parts.

Plenty of scenic swamp scenes throughout todays ride, this was in Seabrook, SC.

I didn’t encounter a car on this road for 5 miles.

The Harriet Tubman bridge over the Combahee River. This is near the scene of where she helped lead a rout of Confederate forces to help free over 700 enslaved people in 1863.

This type of backcountry road really puts on at ease even though there is no shoulder. Note the lass of traffic, no tractor-trailers, cars, and no sharp crap all over the road.

The tiny one room building that historically served as the White Hall, SC post office.

 It abutted the massive White Hall Plantation and Stables, almost a mile long as I pedaled by it.

When you route yourself sometimes you end up on unpaved roads. This one was firm enough and short enough.

Later, near Walterboro this road was longer and that sand was fine and loose, making for tough pedaling on the tires I’m riding. 

Lots of fish-tailing and effort expended on these roads—and frighteningly, lots of spent shotgun shells and beer bottles.

I’m done. Dinner and my room in sight.

Day 21
Start: Beaufort, SC
End: Walterboro, SC
Miles: 49.52

Tomorrow into the Charleston, SC area and a couple of days later a badly needed tune-up for the bike. While I will be riding everyday,I’ll spend two or three nights in the Charleston metropolitan area.

Here’s a gratuitous look at a quarter inch thick scad of pollen. Get your allergy meds.

What I’m Reading:

The kids at the park light a kite
on fire and watch it lift into the sky,
while back home later, everything I
touch feels like overripe fruit
right before it breaks open.

— Adam Clay / “Some Mood”

Day 21
Start: Beaufort, SC
End: Beaufort, SC
Miles: 0

Day off reset of the head, knees, and saddle sores. Enough of the flat tires! Back on the road tomorrow.

What I’m Reading:

Nearly half of registered Boston voters believe there are too many bike lanes, according to a recent poll from Emerson College, while just 17 percent said there are not enough.

— Emma Platoff & Shannon Larson / “Facing bike lane backlash and a reelection challenge, Mayor Wu is changing her tone on public transit” / The Boston Globe 

Hell Sent

You see that thing—that sliver of a demented barbed-scimitar-shaped-hell-sent tooth of a metal devil? Well, that that thing was making my riding life miserable the last few days…

This god-forsaken 1/32nd of an inch, demon’s bicuspid, of a shard was deflating my tire overnight since Richmond Hill, GA four days ago. Each morning I’d have to reinflate my tire to 50 psi from 7-17 psi. It was driving me mad.

Thanks to Brandon at Sports Addiction who found the sliver and installed the new rear tube as I was doubting in my ability to change the tire effectively. It must have been inside the tire for four days, when I pedaled from Townsend, GA to Richmond Hill, GA. Yeah, I’m happy now.

Lots of uninspiring heavy speeding traffic, punctuated by inspiring water views today. The Chechessee Creek.

A treat at the Widgeon Point Preserve…

… nesting Bald Eagles in residence…

… above the parking lot?

The large nest belies the scale in this picture.

Then the Broad River Bridge led to an excellent sighting…

If you’d have told me that I’d see two alligators on this trip I’d have said: yes, likely…

… but the tally is Atlantic Bottle Nosed Dolphins: 2 Alligators: 0. Go figure. 

Then, just a few miles down the road—oh, that awful “thunking” sound and wheel-skipping. I hate the sound and the feeling. Have I mentioned all the crap out on the shoulders yet? Maybe?

This is unencumbered devilry—there’s a hellion out putting debris in the way of bike-trekkers.

Confounded screw this time. 

I’ve got my money’s worth out this bit of equipment—the Fanttik tire inflator.

Ready to go, again, and very over this day already.

Finally, the Spanish Moss Trail: 10-miles of easy peddling through the marshlands of the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Nice to know that, yes, I’m on the right track.

The Spanish Moss Trail is limited to pedestrians and bike riders. A bit reminiscent of the Cape Cod Trail in Massachusetts.

After the messes with the tire today, I’ll take this debris-free trail all day, every day.

It’s not often one gets the option to indulge in the novelty of riding through a building, much less a historic one…

… but here goes. The Danner & Co. building was a grocery warehouse. It was built in 1915.

Oh, thank you. I’m done!

Day 20
Start: Bluffton, SC
End: Beaufort, SC
Miles: 27.10

Day off tomorrow to sort out my sore head, these confounded roads, and blasted flat tires!

What I’m Reading:

… the fact that we really need a Have a Heart Day, just one day a year when nobody’s killed for no reason, Peace One Day…

— Lucy Ellmann / Ducks, Newburyport