April: Ride- hike-paddle- sleep- repeat

[Annie O]

I really need to work on my van photos! Staying in friends’ yards or campsites just doesn’t seem so glamorous as Death Valley tho, and my mind is on cycling when I’m out I guess.

Last week was south east Ohio. Met my kids who were paddling while I was cycling.



We camped at Wayne NF Leith Run campground which was beautiful right on the Ohio albeit tame. Just across the road it gets rugged and just as scenic. Much hillier than where I live! ����

On the last day we hiked, then I was scouting a connector road over a gap to see if it was paved or not since I had my road bike. Pulled into a trailhead to check the map and saw this beautiful VW Synchro Van, 82 I believe.

There was a man standing there on an E-Mt bike and I had said hi to him earlier at the steep lower end of the trail (by the river). So between, the man reappearing, the maps and the VW Synchro 4x4, I didn’t know where to look first!

He said he was with 14 Mt. bikers. A woman rolled out of the woods, saw me looking at the van and asked if she could answer any questions. SO many questions! Her name is Anne too (but with the E). The group began to leak out of the woods, including a Tandem Mt Bike with a kid on back (stoker?). His dad turned out to be the VW’s owner.

It was a gorgeous weekend, the pollen didn’t beat me down this time (as it did in Alabama last month). I came home with new friends and am returning next week or so to ride with them, then to WV to ride some gravel. Found some small and more remote NF campsites so I’ll work on Van camp scenes. My kids deemed Anne to be my Mt bike doppelgänger...

[86Scotty]

I love rural America. That 4th pic of the guys fishing looks like it could've been taken in 1971 or 2021.

[marret]

Me too, and the third with the tug pushing coal. Well done.

[Annie O]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I love rural America. That 4th pic of the guys fishing looks like it could've been taken in 1971 or 2021.

.

Eric- That is actually my son, his girlfriend and my grandson in canoe on Ohio River! Downstream they got squeezed by a barge that pulled out of the shipping lane to wait out some incident.

The campfire photo is him using his canoe for a backrest, studying for a history exam by the campfire and lantern light. Total happy place.

Originally Posted by marret

Me too, and the third with the tug pulling coal. Well done.

Thanks, Chirs- that is actually a barge with 12 (3x4) flats of coal! They were pushing those all weekend long to a nearby coal-fired power plant. Ive seen other major energy projects in Ohio that elsewhere in USA would be sites of major protests.

It is pretty remote in that corner of Ohio against WV. The first day about 4:30 pm, I was preoccupied riding up a steep grade and caught fur in the corner of my vision in fallen timbers. Turned my head in time to see it come out of a roadside stream and up a fallen trunk into the forest. But it froze there and stared me down hard. Later I could ID it as Lynx, which according to all sources does not exist in Ohio! But there was not mistaking its face-framing ruff of fur and compact tailless form.

Van + Bike = magical trips

[marret]

We used to stop in St Albans WV to overnight in a riverside park periodically and watch traffic like that on the Kanawha River. Also spent a couple nights on the Ohio River is SE Ohio last fall. Love watching river traffic.

Cool about the Lynx. I was lucky to see one in Alberta.

Awesome little trip, memories made.