It’s easier to get up, moving, and motivated when your campmates are rolling out at ten after five am. My nightowl tendencies didn’t serve me well today as I was tired when I left this morning about an hour later than my campmates, and I was super tired. The day started with a long slow climb, and I was happy to get that out of the way early in the morning, but by the afternoon, I was beat, and found any opportunity I could to stop and rest a bit. I finished off my first can of pepper spray on multiple dog encounters today. Most of the time, I don’t need to actually spray them, just stop my bike and point it at them. This is still an annoying hassle, especially since then sometimes when I start riding again, they again give chase. That’s usually when I spray. It’s more of an annoying encounter than a scary one.
The cars were actually making me nervous as I was unable to ride in the shoulder or on the white line due to the rumble strip along the white line. Most cars give plenty of space, and that actually can be a problem when I’m slowly plodding up a long hill on a blind curve, and I have cars waiting to pass me, but I haven’t anywhere to go to let them pass.
As I was getting close to Berea (south of Lexington), I finally got to ride through some proper pouring rain, and that was a nice alternative to the heat. It did make the traffic situation feel more sketchy, but I put on my red blinky light and plodded slowly forward. I should be properly out of the Appalachians now, but I hear the Ozarks in Missouri referred to as Misery, so there’s that to look forward to.