Last two days

I have hardly focused on the fact that I've finished the trip, as the last two days have been very challenging.  Yesterday was supposed to be a 63 mile ride, but I clocked 80.  One bike trail was marked incorrectly, to my mind at least, so we added a few miles getting to the correct fork of the trail. When we thought we were back on the right track a detour sign popped up on the trail, so we added a few more miles getting around that hurdle.  Instead of visiting the Kent State Memorial, we did a little extra exploration of eastern Ohio.  All along we encountered what I call Hobbsian hills--nasty, brutish and short.

I lack an adjective for today's hills , as they were nasty, brutish, and long.  On a 73 mile ride into Pittsburgh, we climbed close to 5000 vertical feet, the most climbing in a single day of the entire trip!  Dueling Garmins gave different readings of the steepest hill; the estimates ranged from 16 to 25 percent.  Whatever it was, it was challenging to walk up, which I think everyone on the trip did.  Once we got in to Pittsburgh, we found good bike trails  and excellent bike bridges over the rivers.  The last twelve miles were mostly flat, most welcome after all the climbing.  

Four baby barn swallows in a nest on the porch of the house where we stayed in the Cuyahoga National Park.

A yard full of bikes, as we prepared to leave the park on a rainy morning.

All I saw of Kent, Ohio, 15 miles behind schedule.

The weird sittings have been in short supply, so I was happy to find this guy on my last morning.  He's outside a gym and seems appropriate for the Olympics.

Crossing the Beaver River, with a few hills in view.

The Pittsburgh skyline and a trail that was not the bike trail.

We can still look lively after a long day.