Tree climbing workshop

Today I didn't have to work and there was a scheduled group to do a recreational tree climb in a sycamore near our course. In the morning I met up with Tim and Lori, the leaders of Natural Fit Outdoor Adventures. We waited for an hour for the group, but they never arrived, so we set off into the forest where I was instructed how to tie and use a blake's hitch, a haulass arbor ascender set, monkey's fist knots, and a throw bag. Tim and I climbed up in the afternoon to teach me how to do a transfer to the other end of the rope to help me move in three dimensions easier. I moved out onto the branch pictured above and cut a large dead branch down.

Day 4

I woke up to the sun rising above quiet grain silos, birds calling across the marsh and stones poking in my side. My mattress had deflated a few times throughout the night, I knew it had a hole but didn't realize how many. I packed up and got on the road but I had a phone call and it slowed me down for about an hour. I walked through a "farmers' market with no produce, only baked goods and flowers, and was disappointed by the lack of young people. I headed out on the highway and made it a couple miles before I got hungry. I stopped at a greasy spoon near the highway that is open all day every day and scarfed a 1/2 lb burger and a strawberry shortcake. After Makai and I spent an hour out of the sun we took off again, down a long straight road to Bucyrus where there was an antique car show.  I cruised the strip a couple times with the cars and only one drunk old lady yelled at me. I didn't stop in town for the craft fair or two foot long hotdogs I just pumped my way out of town. There were a couple more stops along the way to get out of the sun and then I made it to Ontario. This was the worst part of the whole trip. I was smack in the middle of the Walmart section of town with broken up sidewalks, empty malls, and huge drains that threatened to swallow the trailer. There were five lanes of traffic and no one wanted to merge so they just swerved out of the way at the last moment. I went down a big hill and saw some bikers going the other direction so I turned around and pedaled after them but there was no way I could catch up. Eventually I stood at the intersection long enough to ask people where the fairgrounds were and even had a lady ask me where GOBA was. I finally spotted a sign and made it to the Richland county fairgrounds where there were thousands of people preparing for the Great Ohio Bike Adventure.
    The idea for this festival is to provide a safe comfortable tour experience for bikers of all abilities. They set up camp for the night at the fairgrounds beginning in a different city in ohio and then do 50 miles a day along a set itinerary. All of their equipment is trucked with semis to the next location where they can retrieve it when they arrive.
     I met up with the flock of bikers just before they started their journey. I pulled up in time to ride into Mansfield with the opening parade of a thousand bikers. We had an escort of a mercedes and several police claiming three of the four lanes of traffic and more than a mile of highway. It took around an hour to ride the last four miles of my journey but in the circumstances it was perfect. Upon arrival there were prizes, free beer, and a band. I called Tyler to alert him of the free refreshments and he arrived with his truck to scoop me and my ride up. We took a brief late night tour of the bars, and made it back to his house for a dip in the hot tub before I couldn't keep my eyes open any later. I slept in a spare bed at Tyler's for the next few nights, healing and making final arrangements for my stint at Tree Frog Canopy Adventures.

Day 3: Friday the 13th

I didn't leave as early as I told the officer I would, but it was cold and rainy in the morning and there wasn't a single person at the park. We packed up and left feeling a little disoriented. I ended up in Ottowa for breakfast, south west of where I started. I was already feeling like my joints were creaking so I went to rite aid for some protein and glucosamine while I was outside popping pills a man started talking to me and introduced himself eventually as Father Matthew. He told me he was going to get a fake ID for his dog, and left me with a blessing and a quote from Jeremiah 1:4. It felt great to hear some encouraging words, so I went to the bar for breakfast. I had some waffles, coffee, wrote for a while, washed strawberries from a farm stand in the bathroom sink, and talked to an old drunk at the bar.  His name was Jr. but he had Jesus III tattooed on his neck, he was celebrating his birthday with a half dozen glasses of rum and coke.  Jesus offered me a place to stay if I ever came back to Ottowa and told me I could ask around, everyone knew him and his family. I saw him again as I was pulling out of town yelling and smiling something out the window of the car as he sped by.
     The ride was pretty rough going out of town. I turned south to get off the highway and was redirected back onto 65. Then I went north and took a parallel road through the country. I felt like the wind was pushing me from the side for hours and by mid afternoon was ready for a break. I stopped when I saw an old man riding a sweet old motorcycle that he had refurbished and asked if I could jump in his pond. He said that because of insurance he couldn't let me, but after a little while said I could jump in if I just got out after and left. A few miles later in beaver dam I turned left on to 30 and started heading due east straight to Mansfield with the wind at my back.
     A few hours later I passed a man stacking rocks in his driveway in front of two tree houses. I yelled to him and he invited me in for a tour. He introduced himself to me as Tim, a retired math teacher. He said he had relatives on the north side of Goshen and he tried to find a family connection when he found out I was raised Mennonite. He gave me a tour of the two playhouses he had built for his grandchildren. One was a pirate pub for his three boys and the other a castle. Except the floor joists they were completely recycled material. It was beautiful construction with great attention to detail and lots of time and love. He also showed me his garden and chicken tractors which were also built with a lot of thought and time. I gave him some turmeric to add to his collection of plants and bid him farewell even though I could have hung out all day.
 Next stop was at an old Baptist church. I needed to do my interview and they wanted me to be inside so when I saw a man mowing the lawn I paused for a minute to rest and prepare. Unfortunately the church had been closed for years and he didn't have a key. I tried to do the interview but the files wouldn't send on my phone so we rescheduled for Monday. I continued slowly with the wind pushing me and at around the 47 mile mark I saw another pond with some children outside a barn. I rode in and asked to jump in and they brought out their mom, Tina. We talked for a while about their dairy farm, the pond was for the cows drinking water because they couldn't drink the well water without getting sick and full of tumors. I had been wondering why there were so many ponds everywhere and the pieces finally started to fit the more I talked to people. Even the man mowing the church filled me with answers to questions I was pondering and that just made me wonder more. What happened to middle America? Why are all the churches abandoned, where did everyone go?
I kept thinking and pedaling until I came to Upper Sandusky. A small town several feet elevation above Sandusky and a couple hundred miles to the south. I set up camp at a small nature preserve on the outskirts of town without the trailer and then biked in to get dinner. I ended up at an Italian restaurant and bar where I ordered a huge portion of pasta carbonara, breadsticks, salad, deep fried ravioli, and a liter of monty pythons holy grAle. I was hysterical while talking to some new friends, laughing and stuffing my face. It was just what I needed. I left for camp as everyone else made their way to another bar. Even though the moon was full and bright I fell asleep on the ground comfortably with Makai huddled in the bottom of my sleeping bag.

Tree Frog

My expected arrival date was for sunday the 15th but since I arrived early I got a full day to see Loudenville and Mohican. I slept about 12 hours and then made breakfast and got ready by about noon. Tyler had a tour so we took the back roads to Tree Frog canopy adventures where I got to go on tour with Nate and Adam. The course is really similar to Kozi but it has a different feel. There are 7 zip lines, two rappels over 50 feet, a rock launch, and only two small hikes. Makai was busy running around the forest below as we zipped through the trees. I got all set up in to the system so that I am ready for work on Tuesday, and made all the arrangements with the campground to stay over for the next couple months. We went for burgers and beer at trails end across the street from the super campground in Mohican, all the while Tyler is introducing me to pretty ladies my age. He really is making it easy for me to be here, and I'm really stoked to help out at the zipline.
   Along the way we stopped at a couple little forest resorts and saw the tree house brewing company that barely was. The brewery is no longer in production but there is a beautiful little vacation rental with all the amenities, even an outdoor shower in the trees.

day 2

I woke up early today and we made a brake for it. I was a little saddle sore but the riding was smooth.  A lot of little stops helped my sore muscles get warmed up and the pace was much faster. We hit Ohio about 9am and somehow managed to miss a bunch of rain on the way to Defiance. Currently I am sitting inside Kissner's restaurant where I had a swiss steak and a yulengaling. Already we have traveled 45 miles thanks to the cool weather and a nice tailwind. I was averaging about 14mph for the last hour or so. At this point I feel content to find a place to rest for another hour and continue this afternoon. I'm pretty sure that i'm still 100mi to my destination but I'm hopeful that I will break 100k and not have to rush the entire last day to Mansfield.
     On the way through Defiance I stopped at the library to try to complete the request for videos to the casting person for Naked and Afraid. The computers were slow and I couldn't get anything to work the way I needed so I just ended up talking to a few of the locals. Chris and I chilled outside by the Maumee river and he told me some interesting things about the area and history, then he pointed me out of town and I started cruising east. There was some road construction and a busy highway for a few miles so I changed my route to parallel the highway in the country. There was a great tail wind and nothing much to see, so I just kept pedaling until I found a backyard pond with someone outside mowing. He let me jump in, so long as I didn't drown, and Makai and I got a good bath.  I continued on my way for another hour or so until I spotted a bunch of water towers to the south. I made a turn and was disappointed to find a string of factories and no town. Several miles later I found the town of Lepsic, a burned out old farm town surrounded by trailer parks and factories. There are three restaurants in town; subway, and two pizza places but only one where I could get a beer. So I ate an entire pizza, drank a few Stroughs, and made my way to a park where I set up a hammock and passed out. At 3:30 am Makai woke me up barking. I already knew what was happening so I called out to the officer and told him "I know I'm not supposed to be here, is there anywhere you would rather me be right now?"  He sided with me and let me stay if I promised to leave early in the morning. It was a really cold night and Makai ended up in the hammock with me the rest of the night,  a small reward for being such a good dog

day 1

That two hearted SOB got me, it took far to long to drink that keg. I didn't wake up early and my mom had to shake me out of bed so she could have a proper goodbye.  I packed up the rest of my belongings by 11 and started heading west on the pumkinvine bike path. That is a great trail, it bummed me out when I had to ride on the buggy roads. They hardly compare. Sr 20 is surprisingly nice, The trucks blow by at 5 times my speed but the shoulder is huge. I stopped at Lucy's vedi twist for an icecream cone and an interview with a casting rep from Naked and Afraid. I have another video interview on Friday. While I was eating my peach frozen yogurt my inner tube on the front wheel exploded with a bang and I had to fix it before I could leave. We left as soon as possible and stuck to the paved roads to avoid another flat. The ride got hilly but the scenery was nice and the weather was great. I rode 30 more miles with my pace slowing because of the hills and headwind. Somewhere in Dekalb I stopped to get directions to a campground and no one knew anything so I decided to find somewhere on my own. I crossed hwy 69 and right there less than a mile away was an abandoned business and a house. It was trashed and stinky but it had a roof and screens on the windows. I did what I needed to do updating my family and such and then fell asleep hard for a few solid hours.

ready. set.

I'm about to leave on my big bike trip.  I have everything almost ready. It is only going to take a small amount of packing my trailer and then I'm off. I have to say ciao to a few important people so I wont have a chance to tell of my many adventures in Middlebury, IN or show off my video yet. Soon hopefully I will buckle down on this thing and keep a more accurate record of my daily activities. Keep in touch, I could probably use some afternoon conversations to keep my wheels turning. 808 769 0598 I got a bluetooth speaker to allow me to communicate on bike.

Here is the daily update.
I woke up early to go tour around Elkhart, IN with the city arborist Daniel Coy. We cruised around town and he showed me all the cool things he is working on. They do a lot in Elkhart to keep up to date on their tree city USA status and to plant three trees for every one that the city removes.  He said once the Emerald Ash Borer problem is dealt with he will have more free time to plant trees but for now there are hundreds of dead trees standing in public places. Please do your part and not move firewood, its really detrimental to a lot more than you could ever know.  I got really stoked because of Dan's excitement, he loves trees more than I do, and is so passionate about his job.
 Next, I went to Grandma Hoover's and pulled out some spirea bushes she didn't want. It was a good thing she fed me lunch, because I didn't spend too much on junk food at the store.   I got some grains, beans, dog food, and essentials for my trip and headed home. One last stop at the Pumpkin vine cycle shop and I am now ready for my adventure. I got tires, pedals, a bright green helmet, tools,  and waterbottle cages. Then I helped Mom move some furniture and ran the dog for a couple miles down the bike path. Once again he knows that something is up, I'm sure he feels the same nervous tension I do, like a belly full of coffee. We stopped in to Evan's to try once again to finish Jackson's wedding keg of Bells, Two Hearted. There is still over a gallon and no one has the guts to help me. So, after this post I'm relieving my duties of editing my video and doing a favor to my best friends to hang out one more time, possibly the last time in a few years, share my love and say aloha.