awoke from a great hotel room sleep after a very lazy day off. very bad weather yesterday all around, with tornado sirens going off and rain all day. managed to get in laundry, respectable Mexican food, and a (bad) movie, all walking distance from the hotel.
weather started very nice as I headed north toward and beyond pineview to a remote campground in BFE somewhere. had a stiff tailwind to start so I foresaw a good clip today. made pineview in good time, and began venturing NW from there. or so I thought. I found myself not seeing the turns I was expecting, clearly heading into remote back woods. none of the roads back here had street signs, so i had only my ACA maps and GPS to keep me on track. some of the hills back here were ridiculously steep, and I have no shame in saying that me, donnie shelton, had to dismount and walk not 1 but 2 of these animals. brutal. making matters more of concern, my iPhone battery was on fumes, and getting sketchy signals in the woods, as well. I was getting low on water, and weather was becoming ominous. my compass showed I was heading north as expected, so I'm thinking WTF. got a final GPS reading before the cell died that showed I was SOUTH (but heading north) of pineview, not NORTH as I expected. now I'm really thinking WTF, how the hell did I get HERE ? with the afternoon getting late, and decided I needed some local help. back in these woods and at home were the Buttreys, a very nice couple who offered me water, some AC to juice the cell, and some directions. obviously, I took a wrong turn somewhere, but just couldn't see where.... mr. buttrey offered a ride to a nearby hiway intersection from where I could hustle an 11 mile dash to buffalo, TN. earlier calls to the campground I wanted to reach revealed they had high water from the storms and weren't taking campers, so going hotel was fortuitous.
I must have studied the maps for half an hour till I could find my faux pas. yinged when I should have yanged, it seems. lesson learned: be attentive to the maps !
after checking in, went for a local burger that I would class in the "good fucking burger" category.
tough day today. would have been brutal with headwinds. ended up fairly close to the 'closed' campground, so my screw up (this was way beyond simply ass-chapping...) had an ok end, most certainly with the good Samaritans' help !
encountered quite a few dogs today. had to stop once to stare down a pit-bull looking thing. he had a frothy look to him.... as some of you know, I speak a few different dialects of dog, so I barked this pinhead to step off or else. he apparently caught my drift as I walked on with my bike and he stayed put. HA!
today: 79 miles
to date: 1347
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment