Day 2 through Day 6:
Hillsborough, NJ – Philadelphia, PA – Newark, DE – Baltimore, MD – Westminster, MD – McConnellsburg, PA

It was the morning of Day 2, that I decided to scrap my initial preplanned route and felt that just winging it westward would be better. So after a stop in Philly at the end of Day 2, I decided that passing thru Delaware and Maryland would be the plan. Didn’t have a good reason besides the fact that I’d never been to either state and it wasn’t that far out the way. Plus, I felt Pennsylvania would be pretty monotonous at 283 miles wide.

From Day 1, the terrain has been fairly hilly.  The best hills are the series of small ones as I can use momentum from the downsides to power-up the upsides.  I haven’t been too lucky with hills as many of them are at least 1/3 mile and are just plain hard work.  However, I thought I had it tough with the hills before I had my first mountain climb on Day 6.  This was Tuscarora Mountain it’s a mountain ridge of the Appalachian Mountains and was situated right before McConnellsburg, PA.  I’ll take 1/3 mile to 1 mile hills all day before I opt for a mountain like that.  It was about 4 miles to the top and the road didn’t flatten out in one place on the way.

Towards the base of Tuscarora, I stopped to snap a few pictures and a passing cyclist said “hello” as he sped past.  Which brings me to a tangent.  I see a other cyclists on a daily basis and many of them are very friendly, if headed the opposite way, there is a quick exchange.  If headed the same way, sometimes we’ll chat for a few minutes.  This is all cool.  But sometimes folks will say a quick hello  as they blow by me, like I’m some kind of punk and I’m not carrying 60 lbs of luggage.  I don’t play that! I’m way too competitive.  I’m the dude who will play the “I’m going to outlast you on the treadmill” game in the gym when you don’t even know we’re playing. Yeah. I’m THAT dude.  Soooo, here’s a clip of me with mad cargo, hawking down a cyclist on Tuscarora Mountain. And he wasn’t carrying shit but a backpack.

So, I tried to chat with dude when I caught up to him. He was real short with me. I think he was pissed of that I caught him.

Point. Justin.

Pitiful ain’t I? Well yeah, so what…besides, that challenge helped me pass the time for at least a mile and a half.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #3