After a good nights rest in the hotel, Matt and I decided we needed a rest day. So we booked the hotel for another night. We rested, walked to the grocery store and back and rested some more.

I decided to order a new hammock after contemplating my options with the old one. Amazon had a pick up location on our way to the trail the next day, so that worked out wonderfully. I think I will be happy with the one I purchased. The ENOS junglenest has a bug netting with a zipper that runs parallel to the hammock. Opening on both sides. Less opportunities to scalp myself by getting my hair stuck on the zipper when I stand up. Win win!

The next morning we were leisurely packing up. Keeping in mind the Amazon package tracking to arrive in the afternoon 🤞🤞. I took some time to clean out my feed bags and came across a set of keys. A day or so back while riding into a small town in Ohio, I found a set of keys along the roadside near a mud puddle. I picked them up, put them in my feed bag and kept on riding. They had a sentimental key chain on it as well as a Pet ID #, a Ford key and house keys. I called the number on the Pet ID and was able to speak to an actual human. Kudos! Since the owner of the animal ID did not have a restriction on his information, she gave me his name, number and address. I called the number, left a voicemail message and then a text. He got back to me, excited I had found his keys.

We stopped at the nearest postal service on our route and mailed the keys back to their owner. I was glad to have a little less weight on my bicycle.. By the time we arrived at the Amazon pick up location, the hammock had just arrived. From there we headed towards the beginning of the Wabash Cannonball trail.

Google took us to a few more trails along the Maumee River. It was nice to finally get some canopy over us and away from the traffic.

We found a park and stopped for our lunch. Compliments of the hotel breakfast. Western omelets, bacon, chipolte mayo and pepper jack cheese in a street taco. Yum! After a quick rest we got back on the path.

Just before a canal lock our paths crosses with another touring cyclist. Adam is riding Chicago to Maine to Florida to San Diego to Oregon back to Chicago. We are sure our paths will cross again. He is on Instagram at being.moving. As we were talking, a man named Daniel Wright and his lady friend walked up and realized they had never met touring cyclists before let alone 3 that crossed paths for the first time going opposite directions. Timing is everything.

Matt and I rode up to the road and hightailed it to a better bike lane. As we were turning, a trucker honked from a long distance away to let Matt know she saw him. Not thinking anything of it we cycled to the trailhead. Later on when Matt checked his email, he had a message from the trucker.

A new follower for Matt!

We found the Wabash Cannondale trail and started toward Montpelier, Ohio.

https://www.wabashcannonballtrail.org/about/

It was late afternoon and both of us were hot and just about done for the day. We found a primitive campsite along the trail. Unknowingly, we took the 😂🤣😅 loooooong way to the campsite. Once we set up camp, we saw cyclists on the Cannonball trail. We realized then that the campsites were only 100′ from the trail, not the 1/2 mile loop through shoulder high brush.

We set up our hammocks and started dinner. Dinner was delicious! Garlic Asiago Alfredo over Angel Hair pasta. I added basil pesto to mine to help reduce the weight in my pantry pannier. In total I lost 2.4 pounds of weight after that delicious meal!

After cleaning up camp and looking at weather we decided we are going to leave before daylight tomorrow. Heat advisory and high winds by 10am make for not the most desirable cycling conditions.

Matt and I took an evening walk to find our way out back to the trail when we leave our early.

Shall we call it an evening walk in Golden Hour of Wildflowers? There was a beautiful area surrounded by carrots (queen Anne’s lace in the floral world), Black Eyed Susans, Bee Balm smooth Ironweed and Mountain mint that led back to the trail.

One thing is for sure, we are getting closer to Lake Michigan!

Follow Matt for his viewpoint and insight!

https://acrossthemapwithmatt.com/