I did it. 8.5 hours, over 100 miles. I traveled south to Columbia, crossed the Susquehanna River, then biked south over the ridges (oy! The ridges), past the place where Dr. Winpenny's daughter was recently married, along the river into Maryland. I (fortunately) got lost and missed some confusing roads. Finally running into Maryland Route 1, I went east across the Susquehanna at the Conowingo Dam.

The heavy mountain bike limited me to a steady, slow pace, particularly up the hills, but this was good training for long-distance riding. Oy. I can't wait to get replacement tires on my bike.

I then followed 222, then 272 up to beautiful Lancaster. The sun was horrifyingly hot at this time. I stopped at a grocery store on the way to Lancaster to avoid heat stroke. Once I got back to Lancaster, I stopped again at Franklin and Marshall. I didn't feel tired until the last 5 miles, when I had to stop one more time to get out of the heat. The rest of the ride was slow, but steady.

A friend recently asked me to soliloquize about nature. The trip was full of beautiful, desperate, and marvelous sights. There was much to think about. There's much more amazingness wrapped up in that day than can be easily typed out.