Lewistown to Raystown Lake 55.4 Miles This day again started with me in rain gear fearing the worst. It started off chilly enough to not mind the extra warmth from the raingear, but quickly warmed up and I shed all the layers. When I got back to Lewistown I ran into my first naviational surprise of the trip. The highway 22 in Lewistown was upgraded to a multilane expressway because of all the truck traffic. That's not something I want to have anything to do with so I had to waste some time trying to find an alternate. Luckily for me a local stopped by and told me that it settled back down into a normal two lane road a mile or two outside of town. I took a nice little scenic backroad detour to the next little town and everything was good in the world again. Great weather, good roads, and a short day ahead of me made me all smiles. I was running out of Amish country and eventually the roads got back to normal from how great they were for most of the trip. I had my first annoying driver in my trip. To my surprise it was a commercial driver too. An oversized load, house on a truck, was coming up from behind me with our road expanding to a much wider two lanes in each direction in a few hundred feet. I am riding right around the outside line of the lane with a wide but gravel shoulder to my right. I hear the truck laying on the horn as it approaches telling me it has no intention of waiting a few seconds for more room. I decided to avoid getting hit by the house and made a quick swing over to the very edge of the shoulder. I can live with this being the most annoying vehicle on a trip. The roads had a big change in feel as the day went on from rolling farmlands to somewhat busy highway following a river. I knew from my planning that the final leg into Raystown Lake was going to involve a pretty substantial climb, so I planned some of my day around this. I had lunch a bit early to avoid eating just before a big effort, and I let my water supply run low aiming to only carry what I needed up the climb. Somehow this plan actually worked and I finished the iced tea I picked up in town just at the top of the climb. Another couple minutes and I pulled into the camping area reserved for mountain bikers for the weekend.
I managed to get my act together enough for a short ride out on the trails. The trails were more like a rollercoaster instead of the smashing your way through an obstacle course like the trails at home. I got a little over aggressive and almost took a spill before I got the groove of the trails. The dirt bumps in the trails can force you to choose between working to keep your bike on the ground or whether to just embrace some time in the air. I'll have to figure this out more in my full day for riding ahead.
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