Start: Seneca Lake Park, OH 9 am

End: Wheeling, WV 4:30 pm

Total miles: 56

Total feet of elevation: 4854 up, 5048 down

Wheeling! What a perfect name for cycling destination! And it does seem that a lot of cyclists come through here.

Today was a little bit of everything. Started out at the bottom of a huge climb to get back on the road from beautiful Seneca Lake. There were tons of deer at my campsite—and it really was mine because there was no one else in the park at any of the hundreds of campsites—and all along the roads near the lake.

The nicely paved roads around the lake soon gave way to the primary surface of the day—gravel! I got to do some gravel biking. Sometimes it was a blast, other times with steep climbs and exuberant dogs, not so much. I got to climb up to several ridges that offered absolutely amazing views.

After about 30 mikes of mostly gravel roads, the route put me on National Road, aka US 40 for the rest of the way. I went through one historic town after another—Barnesville, St. Clairsville and this abandoned gem, Morrisville.

Then it was down more than 1700 ft all at once into the Ohio River Valley to Wheeling. I’d been forewarned about that descent. It would have been a blast on a road bike, but I pretty much rode my disk brakes the whole way. Sadly the famous Wheeling suspension bridge is under construction, so I didn’t get to ride into town that way. I did get to do the next best thing though, which is to snap a photo.

Getting some luxe accommodations including laundry at the Hampton Inn. Ready for another day like this one, at least according to the maps, tomorrow.

I gotta say, challenging though these rides are, I am so lucky to be able to do this trip. I’m loving >95% of the minutes. (Those semis on highways are seriously scary).