First trial – October, 24th 2015

 

As I could not convince anyone to join me, I had to go alone. Fortunately, just 3 day before the start my friends agreed to follow me in a car. That was a huge help and relief – even though on the trail I was alone, knowing that they are somewhere ahead helped me keep the moral high.

We met every 4-6 hours during a day and every 2 during a night, they got food and water for me, making my task much easier.

 

So, I did it in 36 hrs 18 min. 335 miles from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC through GAP and C&O.

Next time (May, 28 2016) I will change several things:

1. Start at 6pm from Pittsburgh to go through the GAP at night and have a bumpy C&O during the daylight.
 

2. Get a good GPS. My Android phone lost connection after Cumberland and google.maps did not show the way. It was very taxing to circle around Hancock at night trying to find the way in the dark. After about 1.5 hrs of straying I was totally exhausted.
 

3. Get more lights. It was really scary to go along through the dark forest especially after very convincing warnings of possible unexpected meetings with bears, mounting lions and pumas. I saw hundreds of eyes staring at me from the darkness. Some were scared away by my shouts in Russian, some were not and scared me in return.
 

4. Better clothes. When I slept for an hour in Hancock (in my friend's car backseat) and woke up at 1am it was raining outside. I thought that the darkness, high chances to get lost again without GPS and the rain was a bad combination and continued to sleep until 6 am. These 5 hours are still my shame.
 

5. Spare spokes. Somewhere near Little Orleans I've caught a stick of an inch thick. Fortunately, it stacked between the rear wheel and the frame and the wheel just stopped spinning. If it got inside the wheel, it would break a half of spokes. On the next stop I've taken an emergency blanket and a lighter with me in case I'll get a broken bike in the middle of nowhere and have to stay overnight. The prospect was not exciting at all.

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6. More training. When I got to my first stop at Ohiopyle after 77 miles, I've realized that was the longest that I've did in a day for the past 4 years. And although I've got to Cumberland in decent 12 hrs, the latter half was much, much slower.

I am glad I did it. I know now, that everything below 30 hours on this trial is a very good result.

 

 

I'll beat it in May, 2016.