Wild West Tour lll: Day 8

Day 8 - 5-28-14

Confluence, PA to Fairmont, WV

The house owner from the B&B arrived around 8am and cooked us a large omelet as we got our still wet gear together. We had parked our wet bicycles in her garage the night before. The small ponds of water that dripped from each bike had nearly dried. Our shoes had not.

To a cyclist “rain” is a four letter word. There is nothing fun about riding in the rain. You can’t see, you’re hard to see and even in summer you get cold. All the oil from the chain coats your wheels and frame. This with the water off the road make your brakes almost useless. You’re a mess your bikes a mess and I think you get the idea.

Just as we started to leave the house the sun came out…perfect. Maybe we will get in a nice dry day after all. Well sadly “perfect” did not last long as the sky turned dark and the thunderstorms started rolling in. A steady light rain started coming down.

We knew the West Virginia border was not far off. We were hoping WV was going to be eaiser on us in the hill department than PA was. Nope, the first 45 miles of today’s ride had 5000 feet of climbing! Ouch!

The two-way radios on our bikes have a weather alert feature and it sent out a flash flood warning for our area.

Just as the thunder started getting louder and the rain heavier we came across a shelter with a picnic table under it next to a pond. A million to one chance we need shelter and it was there.

We pulled in just in time as the heavy rain and lightning started. We stayed hunkered down till the worst past.

Back on the bikes we rode in a light rain to another Rail Trail. This the Decker’s Trail was mostly paved and 27 miles long and flat. It had a long tunnel that would have made another good place to get out of the weather.

When we pulled into town our bikes were so coated in crud we stopped at a spray carwash to make them presentable enough to bring past the hotel front desk.

Hopefully the pain and suffering will end soon.

Weather Thunderstorms 80 degrees