Day 9: Ohio is trying to kill us

Colliers, WV to Cadiz, Ohio

41 miles, 3200 feet of ascent

We are hunkered down in a hotel room in Cadiz, Ohio, after a pretty brutal day.

It started well enough. We rose at 6, packed up, and had coffee with our Warm Showers hosts before heading south along the east bank of the Ohio. The ideal crossing would have been a few minutes away in Steubenville, but the Market Street Bridge was closed in 2023, I believe, apparently unsafe for even pedestrians and cyclists.

So we had to continue south to cross at Wellsburg. After crossing, we had a bit of a climb from there to New Alexandria, them things got bad.

We had a steep scary descent to Mingo Junction Gould's Road, along McIntyre Creek.

There we started looking for Dawson Road. GPS told us to make a turn on a particular road, but it was signed "No Outlet". While we discussed what to do a woman can by and asked what we were looking for. I said Dawson Road and she laughed a little. "It's just a few houses down on the left. Put it in low gear, because it's bad."

Soon we learned just how bad. It was a deeply rutted dirt road that seemed to go straight up. I wouldn't take my Subaru Outback on it, that's how bad it was. We pedalled a little then decided it was just too difficult. So we dismounted and pushed. And pushed. And pushed.

After a while, maybe 3/4 of a mile, we topped out at some sort of industrial plant. There were a dozen or so trucks lined up in the road waiting to load up. As we passed by I talked to one of them. He said it was a "well pad" and that the trucks were waiting to load up with oil and gas. He didn't say so, but I guessed they were fracking. Google confirms I was right.

After that steep climb on a road impassable to cars, I probably should not complain about the rest of Dawson Road, but I'm going to. It was a bumpy gravel surface potted by the many loaded trucks that drive on it. That lasted for several miles and by the end my entire body seemed to vibrate even after we stopped. 

From there we had great roads except for the fact that they were endlessly undulating. It would have been fun on an unloaded bike, but with all our gear it was tough. I hate to admit it but there were a few sections of 13 and 14 percent grade we were forced to walk, but nothing as bad as Dawson Road.

We took a break at a gas station where I had a decent burger and fries and we discussed what to do. All day we had been under a severe thunderstorm warning but had just a bit of rain early on just after we crossed the Ohio. But we knew the warning went late tonight, so camping didn't seem like a great idea, and we couldn't find a place anyway. So we booked a hotel ten miles down the road in Cadiz.

That was a tough 10 miles, often in the teeth of a headwind, but we finally made it to the shelter of the Cadiz Inn.

We showered, and that's when I heard a weather front with gusts up to 80 MPH was headed toward us, and our decision to stay in a hotel seemed absolutely brilliant.

What wasn't so brilliant was starting a load of clothes in the hotel's guest laundry, because the storm did come and the power went out halfway through the cycle.

Then the warning was elevated to a tornado warning, which is why I'm sitting in the hall of the hotel writing this. I'm thankful to be here, but we aren't really sure what to do. We have a load of wet, half clean clothes, and we're hungry but I'm sure no restaurants are open. I swear if we don't get something soon I'll be camp cooking in the hotel room.