04 Aug TAT Day 4: Hancock MD to Warm Springs VA (434km/270mi)

Deer +9, TAT riders +2, river crossings +3

We got off to a reasonably early start this morning at about 6:30 ish. We had a short bit of gravel,then mostly sealed roads for the rest of the morning, with a little more gravel in the afternoon. Just outside Hancock we came across our first and only traffic jam. Some sort of biker rally, but we didn’t see many bikes, it was mostly cars and trucks trying to get in.

We found the trail today to be a mix of boring sections and some nice twisty narrow roads. 

Small church we stopped at for our mid morning snack break

The toll to cross the bridge into West Virginia was unexpected but it was only 50 cents a person. The toll booth lady was really hard to understand but tried to tell us her life story as well as all about her bladder infection. TMI.

The toll bridge

We finally met some other TAT riders today. Two NYC cops who are going to be riding as far as they can over the next 2 weeks. We gave them some stickers and in in return got these cool patches. They are following Kevins route which explains why we saw them pass us yesterday near the ice cream shop.

Does this make us part of the NYC police department now?

We have had only positive experiences with American cops so far. One in New Jersey flagged us down just so he could tell us how much he loves groms, we would have chatted longer but we were holding up traffic. The other was with the two TAT riders.

Some decent river crossings today. Three little ones and one deep fast flowing one near Country route 24. We aren’t stupid and neither were the other two riders. After checking out how deep and fast the river was flowing, we all detoured around this one. 

Checking out the river conditions – that’s a definate nope

We have cheated a wee bit and skipped the last little section section of dirt before Warm Springs. It was getting late and we were both getting a bit tired. The sealed road was just as nice though.

We have camped for the first time on our trip at Hidden Valley near Warm springs. It’s good to be in a tent again. There are fireflies and the campsite is practically empty 🙂

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