Two more states in the bag! Sixteen now! I crossed the border into South Carolina this morning and then, early this afternoon, I crossed the border into North Carolina.

Here are a couple photos of the border crossings. The first photo is at Hartwell Lake which defines part of the border between Georgia and South Carolina. There were no signs at the border there, so the second photo is actually the “Welcome to South Carolina” sign as you enter South Carolina from North Carolina.

For about 40 miles today, I was riding through the up and down hills that I had been seeing for a couple days. Today though, they took a definite turn towards being longer and steeper. And, during an occasional break in the trees, I could see some mountains off in the distance. I’m no expert in the subject, but if they weren’t mountains, they were awfully big hills.

It was nice to be back in near the mountains. For me, the cooler temperatures will especially be welcome. But, seeing the mountains did give me a bit of anxiety because the mountains mean more challenging riding. After about 40 miles today, I started a 13 mile stretch containing a series of steep uphills separated by short segments of level or downhill road. I started that section at about 1000 feet of elevation. I crossed the border at 2600 feet and then topped out at 3244 feet 53 miles into my ride. That’s only a net gain of 2200 feet, but my cyclometer showed a total of 5000 feet of climbing during that 13 miles. It was the most challenging riding since I left the Rocky Mountains about 2300 miles ago, but I’m sure it’s just a warmup for what’s ahead in the next few weeks.

Towards the end of today’s ride, I found myself on Highway 64 between Lake Toxaway and Brevard, North Carolina. I don’t know if I’m just not used to riding in these mountains yet or what, but I seriously worried about my safety on that road. It was very twisty and a lot of short ups and downs. That’s OK for riding, but it was the traffic that made it unsafe. There was a lot of trucks, construction, and the road itself was in disrepair. Pat was ahead of me and had already driven this stretch of road, so when I stopped and called her to ask about the road conditions, she had already called me and left a voicemail message in which she strongly encouraged me to NOT ride on Highway 64.

This bicycle tour to all 48 contiguous states has been a dream of mine for a very long time, but never has bodily injury been part of the dream. So, I called Pat back and we agreed on a place where she could come back to pick me up and I rode in the car for the last 13 miles to Brevard.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 at 5:54 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.