By Ben |

I took my time getting up this morning because I could hear rain falling on the tent.  When I did leave the tent, swarms of mosquitos chased me back inside twice!  So it was probably after 10:00 when I finally left Portage Quarry.

I headed south on the Slippery Elm Trail, which connects Bowling Green with North Baltimore.  This part of the state is so totally flat that you scarcely need a railroad grade, but one was built to service an oil boom almost 200 years ago.  Presumably because iron was scarce, they made the rails by nailing steel to slippery elm trunks, or so the informational signs said.

I spent over an hour in North Baltimore, researching campgrounds at the library and then indulging in a pizza lunch.  This meant that I reached Findlay at rush hour -- never a flattering time to visit a new town.

The campground I found is southeast of the little town of Vanlue, which in turn is southeast of Findlay.  I reached it by traveling some very small roads, one scarcely wider than the bike trail I rode this morning, another with its bridge blocked off to traffic so that I had to disassemble my rig and carry it over.  The campground usually doesn't take tents, but they made an exception for me and charged me only $5.  Yay!

Total distance: 35.1 mi



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