DAY NINE: Johnstown, PA

June 10, 2007 (hell day)
Hungtingdon, PA to Johnstown, PA
72 Miles
by Sam Gutner

The title says it all...to be honest, this was by far the hardest day I've ever biked, and this is my second time doing it. I think that's what made things more difficult. Yeah, it did. Its hard to conceptualize unless you're on the road with us, and for all you distant readers, here's a little taste. We get up at the normal time: 6:15 am. Pack up the bags, load the trailer, clean the church and get to breakfast. The breakfast is so key, and not just in a "make sure you get your Wheaties" kind of way, but more a "you better get a couple thousand calories or else you'll be eating dirt on the side of the road mid day when you begin to bonk" kind of way. After breakfast, the crew is off. I remembered most of the day from my experiences with HBC South 2005: hills, hills and more hills. The rolling hills are easy: relatively shaded, not a lot of wind, and one can relax on the downhills. However, these Pants didn't enjoy the hills. Hill #1: the entrance to hell. This little earthly hickup was windless, shadeless and flatless. So steep, in fact, that if you were required to be in "granny" gear, and if not you were sure to lose momentum quickly and fall over. Once in said gear, there was nothing more to do but bite the lip and dive in head first-grunting, puffing and sweating everywhere. The first hill was riddled with winding curves near the top, which can be very ominous for a rider: are we almot there or is there a false summit? Almost there. Summiting Miriam greeted us with the most delicious popsicles imaginable. Ok, first hill done, 1100 feet cleared on the list. From here on out we gradually made our way up and up until we were greated with the second hill, a behemouth of nearly 1700 feet of vertical with one false summit. "No celebrating after the first one, 'cause you've got another!" says Miriam (from her air conditioned seat in the van). Brutal. Again, shadeless, windless and a grade even Lance Armstrong, Andrea Laizer and Beth Ogata would have to granny up. Its funny, this was the one part of the trip in 2005 I didn't remember and that makes sense: it is simply too awful to want to recollect.