I finally found the most lovable part of West Virginia — because it’s level and there are no hills! Trains can’t go up and down hills easily, so the former railroad beds I walked on were flat.
On Tuesday morning, Mrs. Hopson dropped me at the start of the North Bend Rail Trail, a flat trail that winds through river valleys from Wolf Summit to Parkersburg, and took me the last 70+ miles to the Ohio River.
Seat and body are fine, but I am having trouble eating enough. I’m burning more than twice as many calories as I am eating. Gives me a nice flat belly but I get tired easily. Tonight, in Parkersburg, I ate a bowl of chili, two platters of all you-can-eat shrimp, a big plate of french fires and a chocolate milk shake and that feast did not replace the calories I burned today. Once I get off the trail, I’m really going to have to eat less or I’ll gain 50 pounds overnight!
I cross the Ohio River into Ohio tomorrow morning.
