Allegheny Mountains Loop, Day 6

Moncove Lake

Day 6: 10/20; 52.3 miles to Moncove Lake State Park; 2,677 feet of climbing; TM: 290.2; TC: 15,342.

The first part of today’s ride, over the final 33 miles of the Greenbrier River Trail, was easy.

But after the trail ended near North Caldwell, the route shifted onto pavement, and soon we were back into serious hill-climbing. For several miles, we were also back into traffic on the poorly-shouldered Hwy 60.

We took a lunch break at a McDonald’s restaurant near the intersection of Hwy 60 and Interstate 64.

After lunch, we continued climbing on a lightly-trafficked series of rural backroads up toward Moncove Lake.

Over the past week, plenty of dogs had barked at us as we passed by on our bikes.  But until now, all had been either fenced in, tied down or gave up the chase at their owner’s property lines.

Shortly before we reached Moncove Lake, however, we noticed a large German Shepherd checking us out from the middle of the rural road ahead. The dog’s owner was nowhere to be seen. In fact, there was nobody else around. It was Dave and me and the dog in the middle of a rough, rural road, and a showdown was in the cards.

As we approached on our bikes, the beast retreated. He was skittish, possibly intimidated. Good.

I told the dog to go home, and he walked away, up the road and then up a driveway toward a trailer.

But after Dave passed, the dog began growling again and circled back around behind me, positioning himself to give chase.

I stopped, grabbed my can of Halt dog repellent spray and performed the dog-whispering routine I had learned from my ex-father-in-law, a hard-as-nails Missouri farmer.

“Get home you son-of-a-bitch!” I hollered, putting all the alpha-male menace I could muster into it.

The startled dog stopped in its tracks, no longer so cocksure of itself, and it retreated, cowering, back into its owner’s yard.

Bravo! Fooled another one. Another round to the Dog Whisperer! And I rode on.

My other dog trick, which I was performing at the same time I was doing my tough-guy routine, is to point my can of pepper spray in a hostile dog’s direction. Sometimes that’s enough to stop the dog.

My theory is that this may only work with dogs that have been sprayed previously. One taste of that stuff is probably enough.

At any rate, after many years of lugging pepper spray around on my tours, I have yet to actually deploy it. Pointing the can and/or doing the alpha-male routine have done the job thus far. Hopefully, the spray will work if ever needed, not just dribble into a puddle at my feet or backfire.

Moncove Lake was beautiful, and the hot shower at the park was simply divine.

Unfortunately, on my way back to the campsite from the bathroom, I stepped into a hole covered by leaves in the dark and bruised and cut my right knee. Alas, I discovered that I had forgotten to pack my first-aid kit. But I found a couple of band-aids in my toilet kit, and those staunched the bleeding.

My knee was sore and stiff for the rest of the tour but fortunately nothing was broken.

Again, we were the only campers in the tent sites in this campground.

For more trip details and photos, please see Allegheny Mountains Loop, Day 7.

Our campsite, Moncove Lake State Park