Beware
the jabberwocky my son
By Tim
Finan
The road that bites the corners that catch. Well I tried it again. I don’t take any guff from a road and this one ate me and my Suzi that last time I was on it. This road is indiscriminant; it eats bikes, cars, trucks whatever you want to feed it. You know, a real challenge. Talking to the tow truck guy that pulled my fatally crippled friend out of the gully, he reported that he does a real good business on this particular road.
There’s a little snake of a road in southern Ohio between the river (Ohio River) and Zanesville called route 555. It is all country road, foothills of the Adirondacks, hilly, and remote. You know when you’re in the sticks when every side road is pure gravel and dirt. A versatile mix of forest and pasture that feeds your fresh air karma. It’s really beautiful. Not that you can spend any time looking around cause it has the subtlety of a bull whip and the forgiveness of a spurned lover. I had misgivings about taking my girlfriend on her Ninja and another riding buddy with his CBR-600 on this road since they are relative novices. But hey, I was the rocket scientist that took too much for granted. I wasn’t into it for 5 miles when it took a big bite out of me the last time. But I keep telling myself it was after a long hot day of riding before we even hit the head of 555. Yeah it probably was stupidity. But without denial where would we all be? Better off? Hah! I would only hesitate to compare it to the dragon only because I haven’t been on it But I would be interested in hearing anyone’s experience on both. So I had decided to take it at a pace they could cope with. Yeah that’s it, for their sake…
We left Zanesville early and you’ll need to if you have an itch to see the neighborhood. Cause once you’re on it you have to pretty much stay on it for the 60 mile route. No hotels, 1 gas station in the middle, no lights. I do NOT recommend anyone try this at night. They paved the first leg in Muskingham County this year and that was as smooth as butter. We had the bikes purring and flipping around corners like we were flying. It’s the kind of road that you come to a hill crest and just can’t be sure what’s on the other side, a turn, a straight stretch, a drop. Serious hairpin turns, that drops you then shoots you up a hill at a banking turn, and you just don’t want to leave 2nd gear. Just when you think you know what to expect from the road it opens up in to a long stretch of almost highway like depth. Then it has posted at the side of the road the understated yellow road turns left sign. And it plunges you back into the loom of the forest. I’m here to tell you I have a new found respect for the navigation signs on this particular road. We couldn’t have asked for a better day though it topped 90 degrees before the end. Trees covered about half the route. We saw a Harley rider stuck on one of the steeper hill stops. I’m not sure if she bottomed out or couldn’t figure out how to let go of the brake and not roll backwards. Too much bike maybe…
The only warning I can give on road condition is that some genius road chief thinks the way to maintain the roads is to gravel the hell out of it. The berms, what little there are about 6” wide before you’re into the weeds. Cars that drive onto the berms kick up a little surprise every once in a while, of course on the corners where you don’t want them. 555 winds its way around the outskirts of the Wayne National Forest. The road ends abruptly into Route 7. This main state route will take you north or south along the Ohio River. Cross that and you’re into West Virginia and some more mountainous terrain. I hear that John Brown lived somewhere near by. We didn’t have anything against WV so we didn’t cross. Besides it was getting late and a 150 mile trek back to Cleveland was ahead of us.
When I emerged from that roller coaster I sighed with contentment in the knowledge that though it tried, it didn’t get me this time. When we got back to the trailer my girlfriend commented that she noticed I was much more conservative on this ride than normal.
Well, like….yeah….