Cyclists ride 100 miles in Lewis County
Recently, two Lewis County residents rode their bicycles for 100 miles in one day. And they did it all within Lewis County. Known in bicycling circles as a century, a 100-mile ride is a bicycling milestone. Mary Kay Lane, of Canton, and Joe Coelho, of rural Lewistown, completed the ride.
Coelho laid out the route two years ago. "I planned the route using the website gpx.studio. It lets you plot your course while it calculates and displays the mileage," he stated. "There aren't that many paved roads that are ideal for cycling in Lewis County. I avoided Highway 61 for obvious reasons. I also stayed away from Highways 6 and 16 because they have no shoulder and lots of traffic."
Starting in Canton, the bikers rode northeast on Highway 81, turned west on Route E to Williamstown, then southeast on A to Monticello, where they took a break at Murphy's. After a short leg on Route 16, they headed northeast again on Route Y to Deer Ridge, then South on K to La Belle for a quick lunch at Casey's. They continued south on D, turning east on Highway 156 to Ewing. At the Dollar General they met up with Cindy Kell, who had ridden from Canton to Ewing to meet them. The threesome then rode east on Route C to La Grange, and North on B back to Canton.
"The original route that I had planned was to take Route P from La Grange to Canton. Even though it is nice and smooth from being recently repaved, we were tired of climbing hills, so we took Route B, which is flat. Another course deviation was that I had 97 miles when we reached Canton, so I continued north on B for a bit to pick up the last few miles," said Coelho.
Kell concurred, at least the out and back portion of the route Kell completed was in fact hilly. Kell was grateful the consensus was to head back to Canton via Highway B through LaGrange. Besides seeing a variety of birds, Kell encountered a box turtle and later a black snake crossing the road while riding 50.15 miles for the day.
"We saw considerable nature along the roadside , including beautiful purple coneflowers, as well as toxic wild parsnip and poison hemlock," related Coelho. "At one point we were riding along and I saw a large, rust-colored object ahead in the road. I said, 'Look, Mary Kay, a deer.' 'Oh, yeah,' she said. But when we got closer, we saw that it was actually someone's mailbox. Later we saw an actual deer, a big doe showing off with high jumps through a bean field. She stopped to look at us. She was in the lovely rust-red coat of a whitetail in summer."
"It's a great route that showcases Lewis County with beautiful scenery, low traffic, and mostly smooth roads," said Lane, who has completed many centuries. "But it's one of the more challenging centuries I've done, with lots of hills." According to Coelho's cycling computer, they climbed 4140 feet. Other challenges including riding through clouds of gnats while on 81, and increasing heat as the day progressed. The temperature reached 91 F. Fortunately, winds were light, so they never had to fight against stiff headwinds. Coelho's average speed was 13.8 mph, with a maximum of 34 mph. The whole ride took 8 hours. According to his cadence sensor, he made 25,768 pedal strokes.
Joe Coelho is a Biology Professor at Quincy University. Mary Kay Lane is the Director of the Canton Public Library. Cindy Kell is the Director of Public Works for the City of Canton.
