Faithful readers -- just want to let you know that I am safely nestled in my next B&B, but too tired to write a good blog. The ride was long (47 miles), rough and scary today. I am fine, but mentally exhausted on top of the physical exhaustion because this was a lot of 'wilderness' riding today and the walk thru a 1-mile long creepy, pitch-black tunnel. There was hardly anyone on this section of trail so I worried a lot about a breakdown or mishap. The fears made me pedal really hard. And I worried about bears, having read about them in the Sunday paper this morning. 30 bears have been hit by cars in MD so far this year. Seems like a lot, don't you think? If those are the ones out by humans, how many are in the woods? So I jangled along with my bear bell (thanks Rudy!) and the bear mace (thanks Deb!) that was velcroed to my rack for easy access. (The same paper told a story about a guy out west who survived a bear attack by using bear mace.). At one point, I began to think that the trail mile markers looked a little too much like headstones. Have a pic of that, but not one I can get the iPad to post. So on that note, I leave you with a photo of the fine restaurant I had dinner at. It was the only game in town.
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Now that I have completed the GAP I will share my itinerary for anyone thinking about a similar trip. Details below, but overall, I would not change a thing.
Day 1: Homestead, PA to West Newton, PA 26 miles. Stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Homestead. Hotel so used to bikers they do not even make conversation about it. You can keep your bike in your room. Trailhead close and easy to find if you have looked at a map ahead of time, but no sign. Path is cinder first, then paved. A short section is on the street, but in bike lanes segregated with pylons. Paved trail continues most of way to West Newton. There are a few short climbs. This segment of the trail was the most interesting to me - all the ex-industry and crossing over active railways a few times. There are interpretive boards to read along the way. In McKeesport you have to pay attention for trail signs -- sometimes painted on a sidewalk or roadway, sometimes a sign. You wind around some streets before picking up the real trail again. It was not hard. From McKeesport, the trail passes through lots of small towns with easy access to jump off for a soda or snack. The B&B I stayed at in West Newton was Bright Morning B&B. Might be the only one. Very nice place, right on the trail near the train depot and bike shop. Mary Lou is a great host. Outdoor bike storage. House has wifi. No locks on bedroom doors. Very clean. Day 2: West Newton, PA to Connelsville, PA
26 miles, all cinder. This section was the most 'boring' in that the scenery did not change much. The trail spends the entire time in the deep woods, with no easy opportunity to hop out to a town for lunch or a snack. No remarkable picture points, bridges, etc. Just a beautiful forest trail segment. I stayed at the Connellsville B&B. Does not look like much from the outside but it is wonderful inside! What a gem. Hardwood floors, crystal chandeliers, comfy beds, wifi and terrific breakfast. Locked bike storage. Close to Connellsville bike shop -- home of the Click and Clack brothers of bikes. Make up a reason to go talk to those guys if you have to. They are a riot. Nice town in general. Good Mexican restaurant a short walk across the train tracks. Day 3: Connellsville, PA to Confluence, PA
26 miles. Not a lot going on along this segment of the trail -- just nature's beauty. The grade does begin increasing and there are a few bridges. Coming into Ohiopyle is quite nice. The bridge won a design award. Ohiopyle itself was smaller than I expected and town was very quiet. Bike shop was closed and it was Thursday. Most of the cafes looked closed too. Nice train depot with clean bathrooms, tourist info & trail mementos. Once in Confluence, I stayed at the Parker House. Loved this place because it was the most homey -- access to a kitchen, comfy TV room, bright sun room. Outside bike storage and no breakfast. But Sisters Cafe, a short walk away, is a great place. I liked Confluence a lot. Today I completed the entire Great Allegheny Passage (149 miles)! I do not know what is yet to come, but this might turn out to be my favorite day. I loved the Meyersdale, PA to Cumberland, MD leg! It was the reward for all that uphill pedaling yesterday. In 32 mostly-downhill miles, I crossed the Easton Continental Divide and the Mason Dixon Line, went through the highest point of the trail (2,392 feet above sea level), across many railroad bridges and through 3 tunnels.
The day was glorious. I even began in a sheet-sleeve shirt, skirted some rumored showers, and rode in sunshine and a steady breeze. The pictures today have to be scenery. The fall colors were out on this day and I stopped often to take photos. After watching a steam engine arrive in Frostburg and having a lunch break, the remaining 16 miles hardly qualified as biking -- it was so downhill to Cumberland that I was coasting at 12-14 mph, a nice break for my legs. Tomorrow I begin the C&O Canal. It is my longest distance and roughest ride. I expect I will be slower.
Critter report: 2 snakes, 4 raccoons together at a creek, 1 ripped hot shirtless runner. This was my 4th day of riding. I have covered 116 miles in total -- about 1/3 of my trip. Today I did 30 miles, all uphill. For the first time,my legs feel tired. Terry was a good ride companion, telling me a lot about what we were passing and what I can expect further down the trail. He is doing more miles per day, so I am not likely to see him again.
This is at the Pinkerton Tunnel. Behind me, on the mountain, they are "day-lighting" an active CSX train tunnel. This open-cutting will create a "V" in the mountain and remove the tunnel ceiling to allow the passage of double-stack trains. To start the project they clear-cut 185 acres. Can you imagine the environmental impact assessment for this?!
This is the Salisbury Viaduct. It is 2,000 feet long and about 100 feet high. It crosses a valley, a river, 2 highways, and an active railway. It was abandoned in the early 70s and Rails to Trails renovated it with a concrete floor and safety railings.
Critter report: a couple chipmunks and a garter snake. Unimpressed! It is a bit warmer this morning; the sun is trying to make it out of the clouds and through the windows of Sisters Cafe. Confluence is a really small, QUIET town. Talked with some locals in the town square yesterday afternoon. It is a big fishing town in addition to getting the bike traffic. Learned a lot about trout fishing last night from a B&B guest.
I am meeting a guy in 10 min that I will ride with this morning. He used to live in this town and I met he and his wife two days ago at my B&B. She is part support crew but will ride with him some later. Will be nice to have his companionship bc he knows the area well. Sisters is great. Good food. Country music playing. Autumn tablecloths and bouquets on the table. Loud, gabby waitresses behind the counter. And I am the only person left in the place. Time to ride! I was shocked to hear tomorrow is Friday! Unless I look at my itinerary, I do not know what day it is anymore. Vacation is great that way.
As we passed through Ohiopyle today (day 3 for me, day 2 for Deb), Deb decided my idea of adventure and fun was not quite hers for 12 days. So her brother picked her up and I continue on solo. As I had been planning a solo ride for months, Debs decision was not even a speed bump for me. I will miss the company, but I am comfortable on the trail. The weather continues to be spectacular and the B&Bs are cozy and welcoming. The bike touring crowd is friendly -- everyone swaps trail reports and is interested in each others trip. (Good news today from a reliable source that the Slackwater detour is gone -- yea!).
I am pleased to discover (so far) that my training seems to have been adequate. My legs are feeling good. Tomorrow is the leg where I do the biggest climb -- looks like about 1,000 feet over 30 miles. The trails have been a comfortable, hard-pack cinder till now, but they will soon become rougher. That gets all the body parts shaking and will make the going slower. But I will cross that railroad bridge when I come to it. Speaking of railroads, while the trail is from defunct train tracks, there are parallel active tracks all the way so far -- sometimes across the Youghioheny River. This means train whistles and train noise are common -- and I love it. Maybe because I grew up in a town with a steam engine, but I think it is nice to be awakened by train noise. Pretty sure not everyone agrees!
Thanks to all who leave blog comments. I cannot respond to them because the blog app is so torturous but I do see them and it is nice to know you are thinking of me. So you may be noticing the posted pics are huge and some funny HTML code stuff appearing. Evidently this Weebly blog app that I am using does not translate apostrophes. I have to go cold turkey on contractions it seems. That already seems very stilted to me. And I cannot make the pics stop screaming at you; no way to change their size.
So far I mostly blog after dinner, and then that takes a bit of fussing. In order to get pics on the blog, I take them with the iPhone and begin the blog there, publish, and then edit from the iPad. If you happen to see the blog after that first publish, it will not be complete. Just wanted to explain that stuff. We are waiting for our housemates for breakfast and then we will get on our way. It is a very chilly 43 degrees right now. I walked up the street for my morning diet Pepsi. Seems B&Bs cannot cater to everyone. Alas. For the Friends of Deb, she wants you to know that she can walk this morning; she is layered like the Michelin Man and she caving in to buy a sweatshirt. We are showered, fed, sitting in the lounge of our second B&B, both pecking away at our electronic toys. It was a beautiful, sunny day. It started off in the high 40's and got up to maybe 60 today. Great for riding. I wore my fleece jacket all day, tho up and down with the zipper a million times depending whether we were in the sun or shade. The trail was still in very good condition out of West Newton -- very flat and lots of trees. Unlike the day before, we went through almost no civilization. We rode all but 6 miles towards our destination before we found a place for a drink + snack. But we did pass many other riders-- some locals just riding, but lots of people touring like us.
Debra had a brake problem and we were able to solve it with my bike repair app and tools. That was cool -- standing in the middle of a trail miles from a bike shop -- successfully solving a problem with an ipad. 2012 pioneers. :) We later took her bike into a bike shop to look over our work for peace of mind.
The two guys in this bike shop were a story all their own. They had me cracking up. After about two minutes I had nicknamed them Tom and Ray -- a.k.a. Click and Clack -- the PBS Car Talk guys except for they repair bikes. We were rolling. I asked them what their business was like bc they are literally right on the trail. One said, "yeah, we even get international people who don't speak any English" and the other quipped, "we make fun of them..." It's a family business. Their 87 year old mother walked out of the building without them knowing and that became a funny exchange too. This bike shop is worth the stop even if only to get some air in your tires. (Bikes Unlimited / Connellsville, PA). Weather forecast continues to be great. Tomorrow we start climbing, about 500 feet. Meeting and chatting with other people. "Steve" is a Peace Corps director in Rwanda. When he heard what Deb and I do he wanted to recruit us. He's directed Corps programs all over the world. "Richard" worked 38 years at Anchor Glass, now defunct. When I asked him to photograph us with my small digital camera, he held it to his eye and said it was blurry. Then he asked if there was film in the camera and when I said no, he wondered how the pictures got out. He was cute. Asking others to take pictures is a gamble. You can't be sure your heads will actually be in the picture. We asked one woman to photograph us under a painted archway and we got six feet of pavement on the bottom but only half the arch above us! Till tomorrow!
It did, in fact, begin in the rain. But it was not the horrible day I was expecting. I waited until about 11 am before leaving the hotel. The sun had even made an appearance. A short one. Within the first mile it began raining again. That sounds like a bad thing. I did, in fact, wish aloud for good weather just the day before. But I rode grinning and laughing. I didn't have a choice, so why not enjoy it. It was like being a kid splashing through puddles. Mud and all. Couldn't help but think adults really should play more.
The rain stopped after mile 8. That made it a lot easier to take pictures along the way. The trail is in good shape even with puddles. I'm on my way.
Not many other people on the trail. Met Deb at the B&B and we walked to dinner at a bar/bike shop/restaurant. There we met Chris, a very wet and tired biker who arrived in town without a reservation. We told him about our place and I invited him to join us for dinner as he seemed nice. Turned out he is a Catholic priest. Fits my pattern... join two bike clubs and get phone numbers from two women in their seventies... start the ride and meet a priest on the trail! Ha! Fortunately for him, there was an extra room at our B&B -- the only place in town.
Ride report: 3 deer, 1 bunny, 1 groundhog, 27 miles, 55' elevation change. Have arrived Pittsburgh on a glorious fall day and found this tractor-trailer parked across the street! What a good omen -- unlike the 2" of rain being predicted for the first day of riding!
The ride up here from DC was nice. Not much fall colors showing. Very mountainous. Hard to believe that I'll be riding this same distance with nothing more than a 1.5% grade. I went out for a short ride to find the trailhead; very easy to locate. Then I rode about 5 miles to loosen my legs and ease out some nerves. It was so hard to turn back to the hotel! But I have to save some miles for tomorrow, ha, ha. I was able to sight-see many of the old steel-industry sights and read tourist storyboards. The picture below is the Hot Metal Bridge. It was used to transport still molten iron across the river. |
DorkyBikeShortsFour months from now I intend to ride 334 miles in 10 days -- from Pittsburgh to Washington DC -- by myself. This blog will document the journey. Archives
October 2012
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