55.5 miles today, 3482 miles overall
Summary: We started today on the beautiful Montour Trail (it was nice to see it in the daylight), battled our way up and down the hills in the neighborhoods south of Pittsburgh, made a stop at REI, then got on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail and rode it to our first bonafide brewery in PA, just across the Youghiogheny River from our campground. We left the brewery in shifts, first me, then Steve and hopefully we’ll see Bob by morning 😀 (he arrived before the publication deadline).
More details…
We decided to take it easy this morning, and when I eventually started to emerge from my tent, I saw Bob’s smiling face. The humidity was 99%, he reported that he had seen his first ‘fog advisory’ on his phone.
Needless to say, everything felt damp. I thought it had been raining but it was just the moisture condensing on and dripping from the trees.
After talking to a trail maintenance volunteer, we got on our way at the crack of 11 am (I’m being generous with the time), and it was as nice as, or better, than any of the other trails that we’ve ridden.
Given our problems and late arrival yesterday, we were unprepared for breakfast. It was a mixture of jerky, peanuts, an apple and energy bars. So we were looking for lunch/brunch somewhere. We found the answer at Lemonheads, where we enjoyed the pub fare and celebrated our arrival in PA.
We continued up and down hills until we found the Amazon locker that didn’t yet have my delivery. Steve and Bob moved on to the REI. They were still stocking up when I arrived, then we got on the river trail, that we thought was the start of the GAP.
It was a nice trail nonetheless.
The actual start of the GAP was not very exciting…
… but here’s a photo of Bob and Steve once we were on it properly.
Here are some more pictures from the GAP trail…
The GAP Trail is well provided with campsites. We were targeting a free site at Davos, but a chance encounter with a local a few miles earlier inspired us to add 8 miles to the day (it was something about a brewery, and the availability of showers, and on both fronts it was worth it). The campground wasn’t hard to find…
…and I think we are well setup for a late start again tomorrow. 😀
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