55.5 miles an 3538 overall
First full day on the Great Allegheny Passage, AKA the GAP.
We heard great things about the GAP before we left on this trip and from riders heading west that we met along the way who had come up from DC, working their way to Seattle actually. The GAP did not disappoint. It’s a beautiful, crushed limestone trail on old railroad beds. The line we followed today was the old Pittsburgh and Lake Erie railroad.
A good part of the day was spent following the Youghiogheny river upstream from West Newton toward Cumberland, Maryland.
We spent the night in West Newton, Pennsylvania at GAP Trail Campground. It’s about as close as we’ll get to glamping along this trip. It was a very nice campsite right next to the river and also right next to the trail. The camping spaces were on a nice green lawn. There was an outdoor living room with a coffee pot, toaster, barbecue and dishwashing sink. The bathrooms and showers were rustic, but very nicely appointed. The campground had a hobbit theme which was fun and added a lot of fantasy art to the campground.
The day started out warm and humid. After some rumbling of thunder about 9 AM we decided not to rush out onto the trail. We took our time and packed up slowly, had a 2nd cup of coffee or tea and waited for the storm to pass. The storm never materialized but another would catch up with us later.
The trail is often a big green tunnel surrounded by eastern hardwood forest that has encroached on the old railroad line. This is broken up by open spaces at a trail access points, parks and towns, along the way.
In the afternoon we were caught by quite a downpour and decided it was time to break for lunch. Today we mixed things up by having tortillas, peanut butter, and this time apples.
After a nice lunch and the downpour in the past we thought, “Let’s get some ice cream”. We found a local ice cream stand in front of the school in the town. The sun came out and actually felt good as the humidity dropped a bit and we headed back onto the trail and slowly dried out over the course of the afternoon.
The scenery kept getting better as the river valley slowly morphed into a rocky gorge. A couple of bridges high above the river presented some spectacular views.
Tonight we ended up in Confluence, Pennsylvania and will start here tomorrow morning after what I’m sure is gonna be a very heavy dew.
A note from the editorial department: An earlier version of this post that was at times completely incoherent was mistakenly published without proper review. We apologize to our followers.
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