We started the day along side the Youghiogheny River. Please do not ask me to pronounce that. Scenery along today’s route was pristine.
One of several fly fishermen in the river alongside our camp. Peacock in a tree. I thought I heard peacocks.
Lunch was in Meyersdale (said to be the maple syrup capital of Pennsylvania) at Donges Drive-In and Motel. The waitress asked Steve if he wanted fake syrup or real syrup with his French toast. It was through that exchange that we learned that the restaurant owner made the syrup, and that Centerville is the maple epicenter.
Today we passed over the Eastern Continental Divide, and with it a long steady downhill run glided us into Cumberland. The timing for this long downhill could not be more welcome, as my chain broke yet again, and our collective spares are not infinite. I would coast all the way to the Atlantic Ocean if I could. The big climbs are pretty much over, so things should be fine.
We coasted into yet another state, and received yet another reward beer from Colin. This beer for biking thing is great work if you can find it. At the Dig Deep Brewery we met up with two of Steve’s very long-time friends, watched a big thunderstorm develop, and made plans to all ride together on Sunday.
Camp was set up at the Cumberland YMCA after the storm passed. We located the tents within the covered pavilion, just in case…
The eastern continental divideThe Mason Dixon line, between Pennsylvania and Maryland End of the GAP (for us, start for others), Start of the C&O (tomorrow’s activity)
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.
Living room One of the named showers
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.
Old RR mile marker Happy Colin starts the day Trail art
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.
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.
Colin and Steve ordered the day’s specials but Bob, on the recommendation of the waitress, got a pancake with blueberries, chocolate chips, fresh strawberries and… peanut butter. I think that was the hot ticket.
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.
Photo of not the start of the GAP
It was a nice trail nonetheless.
The actual start of the GAP was not very exciting…
This sign was not at the start of the trail 😕
… but here’s a photo of Bob and Steve once we were on it properly.
Roller coaster and steel works in the background. One of the last two bridges that made the GAP trail complete on the right.
Here are some more pictures from the GAP trail…
A nice paved section Across the river, the last operating steel plant A toxic acidic outflow from a coal seam, the result of mining years ago (red and yellow because the acid leaches iron and sulfur out of the overlying rock).
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…
Aptly named ‘GAP Trail Campground’
…and I think we are well setup for a late start again tomorrow. 😀
We are closing in on Pittsburgh, and with that comes the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) bike path. In our desire to get within one day’s travel distance of the GAP , we charted a course of about 70 miles, knowing the first half would be hilly, and the second half flat.
What we did not know was that the day would include:
> a fair amount of loose gravel and rocks
> a long, steep decent down a steep, rocky, washed-out “road”
> an even steeper 475 foot climb, locally called Dawson Climb, that summits at a grave yard where one cyclist was reported to just stay and camp after the climb (hopefully not permanently)
> an impromptu front porch party with some locals that was entirely too short, which included some of the best lasagna I have ever had
> a welcome beer in West Virginia
> a very welcome beer in Pennsylvania
> three flat tires for Colin
> 3678 feet of climbing
> extended and confused pathfinding at the junction between the Panhandle bike trail and the Montour bike trail
The host for the lasagna party recently lost a favorite pet. He shared photos, and I have included two of them here. His convenience store bares the bear’s name.
This was the first time that we arrived at camp well after dark, and we arrived safe, very tired, though in good spirits. The root cause of two flats remains unknown, so we shall see what the next day brings.
Today was a day of varying surfaces. We had a good ride today and laid down a few miles. The weather has been very cooperative, still warm but much more tolerable than a week or so ago.
The morning began with low cloud cover, which kept things cool and made for very pleasant few hours to start the day.
He saw a number of interesting things in the morning some houses for regular folks and some houses wee folks.
We have definitely left the flat part of Ohio. We’re no longer in the Great Plains but in the foothills of the Appalachians. The landscape is made up of farmland in the small valleys with woodlands on the surrounding hills. Also this is Amish county. We actually passed a horse and buggy on the road today. This was after asking permission since we wanted to be sure not to scare the horse.
Our riding took us on mostly country roads today, but on a variety of different surfaces. Some were bumpy roads with a lot of patches, some were brand new asphalt smooth with a nice shoulder and then a few miles over what’s called chip seal where where tar is laid down and then an excess of gravel is thrown over that. Cars and trucks car work the gravel into the tar and you end up overtime with a stable smooth surface. During the interim you can run into a lot of loose gravel so we had to deal with that for a few miles. We also threw in a bit of regular unpaved gravel roads just for fun so it made for an interesting day.
We had to leisurely start to the day. Last night’s planning session was inconclusive and two possible destinations loomed ahead, both 50 to 60 mi out. We eventually set off after 10:00 a.m. on the ‘mostly flat’, according to Google, but largely downhill route back to the Heart of Ohio Trail.
Nice road outside the campground Bob and Steve descending (they’re smiling, they weren’t doing that last night on the same section)
We headed to the IGA market in Mt Vernon to get our usual breakfast of bagels and cream cheese.
Eagerly seeking breakfast on the beautifully paved Heart of Ohio Trail
This is both efficient and boring. Making miles as crucial so debating a different breakfast every morning can get in the way. We mix it up by switching between cinnamon raisin bagels with blueberry cream cheese and blueberry bagels with strawberry cream cheese. Today it was the latter. Steve’s hunger was such that he also procured blueberry muffins for immediate consumption; they didn’t seem to do us any harm.
We got back on the road and started looking for the Kokosing Gap Trail. Riders here are spoiled for choice (all the trails / routes we’ve ridden have been great).
Spoiled for choice
Pretty soon we found this nice art installation at the Mount Vernon trailhead for the Kokosing Gap Trail.
I field-dressed the bagels and we fortified ourselves for the rest of the journey.
Here are a few photos of the beautiful Kokosing Gap Trail.
Horses are banned from many of the trails we have ridden recently, but we weren’t on the Kokosing Gap long before we found strong evidence of passing horses. And it didn’t take long after that before a horse and buggy driven by a couple of late-teenaged Amish girls appeared. We pulled over to let them pass but our ‘bad example’ was followed by their pony and they had to urge it along, slightly embarrassed. We enjoyed the interaction.
Over breakfast we made the final decision on our destination so we had to get off the Kokosing Gap Trail soon after the small town of Brinkhaven (unfortunately long before its termination in Glenmont). After a brief descent on a rutted dirt road we found a ford, from which we retreated hastily.
Retreat!
Thankfully there was a bridge alongside; unsuitable for vehicles, but we made it across on our bikes
Safely across the creek we discovered that eastern Ohio doesn’t share the same flat geography as Western Ohio and we found ourselves on a fairly tough gravel ascent; it lasted about a mile and was followed by another mile of gravel road. At the end of that we rested for a few minutes. Although it was notably cooler (or less humid) today than on previous days, it was still hot and my shoe left an impression in the asphalt.
The roughly 25 miles of beautifully surfaced roads through rolling bucolic countryside that followed were marvelous.
At about 10 mi from our campground we found an ice cream shop and enjoyed ice cream and sandwiches while thunderstorms raged around us, but not on us.
Over dinner, we agreed that today was one of our favorite riding days of the trip.
In other news, Steve proudly wore his new socks today! We were all starting to get a little embarrassed at the formerly white socks he has been wearing since the beginning of the trip. 😀
Socks of an appropriately color for an 80-day bike trip.
