Biking and Hiking and Kayaking: Be Careful Out There

John and Carole Bike the Allegheny River Trail

For Christmas 2017, Carole surprised me with a gift of a bicycling mini-vacation on the Allegheny River Trail in the Titusville/Franklin/Foxburg PA area, which is northeast of Pittsburgh.  The ART itself is 31 miles long from Titusville to Foxburg, but also connects to a several other trails.

We scheduled the trip for mid October, which is usually about the peak of fall foliage color in that area - but with the crazy weather this summer the only colors were green (leaves on the trees) and brown (leaves on the trail.) The weather also just changed from being unseasonably warm to being unseasonably cool, so we adjusted our plans a bit.

We decided to drive up to Somerset PA on Wednesday night, which would get us close enough to Franklin that we could arrive in time on Thursday to get some biking in. We went westbound on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - which was lucky for us, because there had been a horrific tractor trailer crash on the eastbound lanes which shut down that side of the Turnpike for over 70 miles between Breezewood and New Stanton. Our side was fine, but the other side was either miles-long backups or long stretches of no traffic at all.

We had a nice dinner at the Pine Grill in Somerset and the next morning took back roads up to Franklin PA - for some reason Carole made me take a very specific route to show me something:

We arrived at Franklin and checked into our very nice B&B, the Witherup House.

 

It was cloudy and about 43 degrees, so only one of us decided to bicycle that day, while the other decided to walk around the cute, cute, cute town of Franklin and lounge around the B&B. I am bound by a pre-nuptial agreement not to say that it was Carole who did the walking/lounging.

I biked from the B&B across the Allegheny River to the start of the Allegheny River Trail, which is a very nice paved surface with constant river views. I went about 5 miles south until the point where the ART intersects with the Sandy Creek Trail. Well, more like passes under the Sandy Creek Trail - there is a bridge that takes the old Sandy Creek Line over the ART and the  Allegheny River and in order to get up to the Sandy Creek Trail you have to take your bike up some pretty steep steps.

Even with the ramp on the side of the steps, that was harder than I thought it would be. From the Sandy Creek Bridge there was a nice view of the river, the surrounding hills and the smaller bridge I biked across on the ART to get to that point.

The Sandy Creek Trail is a beautiful paved path through the pine trees and hardwoods, slightly uphill all the way to Van, criss-crossing a river and taking you through one short tunnel.

The Sandy Creek Trail ended at Van and it was pretty much turn around and bike back to the B&B for a total of about 28 miles.

After I got back we drove up to see what Oil City and Titusville were like. No matter what way we turned, the signs would always say "Oil City - 7 miles" so we never got there but we did check out the "Caboose Motel" in Titusville where for $69 you can rent your own fully equipped motel room in an actual caboose.

That night we walked into town and had a great dinner at the Trails to Ales Brewery - great flat breads, soft pretzel with dipping sauce, arugula salad and interesting libations. I had an "Apple Pie" ale brewed locally and Carole had a flight of 4 different flavors of mojitos.

The next day was supposed to be warmer and no slacking off from biking was allowed. Since the innkeepers were away, they had left us a gift certificate for breakfast at the Amazing Foods Cafe in Franklin where oatmeal and waffles were consumed in large quantities. We walked back and stopped to see the awesome Tiffany stained glass windows at the St. John's Presbyterian Church, which were back-lit by the morning sun.

We then drove south to Emlenton to bike a section of the Allegheny River Trail that included going through two tunnels.

The Rockland Tunnel is about 2800 feet long and has water cascading down from the top of the tunnel at the southern end. We walked the bikes around the water and turned on the lights - since the tunnel has a "dog leg" turn a few hundred feet in, you can not see the other end of the tunnel for a while and was very dark.

The next tunnel was even longer - the Kennerdell Tunnel is 3400 feet long but dry - but also has a dogleg turn and was pitch black most of the way through. Both tunnels were built in the early 1900s and  bisected loops in the river to save the railroad many miles of track.

A few miles past the Kennerdell Tunnel we turned around and headed back for a total round trip of 25 miles. From there we drove a few miles to Foxburg, for some fancy chocolates and ice cream and then on to Grove City PA to stay at the Terra Nova B&B and have a great meal of home made pasta at Nonni's Corner Trattoria, which is now our second favorite Italian restaurant after Pasta Plus in Laurel MD.

The next morning (after a huge breakfast at the Terra Nova) we made the 5 hour drive back home, stopping at the Distillery Lane Ciderworks in Jefferson MD to pick some apples, apple cider vinegar and hard apple cider from this small apple orchard and distillery.

Potomac Pedalers Back Roads Century Metric Version Ride

Last week I rode the Baltimore Bicycling Club Civil War Century ride 65 mile route, along with about 1600 other riders. This past weekend I tried the Potomac Pedalers Back Roads Century ride 63 mile route, from Sheperds University in Sherperdswotn WV with about 1200 others riders. I'd never done this ride before and never bicycled in that area at all. Carole and I had spent a Sunday morning in Sheperdstown a few years ago on the way back from a weekend somewhere, and the downtown area was cute, cute, cute - and had several great coffee shops.

The ride was 64 miles with about 2800' of climbing. Sheperdstown is just south of the Potomac River and the ride was a big counterclockwise loop. There were a few short steep climbs, especially going through a big apple/peach orchard out West near Arden where the route hit its highest point. That and one other spot had short stretches of 12% grade, but in general the ride was rolling hills.

It was very foggy at the start of the ride at about 0715 - like many others, I had my blinky red tail light going. The fog itself, and how it clouded up my glasses, made it hard to see the various hickory, acorns, paw paw and Osage orange shells and nuts littering the roads. In the first five miles there was a continuing string of riders stopped on the side fixing flat tires, so I slowed down quite a bit, activated my manual windshield wiper fingers and managed to avoid everything. 

There were three rest stops, at 19, 33 and 56 miles - all with fantastic food, nice people and convenient facilities. The fog finally burned off when I reached the 2nd rest stop, so the last 30 miles was under a bright sun and temperatures in the high 70s - perfect biking weather. MyWindSock claimed I was in a headwind 63% of the time, but there really wasn't any wind.

I was back to the start by just after noon and was able to go take a shower at the Shepard University "Wellness Facility," which if you are over the age of 50 you probably call a "gym." Very nice to be able to do that, since I had to hop in the car and drive 75 miles east to join Carole, Jim and Jacqui at a party in Crownsville MD.

Great route, well managed ride - at several intersections where we had to make left turns across larger roads (not very large, though) there was even police support guiding what little traffic there was. It is a 90 minute drive from my house (compared to about an hour for the Civil War ride) but was definitely worth it. Next week I'm going to try a brand new Metric Century ride, the Ride for the Rivers to raise money for the West River/Rhode River Riverkeeper conservation organization - will probably be much more bare bones than the BBC and PPTC rides, but for a good cause - and a lot closer to home!

Another Bikey/Hikey/Bikey No Boaty Three Day Weekend

Holiday three-day weekends like Labor Day are generally the perfect time to not travel, and (weather permitting) do lots of outdoor stuff at home while everyone else fights the traffic.

Started out the weekend with a 40 mile bike ride from home. While cycling past the Blue Mash trail parking lot, someone was standing there playing the bagpipes - not something you see/hear everything, not that I ever rued a day that lacked hearing bagpipes. (Are bagpipes, like pants, inherently plural??)

On Sunday, Carl and I did a 4.5 mile hike checking out the Gateway trail that starts at the eastern boundary of Catoctin Park on what is called the Lewis Property. This meant a few hundred feet more climbing to get up to Chimney Rock and Wolf Rock. 

The parking area was near a 40 foot tree that was dropping fruit on our heads. I bit into one, it looked and tasted like a pear but I've never seen a pear tree that tall. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever seen a real pear tree - I don't think Bradford Pears count.

The Gateway trail goes through a variety of woodscapes. With all the rain there was a lot of shade and many colorful mushrooms and assorted fungi.

Speaking of fungi, despite years of protests, the state of Maryland is going ahead with the stoopid Purple Line light rail project from Bethesda. The good news is this will eventually mean some trail improvements along the Capital Crescent/Georgetown Branch trails. The double bad news is (1) the stretch of the two trails from Wisconsin Avenue to Silver Spring will be shut down for 4-5 years due to construction; and (2) the tunnel under Wisconsin Avenue and the Air Rights complex will never come back for biking. Labor Monday would be the last chance to bike this section for a long time so Carole and I (and many other people, it turned out) decided to ride the GBT/CCT.

The coolest part of this section is biking on the old railroad bridge over Rock Creek. I'm not sure how this will work after the stoopid Purple Line is built.

We did a twenty two mile round trip, stopping at Georgetown Harbor to watch planes descending to land at National Airport and the snack boat ply the Potomac River trying to sell refreshments to the many anchored large boats and the paddling kayakers. The trails on the way back were jammed with both holiday weekend bikers/walkers/strollers but also many others saying goodbye to the GBT for the foreseeable future.

 

A Plethora of Baby Boomers Partial and Piecemeal Pedal of the Great Allegheny Passage Trail

Camp John 2017 was much fun. I used the Crazy Old Guy on a Bike website to chronicle our adventures. 

You can read the journal here.

Pretty Hilly, Pretty Hot, Prettyboy Reservoir 37 mile Bike Ride

 

Back in 1979 when I first moved to Maryland I bought a Schwinn LeTour 12 speed "road bike" and started riding around Maryland. I saw a 37 mile ride in the "Greater Washington Area Bicycle Atlas" (now out of print since 1998, I think) called the "Prettyboy Reservoir Challenge" about 20 miles north of Baltimore. The description said "If you are in search of hills, this ride is for you."

At the time I worked at Ft. Meade, and one summer day I threw the bike on the car, and went in to work early so I could leave at 3:30pm to drive up and do this ride. The first 10 miles kicked my ass - by the time I got to mile 15, I was walking up hills and it was starting to get dark. I turned around and slunk back to my car.

About 20 years later,  in 1999 or so, I decided to try again - this time on my Trek 520 touring bike that had 21 gears to choose from - including a very low granny gear that made the ride doable. Many beautiful views, but a tough ride.

I decided to try this one again, now another 18 years or so later, on my new Trek bike. No more granny gear, but it is 10 lbs lighter than the 520, and I'm actually in better cycling shape than I was back then. This is not a very long ride, but the hills are all steep - lots of 10-12% sneaky stinger grades. I've been doing longer rides lately, but not real hilly ones - a good test for the new bike.

I started early to try to beat the heat, as July was starting to be July-like - temps were to go into the mid 90s. One annoying feature of this ride is that the toughest part is the first 10 miles - which is also the last 10 miles. That means that after getting through that section at the start, all I could think of was "Oh, crap - 17 miles from now, when it is even hotter, I have to do this section again." About 2000 feet of the 2900 feet of total climbing were in that section.

At the northern end of that section, a very ornate church was for sale. You don't see many churches with both fancy stained glass windows and satellite dishes. From there the route circumnavigated the reservoir.

There aren't that many views of the water from the road, other than from one bridge and from the dam, but Prettyboy does live up to its name. Well, to the "pretty" part anyway, as "Prettyboy" to me brings to mind some old lady's parrot. There are never many boats on the reservoir. It is expensive to get a kayak/canoe/rowboat license for the waters and you have to swear to only use that boat in this reservoir. Since Prettyboy is an active part of Baltimore's water supply, they are very aggressively trying to keep out invasive species like zebra mussels, yet another gift from Russia.

The new bike passed the test - all the hills were doable with its gearing and my knees did not feel worse for the wear. I averaged a little under 14 mph overall, with one rest stop at about mile 21. The disc brakes proved their worth, as twice on downhills deer came leaping out. There were more deer on most roads than cars - this ride is on very low traffic roads, even though there have been a lot more houses built since my last ride. The upside of all that new development is the roads are in much better shape -  a lot of new fun-to-ride asphalt compared to conditions 20 years ago.