Our Epic Bike Adventure

Pete's Epic Malfunction: he survived to tell the tale! One more day!   Stephanie agreed to SAG today.  Lance, Lisa, Pete and I set off on a crisp sunny morning after a leisurely morning at the school house.  We had heard from cyclist Mitch that there was a paved trail paralleling the C&O that we could pick up in Little Orleans.  Since we needed to SAG around the Paw Paw Tunnel anyways, Stephanie drove us over the mountain on a gravel road to the trailhead.  We were thrilled to see a black bear cross the road in front of us while enroute.  Lisa remarked that she was glad that we were in the car as opposed to on bikes. The Western Maryland rail trail was smooth and easy to navigate.  We enjoyed the fall air and ease of travel.  At Hancock we left the trail to look for lunch.  ONE restaurant was open and they had a 30 minute wait due to not having enough waitstaff and cooks.  We're retired, we have time! ...

The end is near, 4 more riding days! .  We had started the blog by numbering the days, then the number seemed to get lost in the flurry or towns, airbnbs, and trails.  We resorted to dates, because those were easy to look up when we were lost!  Yesterday I figured out the number of days that were actually spent riding.   Lisa and I headed out for the last stretch of the GAP trail on day 64.  The rain had cleared leaving us a bright brisk morning with some clouds and puddles.  We had one last incline before reaching the eastern continental divide where we took some great photos and met up with our fellow bikers from San Diego.   From the top, we were greeted with a beautiful view over Pennsylvania and Mt. Savage.  Then we cruised downhill at about 19 mph.  We were able to fly down the trail with little bike traffic.  While cruising through one of the trail heads, a retired teacher and her former student wanted to know all about our t...

 Some things in life are hard to explain. Sue and David Bladek, Betsy and I have been taking bike trips together for over 10 years and we have never been rained on. On many occasions we have arrived into our motel or a planned lunch spot under a pavilion only to have the sky open up moments later, but never on us.  We are the Rain Dodgers! This epic adventure was unfortunately made without Dave. (and then we were three). But the magic held. All through the west and the mid west we had no rain on planned ride days. Sadly Sue had to leave us in St Louis. (and then we were two). But Betsy and I were able to carry the magic through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  This morning we awoke to cloudy skies in Dawson Pennsylvania and the threat of thundershowers .Betsy had to sag, so would not be riding today (and then we were one). But Lisa and I set out undaunted on the GAP trail because I was there to keep the rain at bay.  Well, clearly one rain dodger is not enough because 3 ...

What? Only 336 miles left??   Another seemingly important milestone.  The end is in sight. What then.  Pete and I have spent several rides along the trails discussing what life might be like after BEBA?  Will it be like postpartum depression?  Will we have to revisit retirement?  What will we do with ourselves when we don't have to plan a route, reserve lodging and repack the car.....again?   Today the three of us set off together on the Montour trail heading toward the connector with the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail.  Pete wanted to go through the tunnels (boy stuff).  He turned around prior to the finish of the Montour.  Lisa and I forged ahead.  Pete moved the car to Dawson, our end destination. At the end of the Montour we hooked in with yet a new trail, the Steel Valley trail.  It wound us through the towns of Clairton, Glassport and McKeesport.  These towns are similar to so many small towns we have ...

View from our hotel in Steubensville Today we started on our 4 trail to finish stretch. And we crossed 2 state borders!  We started on the Panhandle Trail in West Virginia which hooked into the Montour trail that circles around Pittsburgh and eventually connects with the Great Allegheny Passage and lastly the C&O into Washington.  Both the Panhandle and Montour are lovely.   The Panhandle was flat and paved making for excellent riding at top cruising speeds (20 mph)!  The Montour was crushed limestone but smooth.  We traveled across a long trestle bridge and through a 600 ft long tunnel.  Great fun!  Tomorrow we will connect with the GAP for 3 days.  This phase seems like a huge turning point, no more road riding, and.......Pete gave up his noodle! Pete sadly removes his noodle, it seems to be too old to be of use! It was a COLD 🥶morning, temperatures did not get above mid 60s until lunchtime.  The frigid temperature necessitated a stop ...

Morning view over the Ohio River Valley This morning fall was definitely in the air. After the light show last night (thunder and lightening and some decent rain) the temp had dropped considerably. Pete and I set off, leaving Betsy at our cool AirBnB loft, trying to make some final reservations for the end of our trip.  The start was very similar to Betsy’s and my ride the day before, meaning lots of hills and dales, through fields and woods and (truth be told) lots of run-down houses with a plethora of junk cars in the yards. We were seeing the under-belly of the US. There is poverty here for sure. But lots of natural beauty as well.  At one point, after seeing a “detour” sign, we cruised down a hill, and looked up – and up – and up – at the next (really BIG) hill, and Pete said “Wait a minute. That hill was not noted on the map.” So, we stopped and studied the map for a bit and tried to access Googlemaps (of course there was no coverage when we needed it!) In the end, we ...

  Today we had a lovely ride out on country roads, no shoulder, but almost no traffic.  The hills were challenging.  The inclines steep.  In one place there was a 9% grade.  Did I mention that we climbed really steep hills today?  We were, of course, rewarded with lovely and quite fast descents! So today I was thinking about signs, signals and omens.  The picture above shows a sign that tomorrow really is the first day of Fall. People in upstate NY believe that the amount of brown on a wooly bear signals the temperatures of the upcoming winter.  I guess that maybe the wooly bears are not in agreement this year. Lisa and I agreed that this sign was an omen about the amount of truck traffic on Salem Road today.  We only needed to jump off the road twice! This usually means that Lisa is about to be bitten or stung by an insect.  Today it meant that she was about to take a photo. Churches signal that a village is just around the b...