Bike America Day 62: Coal Seams by the Youghigheny

Monday, August 13, 2012



Taking down camp when all we had were the things we could carry on our bikes proved to be much more efficient than when we had a whole car full of clutter and food. From the hiker/biker campground, the three of us left while the church group sat for a bible reading. These boys were riding from Pittsburgh to Cumberland in six days, an impressive feat for teenagers. My mom headed north to pick up the car while my dad and I headed south toward DC.

We were on the northern part of the Great Alleghany Passage (GAP) Trail, a rail trail erected on the former tracks of railroads intended to connect the Mississippi and the Atlantic through the Chesapeake. It runs from Pittsburgh, PA to Cumberland, MD where the C&O Canal Towpath picks and runs all the way to Washington, DC. It has become popular among cyclists to ride car-free between DC and Pittsburgh along these trails.

Our plan was to stop in Buena Vista, a town south of our campground, for breakfast. We arrived there at mile 2 and left the trail in search of food. My dad poked his head in an auto body shop inquiring about a local restaurant and received instructions to ride up a hill, by a school, past two gas stations, etc etc. With rumbling stomachs, we had no choice but to follow these instructions. The hill turned out to be extremely challenging on our hybrids packed down with tents, sleeping bags, and clothes. At that moment, more than ever, I missed my road bike for the way it holds my body hunched over and strong. On a hybrid, I kind of felt like I'd topple over backward as I rode up the steep hill.

We were a little confused when we didn't find any gas stations and wondered if the guys might have been playing a dirty trick on us. The only place selling food was the golf course so we rode in and hoped they'd seat us. It was clear that the two waitresses were avoiding dealing with us as they chatted quietly behind the bar but one of them eventually came over and lead us into a closed section so we could sit alone, hidden from most of the more decent golfers. I felt a little discriminated against but my short shorts and I had the lovely privacy that they always wanted.

I had a veggie omelet and home fries which was delicious aside from the american cheese inside. That is one thing that I will not miss about this trip- the american cheese all over america. It is gross and processed and I wholly believe that it isn't cheese.

We rode into what my dad called the enchanted forest with corridors of trees all around. They were tall, thin and beautiful.

We met my mom at a town at mile 35 for lunch. We had some form of peanut butter sandwiches, sat in the car, and then resumed riding. One of the cool things about the trail is that they have signs along the way telling you about history and landscape. We saw one pointing to a 12,000 year old rock. Then we saw another telling us about coal mining and the presence of coal seams in the cliffs along the trail and Youghigheny River. Above our heads, we could see a clear black seam and pieces of coal were crushed on the ground.

After we left the enchanted forest, most of the riding was high in the mountains and we had many pretty views of them. We crossed a river and arrived in Ohiopyle, a small town well-equipped for bikers on the trail. They had bike and boat shops, rental shops, an old train station turned visitor center, cafes and ice cream shops, and a park/beach along the river. We sat for a little while but decided not to ride down the hill and put our feat in the water.

My mom, who had parked in our overnight town of Confluence, PA rode back to meet us about six miles outside of town. The three of us passed another sign and learned that we were standing on the site where George Washington had camped in 1754 eight days before starting the French and Indian War.

In town, we were camping at Youghigheny Dam Campground but we stayed only a short time before heading to the long-awaited restaurant I'd found on yelp that afternoon. It was a small place called Shepherd's Farm and their specialties were lamb raised on the farm and home-made ice cream. I shared a "health nut" salad and a Greek lamb pita with my dad. Then I had a warm rhubarb and nut sundae for dessert to which I added strawberries. We sat by a plug so that we could charge phones and computer so we missed a dinner by the windows overlooking the farm but it was still a cute place and I will surely sit by the windows next time I'm back.

Bike America Day 61: Car-Free

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Day's distance: 67.41 miles

Overall distance: 3,193 miles

Since Josh was there, we were staying in a motel, and we expected a short day ahead, we agreed to a late start Sunday morning. Our late start turned even later and we didn’t actually begin riding until noon. It took some time to adjust things on our new bikes and to get used to the upright position after 8 weeks on road bikes.

I would be riding my mom’s old Schwinn which she bought in 1992 and which I have a long history with. It is the bike I rode in high school when I first decided that biking might be fun again. The first time I remember riding it was to see the Cherry Blossoms in DC in April. From then on, I spent many weekend and summer days zooming down the capital crescent trail from my house in Chevy Chase to Urban Outfitters in Georgetown. That was my thing: bike ride and shop. Clearly, I've always been a fan of sweating in style. I would leave the helmet hanging off the handlebars so it wouldn’t mess up my hair and sometimes, I even planned to shower right before my ride (twisted, I know) because I thought that the wind in my hair from a bike ride gave me the perfect ‘do. I was a teenage idiot but was happy to have all the memories brought back at the sight of this bike. It was purple back then, my mom has since painted it blue and uses it as her metro bike, but it still holds a special place in my heart.

We began in a neighborhood but our official start was at the Montour trail head. This trail circles Pittsburgh and would drop us in McKeesport, PA where we’d catch the Great Alleghany Passage trail. It would have been much more direct to ride through the city but that is said to be very dangerous and everyone advises against it.

My sunscreen is creepy.

Sweet contraption to walk your bike down the stairs.

Thanks for the warning. I'll beware.

Since it was Sunday, the trail was very crowded with people which was fun. We stopped for lunch beside a pretty bridge and enjoyed the people watching as others rode, ran and walked across.

View of a golf course from the bridge.

We sat on the left bench for lunch.

At mile 37, when we were expecting to meet my mom, who was riding back from the end, any minute, we came to a dead end on the trail. We knew that the trail, especially toward the end, wasn’t complete and that we should expect to take several detours on roads to catch back up with it. We expected we’d missed the turn for a detour. We rode back 3 miles and picked up a map only to discover that we’d taken a side extension of the trail by mistake. On my phone, I figured out a way for us to get on the road where we were and cut back over to the trail so that’s what we did. It added about six miles, and an hour, and then we found my mom.

I learned this weekend that Pittsburgh is the city of bridges.

We rode the rest of the trail, with a few more detours, and then we rode a few miles on roads to McKeesport. We bought dinner refreshments in the only café and loaded our panniers with a night’s worth of belongings. Then we headed out for what we thought was seven miles into the woods. It was well after 7PM and we were entering a race with the sunset.

The initial ride was pretty but also remote and scary. My dad said that it would make a perfect scene from Deliverance, a comment which I was not at all fond of. After about nine miles, we arrived at a hiker/biker campground where a church group of about 15 teenage boys and chaperones were already setting up. We put up our tents as it got dark and ate dinner on a bench. I had a Reuben and a Yoplait key-lime yogurt for dessert. For the first time in a month, I went to sleep wondering if we might be surrounded by bears but I was still cozy and happy in my warm sleeping bag in the woods.

My mom at our dinner bench.

Bike America Day 60: Goodbye to the Road Bikes

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Day's distance: 70.41 miles

Overall distance: 3,126 miles

Leaving our room at the Super 8 to pick up continental breakfast in the lobby, I wondered if we had slept for two months and woken up in October. I was wearing long sleeves and pants and still cold. We heard that the temperature was in the 50s and would reach only 70 for the day. My mom and I bundled up and began again in Maximo. 

We rode slowly up many hills so I never really warmed up. Every time I noticed my odometer under 12mph I felt ashamed that I wasn’t riding my bike faster than those women were running in the Olympics the night before. We stopped fairly often in the first 30 miles and rode through one construction zone. The end of our morning was on a lovely bike path into Lisbon, Ohio where my mom and dad switched at mile 28.

It was gray for most of the day and I left my jacket and pants on into the afternoon. My dad and I had some serious hills to climb and I finally really warmed up. When we crested, we rolled along some ridges with spectacular views, including one with a nuclear power plant among the trees. 

Down from the ridge, we came to our next left turn and saw a sign pointing right that read “Ohio 1”. We had crossed into Pennsylvania with no sign to prove it so we turned right to look for a sign. We came to a small obelisk monument, erected exactly on the border which, as the beginning of the US public land survey, is a registered national historic landmark.

We ate a quick lunch by the sign and then rode through Midland, PA which brought life to the term “rust belt”. My dad’s tire popped as he crossed a bridge across town so I rode on without him while my mom picked him up in the car. I went solo by the power plant and regretted not having my camera. My parents soon caught me so I got a few pictures from a distance.

While my dad hung back to change his tube, my mom remounted her bike. My dad had such good timing that it was almost as if he’d planned it. My mom rode about 1.5-2 miles and it was entirely up hill. The last 1.1 was basically up a mountain, on a small deserted road in the woods. It occurred to me that there could be bears around so I began making noise. I was talking to nobody and making up songs about how the hill was no fun. My mom yelled at me, “Seriously, this isn’t funny!! I don’t know how long I can do this!” We stopped for a break and could hear speeding cars nearby. I told her to push it around the next bend or two and I was pretty sure we’d be at the crest, where an intersection was shown on the map. Just before we made it, my dad caught up to us in the car. Like I said… impeccable timing.

He and I rode and I felt high up in the sky. We slowly made our way down toward Pittsburgh and, as we got closer, we had a steep descent toward the city. From then on, the riding wasn’t very pretty as the roads were mostly large and busy. We had good shoulders, though, so I wasn’t worried about cars. Finally, we were in Corapolis, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where we’d spend the night and begin our trail ride the following morning. We had a hard time finding the trailhead so we stopped in a neighborhood and decided to resume there the next day. I hugged my bike, Charlie, goodbye because it was her final day on Bike America. That made me pretty nostalgic.

We drove to the Super 8 where Josh was waiting with three hybrid bikes. The original plan had been for he and a friend to drive up, switch bikes with us and take both cars home so we could all ride the entire distance to DC carrying our things. My mom decided a few weeks ago, though, that she wasn’t up for 60-70 miles a day, carrying everything, and she wanted to keep the car. This made the switch easier, all we had to do was say goodbye to our bikes and switch odometers, pedals, and other things from one to the other. And there’s the added bonus of getting to hang out with Josh for a night!

We all went to dinner at Primanti Brother’s, a Pittsburgh chain and I had a pizza and 23 oz. blue moon. Josh got a Rogue Hazelnut Brown Porter and it was delicious. My dad ordered a sardine sandwich and was appalled when it arrived with French fries on it.

Arriving in Pittsburgh felt very monumental to me. Like Ragbrai was a big milestone, so was this. We were only 6 riding days from home, and only a five hour drive. I saw my car (which Josh drove up) for the first time in two months and I really felt like we were back east. I told my parents that we had basically already ridden across the country. My dad tried to argue but I’m pretty sure if anyone ever told me that they’d ridden their bike from Anacortes, WA to Pittsburgh, PA, I would think they’d ridden their bike across the US. If we quit now, I think we still could claim to have done it. It was a long freaking way and it made the remaining week feel small in comparison. Still, I was glad we’d made it that far on roads without any bad accidents and was relieved we’d be riding the remainder on bike paths. I was excited to be home but in disbelief at how quickly the adventure had flown by. Luckily, it wasn’t over yet…

Bike America Day 59: Beautiful Sky, Steep Hill, and a Few Falls

Friday, August 10, 2012

Day's distance: 80.85 miles

Overall distance: 3,052 miles

I woke up to rain pattering on my tent Friday morning. My first thought was that this was a good excuse to sleep in and wait for it to pass. It stopped quickly, though, and my mom called from her other tent that we should get a move on before it started up again. My dad and I rolled out just after 8 and his first words were, “I hope we don’t start out with a lot of hills, I need an easy warm-up.” But our campsite was on a hill and then when we turned left out of the campground, we saw we were at the bottom of another. In Northwestern Ohio, the hills waited for no one to warm up.

About five miles in, I was looking up at the prettiest daytime sky I had seen the whole trip. The storm clouds were starting to separate so the clouds were puffy and full with all kinds of grays and whites spinning around each other. There was blue splotched throughout the clouds and the sun, in the middle of the sky, shone rays through in all directions. It was like a painting and I didn’t have my camera with me because of the rain so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Here are some more pictures of our stormy campsite instead.

My dad was longing for coffee so we stopped in Hayesville and met my mom in a little café. While I sipped tea and we shared a western omelet, the skies opened up outside. Our bikes were poured on but we decided we’d picked a good time to stop and get a roof over our heads. The bar stools at the café were old milk jugs with tractor seats atop them.

When we left, it was still drizzling a little. We rode a few miles and as we crossed a busy highway, it resumed coming down really hard. We turned our lights on and soon it was so heavy that I couldn’t even see. I had been wearing sun glasses to keep my eyes dry but the water still managed to pour in them and I had to wipe the water away every two seconds. Luckily, my mom passed us so I stopped and grabbed a baseball cap from the car to wear under my helmet. It was a perfect solution.

The rain died down again and, riding on Old US30, also Lincoln Highway, we started to notice lots of yard sales. At first we were joking that these people must have a lot of junk to get rid of but then it started to get weird. Literally, almost every other house was having a yard sale. Even in the rain, people had erected tents or moved things to their garages to keep business going. On any other day, I would have loved to see what treasures I could find but, in the rain, it wasn’t exactly what I was in the mood for. We eventually received explanation on a sign that read “Lincoln Highway Garage Sales Aug 9, 10, 11.”

In a town, we passed one yard full of Amish or Menonite women in long dresses with bonnets selling baked goods. Up a hill outside of town, we passed a black horse-drawn carriage with a woman and two girls in the same kind of clothing inside. It was in the woods, still drizzling and felt like a scene straight out of Little Women.

At mile 30, we rode down into a valley and I yelled to my dad, “what goes down must come back up”. At the bottom, we rode across a creek in a valley and then began climbing what I think was the steepest hill of the entire trip. It was only half a mile long but it left me panting harder than I have all summer. It felt very good to finish but we had another steep hill immediately after. The sun was somewhat out and from the top of the second, the view behind us was incredible. Again, though, no camera.

We stopped at a cornfield for a bathroom break and I fell over trying to unclip my pedals. It was a very slow motion thing that I knew was coming but I couldn’t catch my balance. I was fine but my back brake got tight and my back rack started to make some noise. A few miles later, I rode over a deep crack and felt a heavy weight behind me. The screws holding the top of my backrack in had come out entirely and it fell backward onto the ground. I stopped and my dad then fell over trying to unclip too. He bruised his knee but was otherwise fine. I looked for the screws but couldn’t find them in the road and had no replacement so we called my mom for sag. I took the entire rack off and had to give up the ability to carry my camera for the next day and a half.

We were near Marshallville where we planned to meet back up for lunch. We sat under the city park’s pavilion and made three delicious sandwiches with tomato, brie, olive oil, vinegar and salt. And of course, I had a few spoonfuls of nutella to make sure I had enough calories in me.

My mom and I left in spite of the dark storm clouds overhead. It was already 3PM and we had 30 miles left to ride. Soon, we entered North Canton, a suburb of Canton which is a large city. We rode on too many busy streets and passed the Canton Akron International Airport. To make matters worse, it was Friday at rush hour so the cars were out in full force. We had very little shoulder and it was not a pleasant way to ride. I cheered when we got back onto a country road.

In the last few miles I saw baby donkeys and remembered that I’d seen llamas and a donkey earlier in the day. Again, the sky was beautiful but one only for my memory. We finished in Maximo, OH and drove 4 miles north to a Super 8 in Alliance. We got a veggie pizza from Hungry Howie’s and I picked up beer from Ohio and Pennsylvania. The grocery store had an enormous selection of craft beer but I couldn’t find any from Indiana. I decided to be creative with the vanilla ice cream I’d bought and my dad and I made beer floats with the Java Head stout brewed in Pennsylvania. They weren’t very good but it was worth a try. Together, the three of us finished an entire large pizza and entire half gallon of ice cream. That’s what you get when you ride 80 miles in a day.

I went to sleep blogging and watching the Olympics. Track was on most of the night so we got to watch the US women win the 4x100 and compete in the 5,000 meter. My mom didn’t think it looked like the 5,000 meter participants were running very fast so I told her that at a pace under 5:00 per mile, they were running faster than we biked the last 30 miles of our day. That really put things into perspective. I hope they each went home and ate an entire pizza and half gallon of ice cream themselves.