The Great Allegheny Passage

Friendly  On sale at Myersdale Maple festival  Beautiful falls along the way Yoders Guest where I’m staying tonight Downtown Myersdale  I saw a little Gardner snake this morning when I started out on the trail. Cute! Anyway things are better today, no ifs ands or butts. My derrière is starting to get broken in and I ended up on this great little town called Myersdale PA. Seems I dropped into town right when their annual Maple Festival was underway, parades, fire engines and the Maple Queen crowned. Today was 40 miles slightly uphill but nice in that the scenery opened up with farms and towns. I’m headed out for dinner soon and hoping to have a split bottle of wine from m California I have been dragging around in my bags. Tomorrow will be the end of the GAP trail and the Continetal Divide and the Cumberland GAP. It supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so wet and wild 32 miles to Cumberland!

Morning Sun Long and high bridge over the river Beautiful but hours long View from the bridge  Rapids at Ohiopyle Ohiopyle   I can’t begin to tell you how much a certain part of my anatomy hurts right now. I did 42 miles today to Ohiopyle where there is beautiful river front with rapids in the middle. I have no problem with strength in my legs, but around 6 hours in the saddle “hurts”. I’m hoping by tomorrow I’ll be in better shape. The way is very beautiful but after 6 hours of almost exactly the same terrain and riding by myself, it find it wears you down, Some sections you go 2-3 hours between even small towns. Ok, so nice dinner, warm shower and a beer, I’ll sleep tonight and do it again tomorrow. I’m sorry to have missed a tour at Frank Lloyd Wrights house Falling Water which is just a few miles away. By the time I hit here around 3pm, I was just too tired to go. 

Old US Steel factory still in operation  Industrial section Small towns along the way  Old mills along the way One of the many Steel Bruges I crossed  This one built in Newton  When the trail got nice Downtown West Newton  Downtown West Newton   I rode about 35 miles today to West Newton, a smallish town on the river. The first 10 miles we pretty industrial, by US Steel mills that belched smoke and look like they were built at the turn of the century.  Not so pleasant, but so different from anywhere I have been. A train, maybe a mile long laden with coal was just pulling in as I went by. Then the trail turned to nicer and nicer natural path with trees and falls all along the way, but in some ways was really just the same. Finally the last 10 miles were a combination of small towns and nice sections of nature.  West Newton is pretty small and looks to be somewhat poor with a decaying downtown and one restaurant that wasn’t very good and a bar....

Former HQ of PPG Grave of early American Revolutionary fighter Former US Steel HQ First Presbyterian Church founded 1787 20 yrs after founding of America   I wandered around Pittsburgh today and you could hardly go one block without some marker saying this or that happened here on some early colonial days or some post Revolutionary time. Sometimes living in California, you forget how this nation started. Even the states name Pennsylvania came from the first English governor William Penn. some signs such as an important battle between England and colonists took place right on a hill downtown.  Also, Pittsburgh is home to early American industrial companies such as US Steel and PPG or Pittsburgh Plate Glass. Their 1970s and 1880s headquarters here have been repurposed to other uses.  Today should be a pretty easy ride for a few hours to a small town called West Newton. I’m looking forward to getting started today on my ride to Washington DC.

       C ome along with me on my bicycle adventure from Pittsburgh PA to Washington DC on the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O towpath through historic parts of America. I expect the journey will take around 7 to 8 days and I'm looking forward to the adventure. As is usual with my trips, I'm sure there will be trials and tribulations, weather, routes and some hardships; but as also usually the case, some amazing things that come up along the way. This trip will be less Pilgrimage of the Camino and more a chance to be outside for much of the day and explore small towns and wilderness along historic old railroad paths. The journey will start on April 28th....