October 21, 2021
Day 1: Pittsburgh to Confluence
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After a breakfast of a SANS meal bar and banana I'd brought with me, and a cup of so-so coffee from Crazy Mocha near the hotel, I rode over to the Three Rivers Heritage trail just a few blocks away.
The Three Rivers Trail on the way down to the start of the GAP at Point State Park is a typical old urban trailway - lots of potholes and broken cement, trash on the surface and so on. But the views are awesome. On the right is the Allegheny River and the iconic Pirates baseball and Steelers football stadiums on the other side. Just the names of the bridges are worth the price of admission: Roberto Clemente Bridge, Andy Warhol Bridge, Rachel Carson Bridge, etc.
On the left are concrete walls and pillars supporting the roadway overhead, all covered with colorful murals memorializing the many Black people killed by police over the years and celebrating diversity and tolerance.
You can't start a GAP ride without taking the iconic photo of the Point State Park Fountain with the Pittsburgh skyline behind it.
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To prove I was doing this on a bicycle, I tried one more time and then hopped on the bike and started pedaling.
There are five types of GAP mileage: Industrial GAP, Residential GAP, Riverview GAP, Green Tunnel GAP and Downhill GAP.
But first you have to get out of the city. I hadn't realized that meant using several different trails (Three Rivers, Mon, Steel Valley) which often, but not always, had GAP trail signs pointing the way. Not that hard to follow, but it did require ignoring the scenic view across the Monongahela River and looking for GAP signs at every bridge (Pittsburgh has lots of bridges!) and several intersections.
At about mile 5, I crossed over the Hot Metal Bridge and entered Industrial GAP: smokestacks belching, steel hitting steel, loaded trains going back and forth and truck back-up warning beepers constantly beeping from across the river. The next 10 miles is a strange stretch, riding by waterworld parks on the left, then almost into Costco's parking lot and then past the Kennywood amusement park on the right- all the time with all kinds of noisy industrial stuff happening across the river.
At mile 15 I crossed the Riverton Bridge over to McKeesport and things got confusing. At first it was easy to follow the GAP signs but I ran into a Trail Closed sign where Jerome Street bridge construction had closed the GAP. There were detour signs but not what I would call a full set - there seemed to be a gap in the GAP.
But with a giant river (now the Youghiogheny) on your right and big hills on your left it is hard to get too lost. I eventually found GAP signs again but at the 15th St. bridge I had a choice between the Versailles Loop/GAP trail and the plain old GAP trail. I chose the plain old GAP trail, crossed the bridge, came down a newly paved path to a concrete littered industrial road with two signs right next to each other:
- No Outlet
- Bikes, Trucks and Cars - Share the Road
Not only did that cause cognitive dissonance but there was a conspicuous lack of GAP signs - or of any human beings or cars or trucks or signs of life at all, for that matter. I hate backtracking, so forward I went and sure enough in a mile or so a freshly paved path appeared on the right, heading up into some woods. I remember reading about the DuraBond bypass -apparently I'd found it.
After climbing a hill and zooming down a nice downhill through the woods, I emerged back onto industrial GAP and and pedaled along until I reached the Boston trail head at mile 20.
I had another meal bar, recycled my morning coffee, refilled my water bottles and got moving again.
The 38 mile stretch from Boston to Connelsville is mostly Riverview GAP, where you are cycling along with beautiful views of a river (Monongahela to Youghiogheny to Casselman) on your left and Residential GAP where the topography allowed the rail lines to stay away from the river and towns and neighborhoods grew up around what today is the GAP. The trail is in fantastic shape over that stretch, a tribute to the many volunteer groups at work. Every time I ride the GAP I contribute to one of them - this time the Steel Valley Trail Council. A lot of homes had elaborate Halloween decorations out.
I did a water stop at West Newton and chatted with some other touring cyclists, then stopped at Connellsville to buy some food at the Martin's grocery store and ate at a picnic table at the Connellsville trailhead. I was trying to stay ahead of the rain that was coming but a headwind right in my face had picked up and was slowing me down, so I moved on.
Somewhere along here I passed both the "red" and the "white" waterfalls, which the Metzger book explains got their coloring (colouring for the international readers) from the iron oxide and aluminum oxide exposed by coal mining.
I've done the Connellsville to Ohiopyle stretch many times - those 17 miles are pure Riverview GAP through the beautiful Youghiogheny canyon that is popular with white water rafters. The fact that the Yough's water is rushing towards you mean you are riding slightly uphill but it turned out that wasn't what really slowed me down.
Just outside of Connellsville, I had to pull over to let a big dump truck pass me and about 15 minutes later I had to do it again for a dump truck coming at me - these dump trucks were pretty much the exact width of the trail, no way to pass safely while moving. As this continued for a while, there was obviously construction going on.
Five or so miles later I reached the construction - and a broken down surfacing machine with two dejected looking operators. They asked me not to ride on the surface until I reached the stream roller, which was about .25 miles away so it required some hike-a-biking. The surface after that was like oatmeal for a while and I wasn't going much faster than walking, but it quickly firmed up - and it was awesome.
If I had checked the excellent GAPtrail.org web site I would have seen the warning about trail construction in the area, but wouldn't have really been able to avoid it.
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That helped make short work of the remaining miles into Ohiopyle.
I first did the 11 mile stretch to Confluence in about 1991 or 1992 when it was the first segment of the GAP to open. I put a baby seat on the back of my 10 speed Schwinn, a helmet on my 2 year old daughter's head and off we, my wife and son went - until she ripped the helmet off and threw it down the hill towards the Upper Yough rapids....
Somewhere along there I passed the 64 mile marker, and I guess I should have stopped to take the now traditional "My Age in Mile Markers" photo but I didn't. At milepost 61 I took the bridge over the Youghiogheny into Confluence and reached my room at the Riverview Kitchenettes with 89.9 miles on the odometer.
It was about 4pm by then and the skies were darkening. I took a quick shower and walked (in my SPD bike shoes, the only shoes I had with me) to downtown Confluence. There isn't much there there in the best of years and Covid seems to have closed many more businesses. I picked up some supplies at the Food Mart and a so-so sandwich from Mitch's Food and Fuel and went back to my room - and the skies opened up about 20 minutes later.
Today's ride: 90 miles (145 km)
Total: 93 miles (150 km)
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