Where are the towels?

September 25, 2016

It’s a bit chilly as we open the door from our room and look outside towards the “breakfast building.” The B&B is constructed of two (expanding to three) single family homes along the trail. The owners converted the one house to the outdoor patio and breakfast house and that’s where we eat. We sit with another couple, Robin and Phil, and talk about touring, and it turns out three out of four of us at the table are on our first tour. They are from Pennsylvania as well and we have a good time atbreakfast (good enough that we exchange FAcebook accounts) and wish each other well on our separate tours -they northwards, us southwards.

Last night’s fire still smoldering in the morning as we make our way to breakfast

Today’s destination is Ohiopyle, a small hamlet made famous in the late 1800’s because of its close proximity to the falls and location near a rail line for tourists to use to get there. After a few fires at the (huge wooden) hotels the village was all but abandoned only to experience a renaissance during the 1960’s with whitewater rafting tours. Now it’s got the GAP going through it so it’s well positioned as a destination for rafting AND cycling.

Kath packs her pannier, and I mine. Everything we own for this week goes into our one pannier and then onto the bike. When you only have one panniers worth of stuff to worry about it’s a freeing experience. You don’t expend vast amounts of energy worrying about things because it’s all literally right in front of you. You can unpack everything you have in the space of a motel room (and the bike in there with you, too). With the gear in the bags, we rack them on the bikes, have the innkeeper take our picture, and we roll onto the trail with the sun warming the fall day.

Morning sun on the GAP just outside of West Newton

9:51 we have 5 miles under our wheels and it's time to take a mid-morning comfort break. Thankfully, there's a building to take care of just that need in Cedar Creek Park. I'm also happy there's a bike repair station - not that I need to attend to anything bike-maintenance related - but glad the towns are interested enough in bicycle tourism and infrastructure to have one there. It's my opinion, but the more towns invest in bicycle-travel related services, the more they will see as a return on that investment. I'm not the only one traveling by bike, and every one of us spends money in the establishments along the way, especially for food.

We roll into Connellsville ready for something to eat, and thankfully, the Martin's Food store just off the GAP fulfills that need. They probably see more bicyclists roll through their store looking for food than the average grocery store.

I don't normally take pictures of my lunch, but I thought this was a rather tasty lunch today

I have to give props to the town of Connellsville. They really have embraced the cycle-tourist, with construction of the Adirondack shelters just off the trail, to the grocery store within's a stone's throw of the trail, to the art installations along the trail, and the way they've cordoned off a side street for just cyclists allowing them to pass through the town unhindered by traffic. I can only imagine this is what cycle utopia is, completely separated from the automobile traffic and automobile drivers and cyclists live in harmony. It's where we stop for lunch before continuing on to our destination.

Rolling through Connellsville on the GAP - you can see the Adirondack shelters on the right just behind the grocery store

Following lunch we cycle through what can best be described as a "tunnel of trees" - it's quiet but for the sound of our wheels on the gravel and the occasional train rolling through on its steel rails across the river. Oh, and yes, I sometimes break out into song when I find the obscure lyric from a 80's song is relevant to our situation. But Kath keeps the serenity of the trail by asking me to stop signing.

Shooting out of the tunnel of trees to cross another viaduct

Just before reaching Ohiopyle, the trail traverses across the Ferncliff peninsula. To get onto the peninsula, the GAP crosses over a viaduct on the Youghiogheny River at about a height of 200'. Then, going across the peninsula, you cross over the same river again but at a much more reasonable height of about 25'. So, this means the river drops about 180' as it makes its way around the peninsula, and makes for some great whitewater rafting, which is what the town is know for today.

We make our way to the cabin we booked months earlier, but there are no towels. Thankfully, we had the entry code to the key to get in, but with no cell service, we couldn't even phone to get towels delivered. So, we showed and used paper towels to dry ourselves before heading into "town" which is really a market that serves food. So, we had some salads and iced teas, walked the village by the river, and called it a night. I walked around later in the evening when Kath climbed into bed to read and enjoyed the laughter spilling out of a local bar into their patio and the streets After a short stroll in the darkness, I crept back to the cabin and to plan the next day's journey.

The second crossing over the Youghiogheny River going into OhioPyle

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 83 miles (134 km)

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