November 12, 2024 to November 13, 2024
GAP Cumberland Climb II - Plus Bonus Ghost Town Trail Ride
What goes up for 22 miles gets to go down for 31 miles
After conquering the 11 mile climb as part of our Decker's Creek Trail ride in Morgantown WV, Rick was looking for another challenge. John suggested the 21 mile climb on the GAP as part of riding from Cumberland MD to Meyersdale PA and the next day doing the Ghost Town Trail all downhill from Ebensburg to Black Lick PA.
We planned it for the first week in November when temps were still unusually high, but rain caused us to push the schedule back a week which meant colder weather: highs in the lows 50s in Cumberland and in the mid to low 40s in the PA towns - but generally sunny days. So, we packed up our bikes, donned our lederhosen and mittens and off we went.
Rick and I met in Meyersdale, had lunch at Sheetz, left Rick's car at the closed for the season Meyersdale Visitor Center and drove down to Cumberland. After a bit of fumfering with extra layers of clothing, we started heading uphill.
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Under a cloud-free sky, we quickly settled down into the pedaling rhythm for grinding our way up the 1.75% average slope. It was surprisingly windy, bringing cold air out of the northwest but the loopiness of the GAP on the way up to Frostburg provided plenty of wind-free stretches. We had almost reached Frostburg when a work train carrying up Christmas decorations (including Santa's sleigh) passed us.
At the 16 mile point, we took a break at the Frostburg rest stop and then headed into the wind gusts driving dozens of lazily spinning wind turbines on the ridge. After much grunting, we reached the Big Savage tunnel that would be closed for the winter in a few weeks.
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From there in about 2 miles we reached the Mason Dixon line and then the Eastern Continental Divide a few miles later.
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The sun was getting low on the horizon and temperatures were dropping fast, but the final 9 miles was slightly downhill and easy pedaling. We loaded the bikes onto Rick's vehicle, drove back down to Cumberland to get John's car and turned around to head north to our hotel in Somerset PA.
The Wingate by Wyndham Somerset was 40% cheaper than most other hotels in town and we'd had great luck with Wingate in Morgantown... BZZT, wrong - what a dump! OK, that is a bit harsh since it is undergoing a renovation and Somerset is not really the place to look for fine lodging, but still when you see no comforters on the beds, blankets as thin as sheets, and no heat in the hallways, whattadump definitely comes to mind.
We had a fine meal at the Pine Grill and went back to the Bates motel to rest up before our next adventure.
The next morning the outdoor temperature (and pretty much the Bates Motel hallway temp, too) was 26 degrees. We checked out the Wingate free breakfast which mainly featured little white sugar coated dinky donuts - not even the chocolate ones that propelled John Belushi to excellence in pole vaulting. OK, to be honest, there was a waffle machine but it had probably last been cleaned during the Reagan administration.
Instead we had a fine pancake/waffle/egg/OJ real breakfast at the nearby Summit Diner, an authentic 1960's Swingle Diner with excellent food, great service - but cash only!
After that fine start we loaded up the vehicles and drove 45 miles to drop one off at Saylor Park in Back Lick, then 35 miles east to Ebensburg for another Sheetz kiosk-driven lunch and then parked at the nondescript trailhead for the Ghost Town Trail.
The leaves had all turned and fallen by now, so no foliage to admire but every couple of miles someone had hung ghosts in the trees. Every few miles there were also information signs about coal mining, nearby towns that had been wiped out by the Johnstown flood and other environmental or historical topics. The Indiana County (PA) trail website has an excellent on line "flipbook" with lots of detail.
We could definitely tell we were going slightly downhill with very pleasant pedaling for the first 11 miles or so. That changed abruptly when we hit about a 1.5 mile stretch where back in August Hurricane Debby had caused flooding that washed out the trail. We hit numerous "Trail Damage Ahead" signs and passed a big corrugated culvert that the runoff had blown out of the ground and made the trail barely passable. The washout happened at one of the "steeper" sections, depriving us of a 2% downhill speed boost as we braked around potholes and rocks.
A few miles after that gnarly section ended, we reached the AMD (Abandoned/Acid Mine Discharge/Damage) & Art project constructed in a park located in Vintondale adjacent to the trail. All along the remaining miles of the trail, the river was stained orange from AMD that is caused by the iron sulfate found in coal seams creating sulfuric acid and iron deposits when exposed to air and water.
From there it was an easy ride back to Rick's car in Back Lick. We did the reverse shuttle thing and I had a 3 hour drive east to get home and Rick had a 4 hour drive west.
Even with the damaged section, the Ghost Town Trail was an awesome ride. I'd like to go back and do it more leisurely, during spring mountain laurel bloom or fall foliage color season.
Unless we get a major heat wave, this is probably the end of our GAP riding this year.
Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 304 miles (489 km)
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