Carole Trades Bike for Train; John trades Carole for Two Old Men

September 9, 2024 to September 11, 2024

Carole and her posse decided to do one of those long train ride kind of "cruises" across Western Canada in early September. I'm not a fan of that style of vacationing, so I decided to get in some more GAP trail riding while Carole was away. Two of the original "old men" from the Old Men's Biking Tours we did back 20+ years ago (here and here) expressed interest but Rick and Chris had a few non-negotiable demands:

30-40 miles max butt in seat daily distances
Downhill and tailwinds only
Mints on their pillows each night

After some negotiations on a Zoom call I was able to propose a plan that tricked them into thinking I'd met their outrageous demands:

The Plan Day 1: Rick drives from Columbus OH, John/Chris from Ashton MD and we meet in Confluence OH. Bike 11 miles to Ohiopyle for lunch and maybe watch Chris do the natural water slide. Then bike back to Confluence and check in to the Parker House.

The reality: Chris drove up from southern MD to my house Sunday pm. Early Monday we loaded up our Jamis Renegades (close to identical, but Chris's a bit newer with a Shimano GRX 1x components and mine with SRAM Force 1x) on my Subaru Outback and headed west. We arrived 200 miles later ahead of Rick, so we drove up to the Youghiogheny Dam to view the effects of the drought hitting the area. The lake was extremely low - we couldn't see it from the dam, but the low level has exposed the 1800's vintage old bridge from before the dam flooded the valley.

From the GAP Facebook Group - drought exposes old bridge across the Youghiogheny

Rick arrived a bit later, we all found ways to recycle our coffee, loaded up the bikes (for Rick, his trusty old Trek 520) and headed out for the short 11 mile ride on the GAP to Ohiopyle for lunch.

2024: Old timers Rick and Chris at their age mile marker on the GAP midway between Ohiopyle and Confluence, spring chicken John at his.

The stretch of the GAP from Confluence to Ohiopyle was the first section of the GAP to formally open. I first rode this section in 1991 or 1992, with my (then infant) daughter Lauren on a baby seat on the back of my Schwinn 10 speed. It is a beautiful flat stretch along the Youghiogheny River and still one of my favorite sections of the GAP.

The GAP is also part of Pennsylvania Bike Route S, which I've done tours on from Lancaster PA to Meyersdale in past years.

Covid was rough on many of the small businesses along the GAP that depend on tourism, and the drought has worsened the impact in Ohiopyle because of cancelled rafting trips. We had lunch at a favorite place over the years, the Ohiopyle House Cafe. The food was still good but the menu was much more limited and included an apology for the limited choices.

After a leisurely lunch we hopped on the bikes and I quickly discovered I had lost the cleat on my right foot sometime during or after clicking out! These were brand-new shoes and I guess I had torqued down the left foot but not the right side. Retraced my steps, never found it. Luckily, I still had the old shoes in my car for the following days.

With me riding a bit lopsided, we headed back to Confluence to check into another long-time favorite, the Parker House. Mary "Ma" Parker was there with the usual friendly greeting and told us two other rooms (of 7 total) would also be occupied.

Rick wanted to take a swim in the nearby Youghiogheny River, donned his goggles and was disappointed when he found the water level was too low.

We spent some down time on Ma Parker's fine front porch and chatted with another Parker House occupier who pedaled up in an interesting rig.

None of us is really *that* old, but this reminded all of us of a tune from "Oklahoma!"- the Surry with Fringe on Top

The rider was a 250 lb fella with multiple medical issues who had pedaled from Cumberland up to Meyersdale and continued all the way to Confluence for a 68 mile day. I've done that a number of times but not on a 100 lb rig with flags flapping! He did have a battery and some kind of motor but that weight may have just made it heavier and harder to get up the hill from Cumberland to Deal. He was pretty pooped and worried that his plan to do the 90 miles to Pittsburgh the next day might be optimistic.

After chatting with him for a while (I convinced him that the 90 miles to Pittsburgh was slightly downhill to flat and doable - I did it in the reverse direction a few years ago) we hit the local grocery store for some supplies and had dinner at Mitch's (the only restaurant in Confluence open mid-week) which was pretty crowded because the local Lion's club was holding its monthly meeting there. (Trivia note: at the time none of us could remember, but Fred Flintstone was Grand Poohbah of the Loyal Order of the Water Buffaloes.) We walked back through the very quiet town and over the biker/pedestrian bridge across the very low Casselman River, ate some of Chris's watermelon for dessert and fell asleep to the sound of train whistles with an easy 22 miles on the books.

Day 2: Bikes on car, drive to Meyersdale and ride 32 miles or so back to Confluence. Either shuttle back to retrieve the car or John bikes back to his car and drives it back to the Parker House. Possibly a field trip to the Flight 83 memorial in Shanksville.

The reality: The temperature was forecast to be 38 degrees at sunrise the next morning, so we planned a leisurely (and warmer) 0830 time for loading up the bikes onto John's Outback: the two Jamis bikes on the trailer-hitch mounted Kuat rack and Rick's Trek 520 on a roof rack. Getting a steel bike up on top of a car seemed a lot easier 20 years ago... As we were eating our breakfast (bagels and fruit and John's home ground Vigilante coffee for John/Rick, chicken/embryo and mystery meat breakfast burritos for Chris), we saw the big-rig guy leaving for an early start on his way to Pittsburgh - good for him.

The driving route to Meyersdale from Confluence took us over Mount Davis (the highest point in PA) with an awesome view of all the wind turbines on the ridge merrily spinning and generating pollution-free electricity to power all that Bitcoin mining and AI database manipulation... We crossed the GAP trail at Markleton and then pulled into the Meyersdale visitor center. I'd hoped to replace the slightly eggy smelling water from Confluence with some slightly less eggy Meyersdale water, but the drought meant the water fountain was turned off.

Wind turbines as viewed from Meyersdale Visitor Center.

We hopped on the bikes, headed west/north and shortly were at the Salisbury Viaduct, a 1900 foot long/100 foot high bridge over the broad Casselman River valley.

Back on the bikes, and ten miles later we stopped at the Rockwood trailhead, where (as always) a friendly volunteer (and helper) greeted us.

We then had about 15 more miles to the Pinkerton tunnel, but instead of going through the 800 foot tunnel we checked out the two mile long bypass trail - a bit bumpy but beautiful - before stopping on the high bridge.

We saw some pretty large groups of cyclists on this stretch, including a group of four or five woman wearing tutus. I later saw a Facebook post from them on the C&O Canal Towpath.

Back at the Parker house, we showered/changed clothes and got in Rick's van to go back to Meyersdale to pick up John's car - but first had an excellent lunch and ice cream at Donges Drive In and Motel, where boring Chris and Rick chose chocolate and vanilla from the exotic choices of Perry ice cream flavors while John had two different complicated flavors consisting of concoctions of peanut butter, nuts, chocolate, caramel, sea salt and unicorn tears.

Leaving Meyersdale we got trapped by a looong, slooow freight train crossing Main Street - with dozens of Amazon containers on it.

We stopped in Confluence on the way back because Rick wanted to try out his metal detector in the town square, but unfortunately that was prohibited along with many other things. Plus, Chris and I found out we had to clean up after Rick...

The Confluence Festival Grounds has a high rule per square foot ratio.

So, instead we went to the very well-stocked Confluence Cyclery, bought some t-shirts and chatted with the very friendly owner.

Chris found his new ride at the Confluence Cyclery

A so-so dinner at the Little Sandy's (but fine-business pie for dessert!) in Keyser Ridge closed out Day 2 after 32 miles of riding.

Day 3, Getaway Day: Possibly a one way ride to Connellsville involving a car shuttle, maybe just repeating the Ohiopyle RT or Pinkerton Tunnel RT.

For our final day, once again the weather was fantastic - Confluence was fogged in but everywhere else was sunny and cool. We decided to leave a car in Ohiopyle, then drive to start our ride in Dunbar and check out the short 2 miles of the Sheepskin trail that is now open and connects to the GAP at South Connellsville.

The town of Dunbar is in pretty bad shape, but there is a historical society and a church parking lot at the trailhead. The town maintenance workers were nice enough to open the rest rooms at a park near the trailhead so we could recycle our coffee in a civilized manner. The open section of the Sheepskin trail is a nice amenity for the residents of Dunbar, but the trail and town are not must-see destinations.

The Sheepskin Trail hits the GAP just upstream from an old railroad bridge. The stretch from there to Ohiopyle is all in the beautiful Youghiogheny River Valley and the sun was sparkling off the river and chipmunks kept dashing across the trail. Rick began to flag a bit and Chris stopped to dip his foot in the river at the rafting take out. John just kept pedaling and reached the Ohiopyle high bridge and enjoyed a view of the "Great Gorge."

Rick and Chris pulled in a few minutes later, ending our third and final day with a really nice 17 mile ride.

(I've now ridden 135 of the GAP's 150 miles in 2024 - still missing the 15 miles from Boston to Pittsburgh. That might justify one more trip west to check that box for this year.)

We enjoyed a pretty good lunch at the Falls Market Restaurant and Inn, made sure the right bikes and gear made it into the right cars and Rick headed west to Ohio and John and Chris headed east to Maryland. We will see each again in 10 days or so when Rick comes to Maryland and he and I do the Donut Ride on Maryland's Eastern Shore, with Chris and June hosting a get-together at their house in Lusby the next day.

When I worked for the US Secret Service, at the end of a trip the lead agent would come on the radio and say "Despite all our best efforts, everything still fell into place."

Or as Chris put it "Success: we never needed to find where I stowed the First Aid kit..."

Today's ride: 71 miles (114 km)
Total: 181 miles (291 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	3
Comment on this entry	Comment	0