October 22, 2024 to October 23, 2024
GAP Adjacent Riding (sorta): Monongahela River and Decker's Creek Trails Morgantown WV
Someday the Sheepskin Trail will fill in the blanks
Back in September Rick, Chris and I did 3 days of riding the GAP, including a few miles on the Sheepskin Trail from Dunbar north to the GAP at South Connellsville. Someday, the Sheepskin Trail will connect the GAP to the Monongahela River Trail but currently only a few short segments have been completed.
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Rick and I decided to do two days of riding in the Morgantown WVA area, checking out both the entire Mon River trail and the Decker's Creek Trail which connects to the MRT in downtown Morgantown. Our first try was rained out; by pushing it a week later we had cloudless blue skies and temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s.
Day One - Drive 200 miles, bike 30 miles
Rick headed east from Columbus OH and I headed west from Upper Ashton Heights Mews MD early Tuesday am and after about 3.5 hours of driving each, we met for a pre-ride lunch at a Sheetz near the trail head - where all parking spots and all the gas pumps were occupied by empty cars as everyone was inside buying food. We managed to park, pick up some turkey wraps and drinks and go over to the ride start from nearby Hazel Ruby McQuain Park.
After a bit of fumfering with Parkmobile because we didn't have enough quarters to feed the meters (parking issues will come up multiple times on this trip) Rick loaded up his Trek 520 and I did the same with my Jamis Renegade and we were off - and immediately missed the connection to Decker's Creek Trail a few hundred feet away...
The Decker's Creek trail climbs 1000 feet from the Monongahela River and runs 17 miles or so to Reedsville. You gain most of that elevation in the first 10 miles, so essentially a constant 2% grade for the first hour or so on the leaf-covered trail. The first 5 miles or so are fairly urban (we passed one guy passed out on a bench and Rick asked "Was he sleeping or dead??") but once you go under I-68 it becomes very scenic.
I was a little worried about how much time was left on the Parkmobile app, so at the 15 mile mark we turned around and had a long easy downhill ride passing by numerous dusty quarry operations again, but at a much higher speed. The deep layer of leaves did cause us to ride the brakes quite a bit, though. Nearing town, the sleeping/dead guy was walking towards us at a good pace - and a few hundred yards behind on the trail was a slowly moving ambulance and a half dozen police officers/EMT/firemen who seemed to be looking for him. As it got more urban, we passed many colorful murals.
We got back to the cars with Parkmobile time left on the clock (insert ominous foreshadowing sounds here). After a short drive through Morgantown, we checked into a La Quinta Inn, cleaned up and then drove back to Morgantown for an excellent dinner at the Iron Horse Tavern, parking right across the street from the restaurant.
Once again, all parking was metered and the signage said enforcement was 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Parkmobile goes in 20 minute increments and while I thought 90 minutes would be plenty for dinner, I had to splurge and pay for 100 minutes, ending at 7:45.
The Iron Horse Tavern was short-staffed and slow to clear tables, so we didn't finish dinner until 7:45 or so and got back to my car by 7: 50 - only to be greeted by this from the very efficient (or very bored) Morgantown Tourist Annoyance Squad:
So as not to end the day on such a sour note, we drove up to Mountaineer Country Ice Cream, which turned out to be a very odd ammo/tackle/tchotchke shop with a very WV political slant that also sold huge servings of Hershey ice cream.
There was a confused, sunburned, dancing old guy by the door so I gave him a sample of my ice cream - he gave it a double thumbs-up.
Day Two - Bike 30 miles, drive 200 miles
The next day we had a free breakfast (meh) at the La Quinta, drove both cars north to Point Marion PA and the Sheepskin Trail parking area, and left Rick's car there. Then we drove south to Prickett's Fort State Park in Fairmont and biked north along the Monongahela River back to Point Marion on the flat, flat, flat (but leaf-covered) Monongahela River Trail on another fine warm, sunny day.
We past several huge (but inactive) coal power plants and large dam/lock structures. The surface was hard packed limestone with woods on the right side and the sparkling river on the left. The Monongahela is very loopy in this stretch - we were frequently heading south to go north. This was a really scenic, enjoyable ride.
Eighteen miles later were back at Hazel Ruby Mcquain Park where we stopped to snack and refill water bottles, and enjoy the scenery on a warm, sunny day - although dozens of scantily clad WVU coeds jogging on the trail kept interrupting our view of the river...
From there we had about 6 miles of beautifully paved urban pathway and an equal amount of crushed stone/rural/wooded path. Rick hadn't done two thirty mile days in a row since our last trip and his nether regions let him know they were not happy campers. Finally, we were back at Rick's car.
We loaded the bikes on Rick's car and headed south back to Prickett's Fort. Just outside the park we stopped at Picken's General Store and Cafe for a late lunch, a hard to describe place - but let me try: imagine if a neighbor down the street from you had a shed at the end of their driveway and turned it into a drive up burger/sandwich/fried chicken restaurant.
Rick (bacon cheeseburger) and I (chicken salad on "Texas toast") had surprisingly good food on an metal picnic table outside. The sun was strong but the umbrella was broken so we both had to sit in the slim shadow of the furled umbrella. We must have looked like a cute couple, because Ma Pickens later brought us out little Halloween bags of Utz pretzels.
After that fine repast, we got back in our cars and went our separate ways. With any luck, climate change may treat us to some warm November days and we'll sneak in some more biking.
Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 242 miles (389 km)
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