Up early to beat the heat was the plan and that's exactly what we did. We hit the road at 6:53 in Meyersdale, PA and enjoyed the first 10 miles up to the Eastern Continental Divide.
Access to this railroad tunnel has always been closed off when we cycled by previously. We were astounded to see the earth moving occurring in what we thought was a very remote area. I wish I had taken a picture from a longer perspective that would show the immense amount of mountain that was removed. We learned later the mountain above the tunnel is being removed so that double stacked trains can use the track. We sometimes hear about railtrails being a way to preserve a (currently) unneeded rail route. In this case in the near future tall freight trains will be finding their way through the Appalachians along this route again.
At one of the bridges leaving Meyersdale several forms of transportation cross at one point, foot trail, waterway, railroad and automobile road. A construction crew was doing some work on the bridge so I was not able to get the best picture of the area but you can see the wind turbine up ahead on the ridge. *I learned later the work was being done to allow double stacked trains to travel under the bridge.
This picture was taken looking back from the Eastern Continental Divide and was intended to show the same wind turbine from the previous picture. It was so hazy, I'm not sure you can detect it. Trust me, it's there.
The culvert under a road at the Continental Divide has interesting murals on each side and an elevation profile inside the tunnel. Each time I cycle by I worry that vandals will deface the art, but so far so good.
We have cycled through the tunnel several times. The view this time was the most interesting because of the high humidity levels. The fog in the tunnel created an eerie atmosphere. From the middle of the tunnel it was not possible to see the lights at either end.
After leaving the tunnel you cross the Mason Dixon line, here the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. There is work being done on a new paving stone marker which crosses the trail at an acute angle. It's quite attractive and a great idea except that for cyclists hitting those paving stones will feel like crossing railroad tracks at other than a 90 degree angle.
After leaving the next tunnel (Borden Tunnel) we saw what we have been looking for all trip. A huge bear was crossing the trail ahead of us. We came to a stop a good distance from the bear.... solely from a desire to avoid scaring the bear, I assure you. Unfortunately, without a strong zoom feature on our cellphone camera you can't really tell how big the bear was. We continued on down the trail after the bear entered the bush hoping for a "drive by picture" but he was invisible. We may not have had a confirmed sighting of a moose in New England but at least we have pictures of our bear. And no, it was not a baby bear.
Rhona ready to visit the last Port-a-John of our tour. Perhaps one of the changes in America since our 1996 Cross USA tour and our current tour is the number and distribution of Port-a-Johns. Perhaps we just got better at scouting public parks and construction sites.
I neglected to take pictures during our long downhill from the Continental Divide. One reason was because we wanted to get as many miles under our belts as possible before the temperatures rose, but more importantly, after finally seeing the bear we had watched for the entire trip I just wasn't paying attention.
The GAP trail shares the right of way with the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad which features steam locomotives. It's a thrill to be riding a bicycle down the mountain when the steam locomotive follows behind blowing it's whistle and belching coal smoke. One time Rhona and I were riding up the GAP trail and saw a guy on the ground waiting to take a picture of the steam locomotive which was quite a bit behind us. Later we learned he was a photographer for the New York Times and our picture appeared in the travel section. We were famous!
Sitting at the fountain at Canal Place munching on a peanut butter sandwich. I don't want to think about how many I had this trip. It's our back-up meal whenever we end up some place without other dining options. There were dining options here in Cumberland, but Rhona was not about to waste a perfectly good peanut butter sandwich on a three day old bagel.
We are back at the statue of the boy driving the canal mule in Canal Place in Cumberland, MD. Notice the mule is admiring the tandem setup. We already had 32 miles under our belt at 9:45 a.m. and were hurriedly trying to get a picture taken and head out of Cumberland for home since it was getting hot. We hated to be rude to the people who wanted to talk to us about our tour, but it REALLY WAS HOT!
From Cumberland we still had 26 miles to get home and it was really hot. This part of the trip is where we could tell the improvement in our conditioning over the course of the tour. Unfortunately, as we crossed the Potomac River into our hometown of Keyser, because of bridge construction we could not see the "Welcome to West Virginia" sign and Rhona had to take a picture of the Mineral County sign while on the move.
There was an element of fear involved in taking the previous bridge picture since we were being passed by a string of tractor trailer trucks, a tour bus and even an oversize trailer. (This picture was taken from a car the following day which shows how little space there was in the lane when passed by the large vehicles) Of course, none of these felt it appropriate to wait until it was safe to pass or "horror of horrors" just follow along behind the bicycle (must pass bicycle...must pass bicycle... must pass bicycle...). To make it worse the surface of the lane was buckled up on the edge the result of wear and tear as they don't want to spend money resurfacing a bridge surface which will be torn down in 6 months. It was a wonderful welcome home to West Virginia. On the other hand, many people in cars beeped and waved to us (and some ducks in New Creek quacked) and they were friendly beeps (and quacks). We presume they were our friends and neighbors who realized why they hadn't seen Dave and Rhona for a few weeks.
An electronic sign documented the temperature on our way through Keyser. This was one of those signs which alternate the time and temperature. You don't want to know how many pictures I have of the time (12:18) before I finally got the timing correct. To Rhona's credit, she thought me fumbling with and mumbling at the cell phone camera was funny in 94 degree heat.
Three miles from home Rhona thought we should stop at a convenience store to buy something heavy to carry up the last hill to our home. I took off my helmet and went inside to use the restroom. My remaining hair had a severe case of "helmet hair styling". Now I don't personally care very much about my looks, but I'm married to a woman who gives a great deal of consideration to how her own hair looks. I spent countless hours throughout this tour waiting as she styled and primped her hair each of the 1,753 times she took her helmet off. Why would such a woman want me to walk into a convenience store where I'm well known with my hair looking like this? I'll leave the speculation to you.
Upon completing a long adventure, a participant might have introspective thoughts at the end of the tour. I certainly hoped I would. That's not what happened to us though. You may remember that Rhona lost her wallet several days ago and we made arrangements to have a replacement for our inactivated credit cards express shipped via UPS. UPS usually delivers late in the afternoon to our address, but of course today the UPS driver passed us when we turned onto our 1/2 mile road. We went into overdrive and raced to get home before the UPS driver concluded we weren't home and took the cards away with him. Coming down the home stretch we saw him leaving the driveway. My piercing whistle (perhaps it was our cries of anguish) caused him to pause long enough to tell us he left the package on our front porch. So much for protecting valuable packages. While we were gone our favorite contractor began work on the outside of our home. One of his employees took our picture. He likes to hike the Appalachian Trail (no he doesn't have extra-marital affairs, he's really a hiker) so he appreciated our satisfaction at finishing this adventure together.
It's 10 p.m. as I finish entering this page tonight. It's great to use a real computer again instead of hunting and pecking on a smartphone. I look forward to having access to many of the pictures I couldn't access on our digital camera as well as cellphone pictures I couldn't upload because of slow or nonexistent internet connections. Throughout the tour Rhona wrote email to family and friends, most of which I have not yet read. Our plan is to go back and enter more narrative detail and pictures when our life returns to normal. Rhona may want to exercise some editorial control about my entries so far, but I want to say that almost all of what I've written is true, or at least it should be true. In a few days I'll gather some summary and logistical information and try to write some final thoughts about our tour. Until then, thanks to everybody who followed along on our adventure on Crazyguy.
Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km) Total: 2,107 miles (3,391 km)
