Mind the GAP!

 The gap is the space between the station platform and the train.  You don't want to step in it and get your foot caught, so the British have been yelling at their Underground riders "Mind the gap!"  for years.  It's actually caught on elsewhere.  You even see it and hear it in the US now. 

But,  I'm not talking about that gap.  I'm talking about the GAP.  Let me explain.

It all starts with the pandemic.  Indoors bad.  Outdoors good. So, get out the bike and start riding.  It's a good outdoor activity and I've always liked biking.  I polished up my ancient Schwinn 10-speed and start riding around the neighborhood.  Then I start riding the Silver Comet Trail in little sections, then somewhat larger sections.  I find I like rail trails as the there are no steep grades.  I consider 30 miles on the Silver Comet a good day's work.

Then I hear about the Great Allegheny Passage.  This is the GAP I'm talking about!

148 mile long rail trail in Pennsylvania and Maryland.  It runs from downtown Pittsburgh to Cumberland Maryland and generally follows the old Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad right of way from Pittsburgh to Connellsville and the old Western Maryland Railroad from Connellsville to Cumberland.  

Then I start researching the route.  There are tour companies that will do all the planning and schlepping and bike renting for you.  All you have to do is show up and ride.  I'm doing this!  Who wants to come?  I get three takers.  My sister, Jane, son, Dan and friend Tom.  We sign up to do this with Golden Triangle Bike company.  We pick the "medium" difficulty, 4 day plan with 31 to 43 miles per day.

Dan and I fly into Philadelphia on Wednesday, August 10th, SEPTA into Center City, hit a Phillies game (they won!) and then meet Jane at 30th St and take the train to Pittsburgh on the 11th.  We're all meeting at the bike rental shop on Friday morning, August 12th.

Pennsylvanian arrives Pittsburgh

Walking to our hotel for the night

How'd it go?  Here's the story.

We arrive at GTB at 9 AM on Friday.  It was sunny, dry and cool.  Perfect biking weather.  They roll out 4 new or nearly so, Fuji Traverse hybrid bikes, complete with paniers on the back and a small bag on the front.  We get the bikes adjusted to fit, check our luggage with them for transport and load our day provisions on the bikes.  They give us maps, some orientation and send us on our way.  First stop is actually in the wrong direction - a half mile to the Point in Pittsburgh.  It's the official start of the trail .  If we need any more adjustments, we can get them at the bike shop on the way past.

Just a great day in Pittsburgh

Dan and Jane and our bikes

Rested and ready!

We are good to go, so here we go.  

The first part of the trail is part of an industrial heritage trail along the Monongahela River. It runs along the highway then over the river on Hot Metal Bridge - which used to take molten steel from furnace to foundry and mill.  It then passes redeveloped land that used to be steel mills and is now everything from water parks to apartments to Costco, finally winding up at the Homestead Steel Mill site.  It was the site of a massive steel mill that had a deadly strike in 1892.  It was shuttered in 1986 and all that's left are a few historic buildings and some signs.  We made a rest stop here to take a look around.

A plaque about the battle.  Hot metal bridge in the background.

Dan and steel mill history

The infamous pump building

Now museum/event space.  This is all that's left of once a gigantic steel mill

The trail then follows an active railroad past Kennywood amusement park, through some woods and over the railroad a couple times to Duquesne and McKeesport.  

Up and over the active railroad

Our orientation told us, "Don't go into McKeesport!"  Other than it being the wrong direction and an easy place to lose the trail, we are not sure if there was something more ominous or not.  We decided not to find out and just followed the trail as told!  

Over the bridge....

...into McKeesport.

At McKeesport, the Youghiogheny River splits off from the Monongahela. The trail follow the Youghiogheny until Confluence, nearly 70 more miles. 

Just a couple miles past McKeesport, the trail went off into the woods for good and started following the abandoned Pittsburgh and Lake Erie right of way.  At this point the trail was no longer paved, but was crushed limestone.  It proved to be an excellent, smooth and hard packed surface which made for easy pedaling. 

After a few miles, we came to our second rest stop.  It was more than a feeling, a  place called Boston.  We had covered about 20 miles with about 14 to go.  We decided we really needed to stop every 7-8 miles instead of 10-12 to keep from getting sore.

Boston!  ...and a P&LE box car.

Tom points the way!

Rolling along the trail past a waterfall.

So, after one more stop mid-way, we arrived at our first overnight stop in West Newton.  Our B&B was right on the trail adjacent to the old train station and directly across the street from...

West Newton train station.

Our B&B was a row of 4 houses.  Ours was the gray one.

...a beer stand run by the local brewery!  We parked our bikes in the B&B's bike storage garage, checked in, got the run down on dinner spots and headed for a beer (or two).  

Didn't start the app until we were a mile into the trip.

Cheers!  Carbs are good, right?

Dinner, we decided, would be at the Moose Lodge.  They were selling steak sandwiches they called "Roast Beef Supreme" and fries for to help fund the lodge.  The place turned out to be exactly what you might picture of a old industrial Pennsylvania town fraternal lodge.  But, the food was good and - even though they couldn't sell us anything from their bar - we had a good meal.  

Moose for dinner...

...and a train after

The beer stand belonged to a craft brewer just a block up from the Moose Lodge.  We grabbed another beer and sat down to listen to a Grateful Dead cover band play on their lawn.  They weren't that good and they got worse as time when on, but they were fun.

We hunted for an ice cream shop, but it was closed, so we hit the local Rite-Aid for some Klondike bars which we demolished on the front porch of our B&B.

The next morning, the B&B fulfilled their second "B" served breakfast on the back patio - pancakes, eggs and bacon - and coffee!  It was chilly out - low 50s, but that was a nice change from weather back home.  We go our luggage put together for the ferry service, packed our paniers, filled our water bottles and got going.

Breakfast!

Today, 43 miles.  Nine more than yesterday and longer than any of us had ever done in a single day.  I had 41, Tom 40, Jane and Dan 30.  We decided at the start to stick to 7 or 8 miles between stops.  Off we went!  After a few hundred feet, we were back into the woods on the crushed limestone trail.

The trail was almost entirely a tree tunnel with some view of the river to our right.  We made one stop at Whitsett, the site of what once was a large coal breaker and loading facility.  All that's left are a couple of concrete storage siloes. 

Crushed limestone trail

Site of old coal facility.  Silos barely visible through trees on left.

Just about to cross under Pittsburgh and West Virginia RR bridge over the Youghiogheny

The day warmed up nicely with the sun but humidity stayed low.  A stop or two more and we're at Connellsville, a fairly large town.  

Youghiogheny River Scenic Overlook, just before lunch.

We find a recommended spot for lunch a few blocks from the trail.  After lunch, we hit an ATM in the drive through of a bank next to the old train station.

Old P&LE station in Connellsville

Rest stop!

We passed one place where EMTs we doing a river rescue and had to dodge emergency vehicles on the trail.  We later found out what happened, a raft had flipped at a dangerous location and a women had been killed.  Awful news.

Scenic view of the Youghiogheny River

Another river crossing

Fourteen more miles and a couple of stops later, we are in Ohiopyle.  

A new record!  Note the ominous grade that starts half way through the day.

It's THE spot for water and trail sports in this region.  There are hikers, bikers, dog walkers, kayakers, rafters, tubers, people fishing and people just hanging out eating and drinking!  The place is really busy.  Our B&B is actually a nice, comfy hostel with unevenly rugged interiors.  The worst part was they had put crinkly plastic liners over the pillows, under the pillowcases.  Nope.  They were removed and replaced.

Low bridge used by trail into Ohiopyle.

We spent a good part of our evening at a local restaurant sipping beer waiting for a table.  It was a great night to be outside. 

Breakfast the next morning was made to order breakfast sandwiches by the grill in the General Store below our room.  The sky was sunny with broken clouds, but the forecast had a chance of rain in it.  Luggage packed and ready.  Bikes packed.  Off we go.  

Although today is "only" 41 miles, yesterday ended on a slight upgrade and today was going to almost entirely on that same slight upgrade.  It meant that instead of making 12 mph or so, as we could do on the level, we were down to 10 mph when we were moving.  Also, the 43 miles the previous day left us each a bit sore in one or more places.  Rest stops were more frequent and a bit longer today.

Yet another river crossing

This short section of trail was lined with a board fence and "No Tresspassing" signs.  Okay...

...and a rest stop

We came to our first tunnel.  Pinkerton tunnel.  The trail goes over a bridge, through the tunnel, then over another bridge.  A lot of engineering work to keep the RR on the straight and level!

Over the first bridge.

Pinkerton Tunnel.  Unlit, but only 850' long.

A tunnel by-pass.  Why?  Because the trail was ready before they could reline the tunnel.  

A rest stop before the tunnel

The trail remained a beautiful tree canopy with constant views of the river and rapids.  The trail remained nicely smooth and well packed.  As the day went on, we lost the sun but the weather was great for riding.  

Lunch was at a small town on the trail, Rockwood.  There was a nice manned welcome station at the trailhead here, and host offered up the only lunch spot in town was the local convenience store.  Covid had wiped out the few other places in town.  Still, the sandwiches were locally made and some ice cream sandwiches finished off lunch.

Lunch!

We had 13 miles to go for the day and we were on a steady uphill path.  We still managed 9-10 mph moving but took frequent, fairly long breaks.  We arrived at Meyersdale just as it started to sprinkle just a bit.  Just before the town there was the Salisbury Viaduct.  1900' long and way the heck up in the air. We took a break to admire it before speeding across it.

 We stopped at the old Western Maryland station in Meyersdale and took a look at their museum displays before heading on to our B&B for the night.

The hardest day.  Uphill all the way.  

Good news and bad news and bad news and good news.  The good news is that is was downhill to our B&B for the night.  The bad news is tomorrow would start with that uphill.  The next bad news is our scheduled B&B was locked up tight all the way around and there was no sign of our luggage. 

The good news was we found that we were actually booked at B&B just down the hill from this one.  Our luggage was there and GTB apologized for the error.  This place was easily the best of the trip.  Quaint, clean, and modern all at once.  Great facilities for storing the bikes, hanging out and getting a snack.  Many of the guests were trail bikers.

The proprietor pointed out the best restaurant in town, a block away, and we headed there for dinner.  The entire complement of diners were bikers we had seen on the trail or around town.  Trail tourism is a real thing!

After dinner, we missed finding the good ice cream place in town, and settled for some frozen from the local Sheetz.   Hey!  You do what you can do....

The next morning, after a good breakfast and coffee, we were off.  We wanted to get a early start because the forecast for the late afternoon looked like rain.  The good news on at the end of the previous day was the B&B was just easy coasting downhill from the station trail head.  The bad news today was we had to pedal up that same hill.  The last 100 yards were killer.  Lowest gear.  Max effort.  But, soon we were on our way down the trail on a foggy misty day.  

When I say "down the trail", I mean that metaphorically.  We actually had another 10 miles of uphill to the eastern continental divide.

Another big railroad bridge.  The 900' long Keystone Viaduct.

It starts with a hefty truss bridge over CSX.

Finally, the eastern continental divide.  The up hill has ended.  Now we get the 20 miles of 1.75% downhill grade we have earned.  

Murals on the wing walls depict the history and construction of the trail.

We are moving right to left on this map

Tom, Dan and Jane on the divide!

The next stop is a 3300' foot long tunnel.  It's lit but seems to have no end at all.  Very ominous.  There's a slight curve at the far end.

Big Savage Tunnel and happy downhill bikers.

It just goes forever?

A few more miles is the next stop.The Mason Dixon Line.  We are entering Maryland.

Just a few more miles and we take a break at Frostburg.  Many people along the trail told us it's worth the trip up the switchback trail to see the town.  Nope.  That would be uphill.  And, it was starting to spritz rain on us a bit, enough that is was just evaporating as fast as it hits, as long as we kept moving.

The side trail not taken.

Frostburg is the terminus of a small piece of the old Western Maryland operated by the Western Maryland Scenic.  If we want to see Frostburg, we will ride the train another day!

One more rest stop at Brush Tunnel before we finish up the ride.

The trail and the railroad share the tunnel.

As we ride the last five miles, the rain decides to get serious.  The last two are the worst and we get pretty wet.

Trail starts and ends at a fountain

milepost 0

A wet bike and the Western Maryland Scenic RR station in Cumberland

Perhaps we should have looked at the radar when we were taking all those breaks. This just popped up on top of us.

Bikes ready for their trip back to Pittsburgh - on a trailer!  These bikes performed flawlessly.  Crisp, easy shifting, hydraulic disc brakes.  Comfy hand rests on the handlebars.

After changing into dry clothes - one last group shot!

The final day.  Uphill slow and downhill fast!

Tom had dropped his truck off in Cumberland on the way to Pittsburgh, so he ferried us to Washington DC where Jane caught Amtrak back home and Dan and I flew back to Atlanta the next morning.

The last day there were discussions.  Were we happy we did this?  YES!  Would we do this trip again?  Maybe, but perhaps in the other direction.  One really hard up hill day just might be worth the slight downgrade all the way to Pittsburgh.  Would we do another trip like this?  Yes!  Erie Canal?  Katy Trail?  

We'll see.  But, I am bike shopping!