in the GAP

One man...

One bike...

One goal...

I have had a fascination with bicycles most of my life.  I remember the excitement of my first non-training-wheel bike... a 1970's orange Huffy 20" with ape hanger handlebars and black racing stripes.  I put a lot of miles on that bike... as Evel Knievel, a bad-to-the-bone biker, a motocross racer... ah, the freedom of a bike and a childhood imagination!

As I outgrew the 20", I moved to a 26" ten-speed with drop style racing handlebars.  My interest in bikes was fueled during this time by Olympic cycling events and the movie Breaking Away.  

In high school, our library had a subscription to Bicycling magazine and I loved turning the glossy pages full of cycling gear and stories.  And, that is when I discovered bicycle touring... loading up a bike with lightweight camping gear and taking trips... what an awesome idea!  I would turn the pages and imagine someday parking my bike for the evening and rolling my sleeping bag out in my tent... all of which I hauled under my own strength while turning pedals.  I was so enamored with bicycle touring during this time that my required senior English class term paper was titled "How to Prepare for a Bicycle Tour".

In 1993, I bought a new Giant Yukon mountain bike (MTB), thinking that mountain biking looked like great fun.  However, I soon discovered that in 1993 there were almost no places to legally ride a mountain bike in the way it was intended.  As a result, it got very little use for many years.

In the past decade, however, America's bike trail systems (both municipal and dormant railbed trail conversions, as well as MTB trails) have grown exponentially.  Along with that, my interest in cycling has also rebounded.  I tuned up the '93 and began riding local rails-to-trails with the kids.  Over the past few years, I have been converting it from an off road bike to a more hybrid bike with less aggressive tires and a cargo rack, which is more suitable to rail trail riding.  I have also been riding more often, taking advantage of after work riding opportunities on various rail trails that are near my route home.

When Jen decided earlier this year to take herself on vacation in September, I started pondering a week's vacation I had scheduled with nothing planned in October.  Perhaps a man-cation was in order?

And, then the idea came to me...

I was reading a local cycling friend's blog and started clicking through some of the other blogs he featured on his page.  One was written by a fella in Colorado who has done a number of multi-day cycle tours.  I read about his most recent outing and he mentioned some trails that he would like to try in the future... one of them being the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail, which spans 150 miles  between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland.  Wait a minute, I thought, that is close to me... just a few hours away in Pittsburgh!

I started googling info on the GAP and the cycle touring bug of old bit me again.  It would be a lot of work to prepare and plan and I only had a few months.  I had never done a solo adventure, but I had wanted to.  Round trip it would be 300+ miles and I questioned my ability and fitness level, but I wanted to try.  I began planning...

Most of the camping gear I already had from backpacking, but I would need to further outfit "Old '93".  I already had the rear rack and I felt it would sufficiently handle the weight.  I researched panniers and learned that they are a difficult fit on an MTB because the shorter wheelbase causes heel strike on the bags.  I decided on a set that I thought would fit and clear.  When they arrived, I had slight heel-strike issues, so I had to modify the mounting a bit.  I adapted an extra rear rack for the front of the bike, and I added a fender set (the GAP is all crushed limestone base) and lights.  I beefed up my tool kit a bit and added a handlebar bag and a handlebar camera mount.  I mapped out an itinerary and researched overnight stops.  It took all of the two months, but I was finally ready!

Day 1:  (miles: 59 daily, 59 trip)  I parked the car at a trailhead in Greenock, Pennsylvania and with a lightly loaded daypack rode 25 miles west to the Pittsburgh end of the GAP (mile marker 150) at Point State Park, where the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers converge. I then rode the same 25 mile route back to the east to the car in Greenock.  By doing this, I was able to avoid parking in Pittsburgh and I knocked the first 50 round-trip miles off the end of the trail without a fully loaded bike.  This portion of the trail was a mix of industrial, residential and urban.  There were parts of the trail that I found enjoyable, but it was a lot of merely turning pedals and logging miles.  The closer I got to downtown Pittsburgh, the noisier my surroundings became.  Point State Park was a unique and historical spot and I wouldn't have minded hanging out there a little longer than I did, but I still had a lot of miles to cover for the day.  Once I started back east, I was anxious to get to a quieter section of the GAP.

0 miles ridden, Greenock, Pennsylvania riding west to Pittsburgh

25 miles ridden to Point State Park (GAP mile marker 150), the confluence of three rivers

Back in Greenock, I loaded the bike on the car and drove to West Newton, Pennsylvania, which was further east down the trail.  This is where I would leave the car parked for the duration of my trip.  I grabbed a sub at Subway and then I loaded all my gear and rode 9 miles west (almost back to Greenock again) and spent the night camped at the Dravo Cemetery and Campground.  Yes, that is an unusual combination, but the neighbors are quiet!  I was not camped in the cemetery proper, but directly beside it in a free trail camp area with two lean-to shelters, a pavilion, fire rings and picnic tables... quite nice for a free campground at the cemetery.  I shared the area that night with a boy scout troop and Dan and Dave, cyclists from Cleveland, Ohio and Anchorage, Alaska who were riding from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC.

Dravo Campground

Full moon at the Dravo Cemetery... legend is that it is haunted...

Day 2:  (miles: 40 daily, 99 trip) I left Dravo and rode 2.5 miles further west to complete the small section between Dravo and Greenock (because I didn't want to almost ride the entire GAP).  In Greenock, I turned around and headed east, back past Dravo and back past my car parked in West Newton.  At this point I began the actual linear portion of my solo trip. This was the shortest mileage day of the trip, but I struggled with this day.  I wasn't as conditioned for the longer miles as I should have been and I was coming off a high mileage day.  This was also the first complete day with a fully loaded bike.  In addition to that, some of this day's scenery was uninspiring and I was pushing a light headwind much of the day.  I ended the day in Connelsville, Pennsylvania where I camped in the town's free lean-to shelters.  I shared camp this night with Keith, a cyclist from San Diego, California who was riding from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh.  I went to an Italian restaurant in the nearby plaza (with a large front window to watch my bike) and had a lasagna dinner.  The camp area was very clean and well maintained, with a nice view, and included 4 shelters.  Connelsville was my favorite stop and my favorite trail town of the entire trip.  Because there was no crowd, I set my tent up inside the shelter and also parked my bike under roof.  I enjoyed swapping stories and comparing gear with Keith and it was a very enjoyable evening.

Leaving Dravo

Because some people are just ignorant!  Incidentally, I looked over the hill side and it was covered in garbage... yep... ignorant!

This beautiful arch welcomes cyclists to Connelsville

End of day 2

The view from my shelter.  Later I watched a spectacular moon rise over this trestle.

Home and garage

Making breakfast on my new Ohuhu bio-fuel stove... a nice addition to my camping gear

Sunrise over Connelsville

Day 3:  (miles: 46 daily, 145 trip)  This was my favorite section of the trail.  The average postcard is what, about 4" x 6"?  This was like riding through a postcard 46 miles long!  It was characterized by longer spaces between towns filled with woods, rocks, colorful leaves on the trees and crunching under the tires, and it followed a river with rapids plunging over and between boulders.  These miles seemed the easiest of the trip (despite a flat tire a little over an hour into the ride) and this day was the ride I came for!

My only real mechanical issue was a flat tire 4 miles before Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania

I'll take some luck! (But I first checked the backside of the board to make sure it was not a cruel prank and my tapping would disturb a hornet's nest... it was all clear!)

The Pinkerton Tunnel is at a bend in the Casselman River and  features a cool trestle-tunnel-trestle in rapid succession.  

By this time I had refined my packing a bit and my rig looked more put together

I passed 150 of these mile markers (twice), so I started stopping for significant photo ops

Husky Haven Campground in Rockwood, Pennsylvania is a favorite on websites about the GAP.  Keith (from the Connelsville camp) had stayed here on his way from DC and recommended it.  Dave (from the Dravo camp) had ridden the GAP once prior and he also recommended it.  It was on my itinerary for this night.  Indeed, it was a gem of the GAP.  It is owned and operated by a retired couple and they provide great accommodations for thru-cyclists at a reasonable cost.  The campground was meticulously maintained.  Every site had a level tent area, a picnic table, a fire ring, a wood rack under roof and stocked with dry firewood and newspaper, and trash and recycling bins.  Some sites (like the one I chose) also included a pavilion.  The camp office was located in town (only about a quarter mile by road across the river).  It was open 24 hours and featured clean showers, potable water, laundry facilities, bike wash, WiFi, guest use computer/printer, phone charging station, and pool and ping-pong tables.  When I arrived, Dan and Dave were also here.  We three went looking for dinner, but it seems restaurants and bar kitchens are all closed on Mondays in Rockwood.  We ended up getting pizza and sandwiches at a local gas station convenience store and ate next door to the gas station on the patio of a local bar.

One of the complaints of some who camp along the GAP is the noise of the trains.  The GAP follows rivers (Monongahela, Youghiogheny, and Casselman) and there were once rail lines on both sides of the rivers.  The rail line on one side was abandoned years ago and became the modern day Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.  The rail lines across the river from the GAP are still very active, though, which makes for difficult sleeping in a tent.  Rather than complain about the train noise, I chose to embrace it... for the very experience I was enjoying was made possible by trains.  With the campground's proximity to the road crossing at Rockwood, the trains were especially loud at Husky Haven, because they all blasted the horns as they passed the campground and road crossing.  The way the mountains were shaped made this kinda fun to listen to.  Trains out of the east seemed to come out of nowhere.  You couldn't hear them until they were almost in town and they rumbled in fast (on a down grade) and blasted the horns.  You could then hear them in the distance hitting the horns at two more crossings before they finally faded away.  Trains out of the west were the opposite.  You could hear them lugging up the valley (on an up grade) long before they hit town.  You could hear the horn at the same two distant crossings.  Finally, they would hit the horns at Rockwood and rumble through town, disappearing quickly.  The trains ran all through the night, but after riding several miles, I slept pretty well, despite them.  They would cause me to stir, but I would fall right back asleep and woke feeling well rested.

Home and garage at Husky Haven Campground

Day 4:  (miles: 59 daily, 204 trip)  This was a mixed day.  The first half was filled with nice scenery and several interesting man-made features.  The second half was drudgery and turning pedals by sheer will.  

Heading out for day 4

Early in this day's ride, I crossed the 1,908 feet long Salisbury Viaduct with spectacular far-reaching views of the Casselman River valley.  I had the entire Viaduct to myself and I felt like sounding my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world... "YAWP!"

"The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. 

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." ~Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (as featured in a favorite classic movie, Dead Poet's Society).

The Salisbury Viaduct (1,908 feet long)

Partial view from the Salisbury

New meets old... here you can see the more modern steel/concrete bridge built atop the patina girders of the original Salisbury Viaduct trestle structure.

Next, the trail brought me to the Eastern Continental Divide.  Although a gradual ascent, the 126 miles of trail between Pittsburgh and the Divide climb from an elevation of 720 feet above sea level to the highest point of 2,392 feet above sea level.  To an eastbound rider, the Divide represents the end of days of pedaling ever so slightly uphill.  In the last 24 miles from the Divide to Cumberland, Maryland, the trail plunges back to an elevation of 625 feet above sea level.  Eastbound riders look forward to nearly coasting the last 24 miles of the GAP.  To a round-trip rider, like myself, this is a mixed blessing... after all, what goes down must pedal back up!  (We'll get to that in a minute!)

Chart shows the elevation gain over 126 miles from Pittsburgh to the Divide, then dropping into Cumberland (just off the left side of the pic)

Rolling down from the Divide, I rode through the heart of Big Savage Mountain via the 3,294 feet long Big Savage Tunnel... that's over a half mile underground!  The tunnel is lit, but still fairly dim inside... and chilly!  As the trail exited the tunnel, I stopped at Big Savage Overlook to admire spectacular views of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Big Savage Tunnel (3,294 feet long)

Big Savage Overlook

A few more miles down the trail, I came to the Pennsylvania/Maryland state line at the iconic and historic Mason-Dixon line.  I was enjoying gravity's pull on bike and rider and 50-ish pounds of gear and I nearly blew right past the Mason-Dixon line.  I stopped for a quick pic and made a mental note to spend a bit more time here on the return trip.

PA/MD Mason-Dixon line

Descending 8 miles from the Divide, I arrived at Frostburg, Maryland.  This was to be my stop for the night and I planned to splurge for a motel and sleep in a real bed this night.  My plan was to stay at a local mom and pop motel in Frostburg that featured reasonably priced rooms and very good reviews.  The motel was over a mile from the trailhead and Frostburg is built on the side of a mountain, so the hotel owner offered a shuttle service from trailhead to motel.  I checked with him prior to the trip and he said just call when you get to the trailhead.  I did just that, and the hotel owner answered his cell phone from a hospital bed.  Obviously, he could not shuttle me.  Time for a plan B.  The town had built a switchback trail that climbed from the trailhead to the edge of town.  I geared down the bike and rode up to the edge of town were I came to the Trail Inn.  Not really wanting to continue riding uphill exploring options in Frostburg, I stopped and inquired about a room for the night.  I was not very impressed with the Inn and I felt the rooms were more than I wanted to pay for the accommodation.  They did have a "bunkhouse" option, however... a much cheaper price for a bed in a co-ed dorm-style room with private baths and showers.  I looked at the bunkhouse and I was the only guest, so far.  I wasn't crazy about it, but it was and would be a long mile day and it was a place to sleep.  I negotiated a slightly lower price and reserved a bed.  I then stripped my bike of all but necessities and secured my gear in the bunkhouse and continued the last 16 miles down into Cumberland, Maryland to the 0 mile marker and the end of my one-way ride.  I quickly snapped a couple pictures of the end and turned right around and pedaled my lightly loaded bike uphill for 16 miles back to my bunkhouse in Frostburg.  Part way up to Frostburg, I passed Dan and Dave rolling fast into Cumberland.  I waved and shouted "safe travels" as they whizzed by.  This would be the last time I would bump into them as they were continuing on to Washington DC on the C & O Canal Trail.  Even though the bike was nearly empty and the railbed never exceeded a maximum grade of 1.7%, 16 miles of uphill pedaling is not very fun.  Back at the bunkhouse, I was still the only guest.  I grabbed a shower and walked up the hill to the downtown area and ate an entire 12" pizza at Fat Boy's Pizza Shack... yum!  I then did a quick load of laundry and went to bed... having the whole bunkhouse to myself!

My "Plan B"

Not crazy about the "bunkhouse", but it was a bed and a shower and it appeared to be clean (though I chose to sleep on the bed in my own sleeping bag!)

150 miles from Pittsburgh, PA at the mile 0 end of the GAP in Cumberland, MD

Day 5:  (miles: 45 daily, 249 trip)  Day 5 started by climbing the last 8 of those miles back up out of Frostburg to the Divide... with a loaded bike rather than last evening's empty one.  On fresh legs, though, it wasn't a bad climb.  I broke it up with a longer photo op at the Mason-Dixon Line and another stop at the Big Savage Overlook.  Still, the Divide was a welcome sight... now just a gradual down slope over the many miles back to my car in West Newton.  The weather was perfect and the leaves were beautiful, so I stopped and snapped more pics going this direction, taking more time to enjoy the scenery.  I stopped for the night in Confluence, Pennsylvania, grabbing a sub and an RC cola at a grocery store before settling into the Paddler's Lane Campground for the night.  On this night I camped alone and I was feeling pretty homesick.  My schedule was such that I could ride hard and finish Thursday or take it more leisurely and wrap up Friday.  Laying in my tent missing my kiddos and the familiarity of home, I decided I'd be home tomorrow.

A sculpture on the Frostburg switchback... an appropriate sculpture, indeed!

The Borden Tunnel is not lit and I actually needed my headlight in the center

I've got a butt cheek in 2 different states!

Big Savage overlook... again

Back through Big Savage Tunnel... slower this time, because it is slightly uphill

Back over the Divide

Keystone Viaduct

My view... the Third Eye eyeglass mirror keeps me aware of what is happening on my backtrail.

Paddler's Lane Campground is across the river from the trail... and very close to the train tracks!  Here, it sounded like trains were going to come THROUGH my tent.  Still, I was tired and slept well.

Day 6:  (miles: 51 daily, 300 trip)  I got an early start on Thursday morning, leaving Confluence under a bit of fog.  I stopped for some breaks and some photos ops, mostly prior to Connelsville.  The scenery beyond Connelsville was not as interesting, so I stopped a few times, but mostly these miles were just head down and pushing for home.  I had not touched my rain gear once during the trip, but it was starting to get cloudy as I neared the end on Thursday.  About 3-4 miles from my car, it started to sprinkle, but still not enough to get very wet.  I rode on to West Newton.  It had been an incredible trip and an experience that I had long wanted to try... but I was glad to get my butt off that saddle and head home!  I packed everything in the car and loaded the bike.  I got a few miles down the road and the skies opened up and I drove in rain all the way home.

Fog over Confluence

Ohiopyle Trestle

Several years ago, before this trail existed, I walked across this same then-abandoned Ohiopyle Trestle with some friends to explore the other side of the river, after finishing a backpack trip on the Laurel Highlands Trail. (Old photo on right shows Phil and Andy on the trestle, 10/1991)

Benny calls these "wishes" for some reason.  Packs of wishes were making me homesick.

300+ miles (with town accesses) to complete the entire GAP in both directions!  Glad to head home!

With absolute perfect weather, my first bicycle tour was a great trip.  I'm not sure how many bike tours are in my future (I think I prefer backpacking), but it was great to experience something few have... 6 days, 300+ miles, camping on a bike.  I'm not sure there were any profound lessons learned while pondering life as I cranked pedals solo down miles of trail, but it reaffirmed to me that I prefer a fairly simple life.  I always enjoy spending a few days to a week in an outdoor context where I carry my basic needs by my own strength... be it on my back, on my bike, or in a canoe.  I was chatting with an outdoorsy friend recently and he commented that he lives for experiences, not material things.  Trips like this affirms that mentality.  Not that I don't want some material things, but I am pretty content with a fairly simple life and I would rather have experiences like this over a big house and fancy cars.

One man.

One bike.

One goal... completed!