Most Big Riders walked their bikes out of the campground. We don't like riding on gravel!
I've decided that Washington, a nice little city in western Pennsylvania, has steeper hills than San Francisco and Seattle. And, I think we rode up all of them. Here's a view just outside of Washington. Can you see the hot air balloon?
Pennsylvania has a great system of roads designated as bike routes. We were on the S route for most of the day.
Another view of the countryside.
After we conquered the hills of Washington, PA, we rode along Mingo Creek, which was beautiful!
Later, we crossed the wide Monongahela River.
I rode with Janet and Patty, and we stopped to ask a policeman who was sitting by the side of the road if we were on the correct road to cross Route 51. He said, "You'll cross it at the top." The TOP. I didn't like the sound of that. The top of that hill was brutal. At one point I was climbing at the lightning fast speed of 3.6 mph. That's barely fast enough to keep the bike balanced upright! I think I probably could've walked up faster than that. I heard later that it was 12% grade.
They are beautiful to look at, but I still don't like hills.
The last 50 miles of the ride was on a crushed limestone bike path called the Youghiogheny River Trail. Youghiogheny is, as you know, pronounced "YAWK-i-gheny." It's an old railroad route, and the grade is .212%. It was an absolutely beautiful ride!
The support crew provided a lunch stop where we entered the trail.
At about mile 61, along the trail, a Big Rider from 2000, Fred Husak, provided a great lunch stop for us. As I was riding the trail, I told my riding partners that I was dying for a root beer, and voila, he had birch beer for us! It's even better than root beer! Sweaty me and Fred.
Bob, Fred, and Fred's wife.
We're getting close!
Some more pictures from the trail. Sam is speeding down the trail, maybe to get away from rattlesnakes?
Kevin and Sam are crossing a bridge over the Youghiogheny River.
There are campgrounds along the trail specifically for bikers and hikers. We stayed at one near the city of Confluence. George Washington camped right here near Confluence, too!
Our campground was near an earthen dam, so we could hear the water running all night long. It was very peaceful. I was just hoping that the dam wouldn't give way. (It didn't!)
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