08-02-2010, 06:24 AM
0
Day 2
I'm back on the trail and ride back into Ohiopyle Pa, not much there at 7am on a Sunday. I ride down a side street or two and see a coffee shop/cafe kinda place. There is a chick sitting outside with her bike. She starts talking to me, asking about BOB and all kinds of stuff. This place only has coffee and muffins but you eat what you can, if you miss out on calories when you are putting in miles you will be in a bad way in 5 or 6 hours. I get a coffee and a couple of these big muffins. I continue to talk to this chick, she's from Canada, a secretary at a university, kayaking, etc, etc, etc...
She drinks her coffee and watches me scarf down my muffins and coffee, then goes inside and finds out there is a diner around the corner, she says she's going for bacon and eggs and asks if I want to join her, there was mention of her riding with me for awhile too....she says she's going to the diner if I stop for eggs great, if not, have a nice trip. I finished my coffee and had a nice trip.
I get moving and am trying to get some miles in before it gets too hot, I stopped and took a few pictures here and there. I have no cell service all morning, finally around noon time I come into Rockwood PA, there is a little shack there along the trail with a cell phone booster, I called home and checked in and refilled my water.
As I'm leaving I can hear the thunder rumble off in the distance. I roll back out into the woods, no more cell service and it is getting darker and darker, more thunder some lighting, but I'm out in the woods and have nowhere else to go. It's clearly gonna downpour now. I stopped and packed up my phone and camera and stuff in my water tight bag and got out my 4 X 8' blue tarp and had it handy.
I pressed on as it started raining, I'm wet and still riding, man it got really shitty. Finally I come to one of those benches along the trail, I leaned my bike and BOB against it, grabbed that tarp, spread it open and crawled under it on the bench, it rained like a mofo, thunder, lighting, windy, but again, where was I gonna go. I spent maybe 45 minutes there waiting for the front to move through, the rain slowed and I moved along.
Now the trail was all wet and gritty, it was kinda tough to ride and my bike was covered in grit, the drivetrain making noise and sounding rough. I think the freewheel gets full of shit when this happens and get gritty. It's still raining and some thunder and a bit of lighting, I have to cross this huge bridge over an interstate highway, it's the worlds largest or something I was told later, and haunted too. A few minutes later I see a cell phone tower and I come to a tunnel. Inside the dry tunnel I stopped, got out my phone and my trail book, found the next town (Meyersdale, Pa) and called to see if I could possibly get a room. I could get one at Yoders for $50, cool. By then it's maybe 3pm, and it turns out that the town was just a mile or two up the trail.
As I get to the town there a a few guys on bikes sitting there at the touristy train station thing waiting out the rain, I talked to them for a bit. It turns out that I would see and talk to these guys on and off for the next 4 days or so.
I check in to Yoders, shower, hit a laundromat, buy some water at a dollar store, get a plate of ham and potatoes at a bar, get my phone and camera charged up and and sleep like a bastard that night.
I'm back on the trail and ride back into Ohiopyle Pa, not much there at 7am on a Sunday. I ride down a side street or two and see a coffee shop/cafe kinda place. There is a chick sitting outside with her bike. She starts talking to me, asking about BOB and all kinds of stuff. This place only has coffee and muffins but you eat what you can, if you miss out on calories when you are putting in miles you will be in a bad way in 5 or 6 hours. I get a coffee and a couple of these big muffins. I continue to talk to this chick, she's from Canada, a secretary at a university, kayaking, etc, etc, etc...
She drinks her coffee and watches me scarf down my muffins and coffee, then goes inside and finds out there is a diner around the corner, she says she's going for bacon and eggs and asks if I want to join her, there was mention of her riding with me for awhile too....she says she's going to the diner if I stop for eggs great, if not, have a nice trip. I finished my coffee and had a nice trip.
I get moving and am trying to get some miles in before it gets too hot, I stopped and took a few pictures here and there. I have no cell service all morning, finally around noon time I come into Rockwood PA, there is a little shack there along the trail with a cell phone booster, I called home and checked in and refilled my water.
As I'm leaving I can hear the thunder rumble off in the distance. I roll back out into the woods, no more cell service and it is getting darker and darker, more thunder some lighting, but I'm out in the woods and have nowhere else to go. It's clearly gonna downpour now. I stopped and packed up my phone and camera and stuff in my water tight bag and got out my 4 X 8' blue tarp and had it handy.
I pressed on as it started raining, I'm wet and still riding, man it got really shitty. Finally I come to one of those benches along the trail, I leaned my bike and BOB against it, grabbed that tarp, spread it open and crawled under it on the bench, it rained like a mofo, thunder, lighting, windy, but again, where was I gonna go. I spent maybe 45 minutes there waiting for the front to move through, the rain slowed and I moved along.
Now the trail was all wet and gritty, it was kinda tough to ride and my bike was covered in grit, the drivetrain making noise and sounding rough. I think the freewheel gets full of shit when this happens and get gritty. It's still raining and some thunder and a bit of lighting, I have to cross this huge bridge over an interstate highway, it's the worlds largest or something I was told later, and haunted too. A few minutes later I see a cell phone tower and I come to a tunnel. Inside the dry tunnel I stopped, got out my phone and my trail book, found the next town (Meyersdale, Pa) and called to see if I could possibly get a room. I could get one at Yoders for $50, cool. By then it's maybe 3pm, and it turns out that the town was just a mile or two up the trail.
As I get to the town there a a few guys on bikes sitting there at the touristy train station thing waiting out the rain, I talked to them for a bit. It turns out that I would see and talk to these guys on and off for the next 4 days or so.
I check in to Yoders, shower, hit a laundromat, buy some water at a dollar store, get a plate of ham and potatoes at a bar, get my phone and camera charged up and and sleep like a bastard that night.
