Bicycle Tours

From: Ohiopyle, PA
To: Rock Gap State, MD
Mileage: 43.5

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Sunday started out on the cool side but the temperature rose to 65 degrees during the day. The sky was blue blue with no clouds. Mary joined me for the morning stretch. We started at the Ohiopyle train station where we left off on Saturday. Across the street from the train station was a hotel (for future reference) and a bike rental store that had 3 of Clyde's brothers. Since 1998, I have only seen two other green MT800 Cannondale tandems; so seeing 3 lined up next to each other was pretty neat. The trail surface from Ohiopyle to Meyerdale (except for the last 1.5 miles) was in the best condition of the Allegheny trail system. Although, the trail was great all the way from Pittsburgh with wide crushed limestone as a base. The wild flowers and flowering dogwood, ash, cherry, and apple trees were not as prominent on this stretch of the trail however. This was the mountain/forest section of the trail. We rose almost 1000 feet as we traveled to Meyerdale, but you could hardly notice. Mary did great, we stopped and stretched every 5 miles, but the soreness in her leg was not a problem. The only concern I have is still my back on the left side. It is really just a pesky pinging feeling, in preparing for this ride I sould have done more work for upperbody strength. My legs are great, and my touchie, although a little tender, is in great shape. Lots of rhododendrons lined the path. We stopped in Rockwood for lunch at 2 Sister's pizza. It was on Main Street. Another highly recommended choice. We had fresh baked raspberry lemon cake (yum). Dustin and Katelyn drove the motor home from Ohiopyle to Rockwood, and walked most of town of Rockwood.

Katelyn and I rode the afternoon trip, which went by very fast. We averaged almost 13 mph; I think Katelyn was feeling good. The first highlight was the large windmills that dotted the mountaintops gathering electric power. I thought that it would be really neat if you could live in one. Imagine, everyday from out your own windmill windows you would see a different view because the tower is always turning to face the wind. The second highlight was the very long, and very high railroad trestle bridge that we crossed . It covered two farmer's fields, a river, and a 4-lane divided highway. All about 20 stories above the ground. Midway on the ride, while trying to talk to a fellow biker, I hit a gatepost with the back handle bar. Not a big thing because we kept going and there was no damage (it moved my seat a little to the right). But I had been bragging that these gateposts were no problem for me. After the afternoon ride, we drove the motor home from the train station at Meyersdale PA to Cumberland MD. The trail ends at Meyersdale, and you must follow the roads. We have been told not to ride it since it went over busy routes and narrow hills. I'm glad we didn't. We spent the night at Rocky Gap state park, just west of Cumberland MD. This state park had a lake, a 36-hole golf course, a 15-story resort/hotel. It cost us 23 dollars without hook ups and we camped in site 120 (backed up to the lake). Rocky Gap State Park is a definite 10 as far as campgrounds go.