John forgot to turn off the Ipod: A bike trip. Part 1. With Photos!

Pittsburgh PA - Coburn PA the long way.

Saturday: leave with kids on a bus to the trailhead in Boston PA. Ride 40 miles with 25 kids to a campground on a bike trail. They ALL finish. Awesome. For some it was their first time camping. For some it was their first time sleeping away from home.

"These people are so rich they dont need fences around their yards." For real quote about a mostly lower middle class area.

Sunday: Pack the kids up and put them on a bus home. Bike trip really starts and I keep heading East on Bike route S. Ride nearly 4 hours before hitting any kind of NEW ROAD! I was clear down near Maryland. Hot freaking day. Route S was cool and safe. Went like 3 hours without any services, which means low traffic, but also means I WAS THIRSTY. Randomly rode past the Cannondale factory in Bedford. It was closed, but I was rocking my 12 year old touring bike with at least 15,000 miles on it. Love that bike. Poached a campsite just outside of Breezewood. 107 miles.

Rockwood, PA's economy seems to benefit from the trail.

Oh wow, check that out.

Monday: Rode through Breezewood. Yeah, like stopped at the Sheetz that we have all stopped at like a million times before. Instead of transferring to the turnpike, I kept going up over the hill to the abandoned turnpike tunnels. They were pretty cool. The old highway is in tact and still has the paint lines on it. You can see where the lanes merged 2 --> 1 for the single lane tunnel. The first one was short. The second one was REALLY REALLY long and kind of scary. It was probably the darkest place I have ever been. I could not see either end from the middle. My headlamp was being reflected back at me by the 100% humidity inside. Kind of scary. I was scared. Bike Route S was rad through Cowans Gap State Park. It had brand new pavement and low traffic. Also a bit of nature. I pushed on to Chambersburg, where I met Dr. Stubna and we headed north. We rode a bunch of rail trails and some scenic roads that we randomly chose up to Colonel Denning state park. We were on Doubling Gap road which of course we knew of because of some time trial or something that takes place on it, but we didnt think that either of us had ever done it. We swam in the lake an camped out. 90 miles

Scenic low traffic bike route!

Path to old turnpike.

Narrow lanes of the old turnpike.

Old tunnel that was fixed up for the movie The Road.

Rain/Fog in tunnel. 100% humidity = no headlights work.

Hey Buddy!

Tuesday QUEEN STAGE!: Started with a 15 minute climb out of the state park. Stubna is a super serious bike racer so his coach had him doing "5 minute efforts" in prep for Univest. So yeah, with a loaded trailer on a bike tour, he is doing vo2 max intervals. We rolled through some small towns before crossing another ridge (route 74) in the Tuscarora State Forest. Lunch in Lewistown, then lost for 10 miles.
We head into the middle of freaking nowhere for a nice dirt climb, and what can only be described as a 3 mile rocky doubletrack climb on loaded touring bikes. (You state college dudes, it was out of Poe Paddy State Park up to Penn's view). Then we headed down to Coburn, the site of the Wilderness 101, and a town with no water for sale or free. We poached the town park and I swam naked in Penns Creek. Stubs insisted on wearing clothing. 95 miles.