Coburn - Ithica - Windsor... Photos. Soundtrack...

This could be a great song to listen to. "a little too easy seems seems just a little too hard today"...



Long day in the saddle.
Out of the Grand Canyon of PA, heading into New York, and up to Watkins Glen.

In the first 5 miles we saw a bear ahead. A BIG bear. We kept riding up to it, and it decided to run down between the trail and the river. I felt like we might be trapping it, which might lead to it ripping our faces off. Instead it jumped into the water. Mike was yelling "dude can you see it.... it is swimming"... But I was more concerned with THE OTHER BEAR I could hear below us. That one also decided to jump into the water. We watched both bears swim across the river. So awesome.

We cut through the Finger lakes National Forest and then over to Ithaca. We poached showers at a campground outside of town so we could be fresh to dine at the Moosewood, a famous restaurant and cookbook. I got lasagna that had polenta instead of noodles. I meant to take a picture, but I didnt. And chocolate cake. Then Dr Stubna and I rode at night like 10 miles to an observatory to camp. We were able to see a lightening storm rolling in, which was cool, despite the rain.


Bear #1 in upper left corner, bear #2 is in the water. Awesome.


Fog lifting off of the ridges around us.


The area around wellsboro, PA was like being out west. Everything was state game lands or state forests. It was empty.


We love railtrails. This one saved us from a brutal headwind.


Watkins Glen.


Drought summer left these pools wanting water.


Finger lakes national forest. Bonus miles as we took the scenic route to Ithaca.



I like this photo. Stubs riding with a lake in the foreground (the dark blue)... as we descend towards Ithaca.



BIG waterfall. Check out the people in the bottom right. It has been a dry summer for sure. Awesome bike touring destination, we didnt even get off of our bikes to see it.



Camped on a mountain outside of town.


124.8. 9:04 ride time.


We woke up and descended back into town. We rolled through Cornell. The campus was a great mix of old stone buildings and awful 70's architecture. We got bagels and watched the freshman. I guess it is a good school or something. Dr. Stubna got a phd there in dynamical systems (get my dynamical bear bag joke?)... and I have never actually heard him tell anybody this without prompting. I ate dinner last week with some chick who was bragging about some fancy pants school that she went to for music. No I didnt not mention the dirty dozen at all during dinner. Digression...
We rolled out of town and rolled fast toward the Catskills. We stopped in Owego, which was a surprisingly nice place. Stubna napped in the town park while I paced around and read historical markers. We headed on, stopping in Binghamton. We were pleasantly surprised by it. We went to a grocery store and there was a big poster for the Chris Thater memorial crit that was upcoming.
We pushed on a bit further to the town of Windsor, where we stopped and took in some culture before eating dinner and poaching a place to camp in the town park.

Every time I camp somewhere that it is illegal, I think of the above song... "See I only want to be a Free man but it's against the law to sleep on the ground in Gods land"



Nice outlook above Ithaca and the lake.


Bike only bridge in Binghamton!


Lots of bike routes at the end of the bridge.


The town of Windsor was proud to be on the NY17 bike route.


Taking in some culture. They were an old time band. They jammed. We felt real young.

Enjoy the weekend.
Cross starts in 8 days. Wow.

Coburn - Grand Canyon PA. More pictures!

We rolled out of Coburn to Milheim. Milheim was a medium sized town on the Delorme map. We figured that it would have a diner. Wrong. Gas station breakfast and gas station coffee. Such a let down after a long day the day before.
We were prepared for a mountain, but there was a "narrow" that found its way between a pretty serious ridge. Sweet. We rode lots of Amish farm roads and crossed over another mountain, into a more isolated valley of more Amish farm roads. These were a few of the best roads that I have ridden. PA state routes 192 and 880. We crossed under route 80 and headed for Jersey Shore, PA.
Yes there is a town called Jersey Shore, PA. It doesnt consist of much, but is the southern terminus for the Pine Creek Gorge (aka grand canyon of PA). If this attraction was in most other places, upon entering town, a tourist would know. Not the case here. We had to seek it out, and eventually found it. We headed north on the rail trail.

At one point we were riding along and I was like "dude a bear" pointing at one of those things that people use for archery practice. It was like 30 feet away. Mike slowed and confirmed that it was actually a bear. He looked like a cartoon!

We met up with a bike tourist riding from Florida to Erie. Mike and I slowed down our pace by 5 or 6 mph to enjoy his company. He was a 60 something retired school teacher. He and Mike went to the same elementary school. Then as a teacher, he taught a bunch of hell raisers that I knew from BMX in Erie. Small world.

We stopped in the late afternoon at a rad campground. It was right on Pine Creek, had a water pump and bathroom. The creek water was super warm (compared to Penns creek the previous day it was nearly boiling). I was amazed at how alive the river was. There were Blue Heron, tons of red faced ducks (no idea what kind they are, just they had red faces), tons of fish that you could see in the water. While swimming you can see fish all around you under water. It was pretty amazing.



We were in an amish valley for a long time. Stubna had met Amish kids on a bike trip before, and they talked about how they would leave a voice message for the whole community. This is apparently where the whole valley checks their voicemail or makes emergency calls? Neat.



Check the township!



Hey look a fake bear. Oh wait.



Blue Heron.



Super old cemetery.



1791 - 1891



Big rattlesnake.



Blue Heron




Our new friend.



Bikes, cookies and Stubs taking a bath.



view upstream



view downstream



water so clear we could see schools of fish



About 30 ducks spent hours swimming upstream then flying back down. I think they were getting dinner?



Glad Dr. Stubna engineered this dynamical bear bag.

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.


Second mountain of the day in the distance.


At the top.


We hit a time warp.


4th mountain of the day was dirt.


5th mountain. Not even a road. Barely doubletrack.


Stubna with a double crank and 25cm tires.




Every outlook we got to we wondered if it was "penn's view." Then we would climb like 10 more minutes


Penns view?



Penn's view!

More to come!

Its almost september.

This weekend I am hosting a group of young urban kids on the river trail for a 40 mile day trip. They are all going to camp for a single night at the end. When we rode between the 31st and 40th street bridges I was asked if we would see a bear. This is going to be like going into the jungle for some of them. Kind of awesome.
This will be worth a blog post in itself when after it happens.

Then. I am going to ride PA bike route S until I run into Dr. Stubna. Then we are going to head north to the finger lakes. Then over to the catskills. Then down to philly. 750 - 800 miles total. Bike touring is maybe one of the best things ever. I am seriously going to spend the same amount of money in 9 or 10 days as I would simply driving the turnpike to philly and back.

I am stoked for some new roads, new scenes and some other cool stuff. 9 miles of abandoned Turnpike WITH TUNNELS is going to be awesome. If you saw "the road" you saw them come out of the old tunnel. Maybe Ill camp in it.

We are then going to head north to the Grand Canyon of PA. A 62 mile rail trail waits for us there.

The mountains are just going to be awesome. On the way back to Philly we are going to hit a traffic free 40 mile road around the Delaware water gap. Stoked.

If anybody is looking to sponsor a team of elite bike racers who just want to bike tour full time please send sponsorship proposals to us. We are looking to go PRO at bike touring.

Then I get home and start racing this cyclocross thing.