Hello All. I hope you find this ride report useful, especially if you are looking for your next adventure. A link to the photos is below the text.
I teach at an independent high school in Staunton, VA, in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley. This summer a number of us attended a conference in Pittsburgh, PA, 400 miles away (800 round trip). Always looking for a bicycle adventure, I decided to load up my Joe Appaloosa and ride to the conference. I planned for six days up and six days back. The first two days included state routes, both highway and rural back roads. The remainder of the route utilized the C&O Canal towpath and the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP), taking me all the into the city. My wife, also a teacher, met me on the GAP, riding her Surly LHT. A colleague would ride with me on the return trip. I loaded Joe with an unreasonable amount of gear. In addition to tent, pad, sleeping bag, cook stuff, and extra clothes, I carried a number of electronic gadgets and other things to keep me busy, including books. I also carried all my business clothes for the conference. I placed those in an Ortlieb waterproof duffle that kept them bone-dry during torrential rains. Knowing a had a brass ensemble rehearsal when I returned, I even strapped a trumpet to the front basket for nightly practice sessions. The first two days had me traveling along roads that connected a number of Civil War sites. I passed local battle markers every few miles and often stopped to photo the bike next to them. As a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, I made sure to stop by General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson's headquarters in Winchester and New Market. Jackson taught a VMI before the war and cadets fought as a corps in the 1864 Battle of New Market, losing ten boys. The heat those two days was oppressive, often exceeding 100 degrees. I drank plenty of liquids but found it hard to eat anything of substance, leading to a weakened state and a nap under a tree next to a McDonald's. Reaching Harper's Ferry at the end of day two, I lugged the 100 pounds of bike and gear down the spiral metal staircase to join the C&O trail. I set up camp that night in a virtual swamp where mosquitoes terrorized me until I crawled into my tent to play trumpet. My time on the canal towpath could not have been more different that the previous days. Rain poured for 48 hours, exacerbating the flood conditions already present in Maryland. The trail was a muddy, rutted mess. Crews constructed temporary wooden bridges to allow travelers to cross numerous washouts. The river was high and the canal itself full of algae-covered water. Mosquitoes descended on me every time I stopped for a photo. Going was rough, but my fenders kept most of the muck off me and the bicycle. I enjoyed seeing the mountain bikers and gravel grinders covered in mud and water as we passed each other. I hopped off the trail for thirty miles to avoid the mess and also to visit Antietam National Battlefield Park. Although the C&O is notorious for its poor trail conditions, I recommend the ride to anyone who has the opportunity. Many of the locks are still present and the views are beautiful. Rain continued to fall as I met my wife in Cumberland and the start of the Great Allegheny Passage. We spent the first day climbing up to the Eastern Continental Divide. The 25-mile climb was long, but not steep. Day two on the GAP witnessed a break in the rain and the beginning of several days of beautiful sun and moderate temperatures. We enjoyed the trail immensely, it being well-maintained and smooth the entire route. We stayed at Husky Haven, a great campground at Rocktown. Because I do not research routes much before hitting them, each little trail town offered a pleasant surprise as we emerged from long stretches of forest into areas of civilization. We experienced history from the French and Indian War as we passed through areas traveled by George Washington and General Braddock. An original 1756 fort gave us reenactments and we spent a good amount of time exploring the wonderful town of Ohio Pyle, made famous by its waterfalls. We crossed massive rail bridges and dashed through long and dark tunnels (the Paw Paw canal tunnel is a sight to behold). The riding was scenic and gave us innumerable moments of joy and shared experiences. After staying at a well-maintained campsite with shelters, we headed to our destination in Pittsburgh. The route became more urban and turned into paved sections winded through suburbs and industrial areas. Seeing the city for the first time was a treat and we hopped off the GAP to navigate several of Pittsburgh's bike routes to the hotel. Maybe the best moment was opening my Ortlieb bag to find my conference clothes as I had placed them, dry and pressed. The bag had experienced extreme conditions for an entire week, including entire nights outside in the rain and living in mud puddles. The conference lasted two days and introduced me to a fellow bicycle nerd and reader of this discussion board. When I described my Joe Appaloosa, he proudly held up a Sackville bag. I had a good time trading knowledge and experience with him. I am always happy to meet someone who can gab about steel bike and friction shifters. A friend and colleague joined my wife and I for the return trip. He rode the 51 cm Joe Appaloosa my wife could never come to love and ended up for sale on this site. We experienced beautiful weather for several days as we retraced the trail east to Cumberland, where my wife left the two of us to drive home. My friend and I hit the C&O to find a drier, but still rough, trail. We met a rider on a classic steel Trek frame that began his ride in Oregon. We learned he owned a business designing and manufacturing sustainable dog leashes and spent the previous eight weeks on the bicycle to visit family in Norfolk, VA. Everything continued to go smoothly until my friend's knee began to hurt and his Joe's front wheel bearings began to pop like a bag of popcorn in the microwave. A bike shop mechanic told us the bearings had not been properly pressed at the factory and he did not have the parts to fix it. We managed to mitigate the noise for a day, but the knee pain signaled an early end to our ride. I had just crossed mile 640 when we called for my wife to bail us out. In summary, the trip included moments of pure joy and the depths of despair (three flats in ten minutes with no more spares or patches while mosquitoes ate me alive). What about the bike? I did not mention it much because it did what it was suppose to do: carry a huge load across a variety of environments while melting away beneath my legs. Joe proved rock solid the entire trip, hauling nearly 200 pounds with little effort. The handling was unaffected by the weight, allowing me to enjoy the views instead of man-handling the bike. The only kinks were unrelated to the Appaloosa. Although I carried a solar panel and had a dynamo hub, my phone's cable broke so I had trouble charging for several days. Also, my new B&M IQ X headlight gave up the ghost after four days of heavy rain. I even discovered water inside the casing. Harris Cyclery and Peter White agreed to replace it under warranty. See you on the road, Brad Link to Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1waq1EDfSOi0lmHc7tE8V0HwLJY36xgyN?usp=sharing -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
