Day 1 of the Trail Ride, the official start.
We drove down to the trailhead at McKeesport, where the Marina Cafe offered free long term parking. We had been wondering why they were offering it free but soon found out why. The parking is in the local Police station parking lot! It's just an open lot but hopefully the car will be OK.
The reason for starting here instead of in Pittsburgh is that the trail is incomplete between Pittsburgh & McKeesport. So the plan was to bike back towards Pittsburgh for a while and then turn round and head In the right direction. And that's when I fell off.
I have a bag that attaches to the front of the handlebars. The problem is that the weight of it unbalances the steering. So when you turn, as soon as the weight is off the centreline it kind of snatches the steering round very quickly ... Which is what happened when I looked over my shoulder at an interesting looking train (there are lots of them) and went off the edge of the tarred trail. As I tried to steer back on, the edge of the Tarmac caught the wheel and before I knew it I was over the handlebars and doing a roll down the path. Very dramatic, stung a bit but no damage to me or bike. Now I know why people wear biking gloves! Nothing to do with keeping warm, all to with avoiding gravel implants in your hands. Now I'm thinking I should have packed a pair of sailing gloves.
Speaking of clothing I am delighted with my wicking fast drying 'techwick' EMS hiking shirt. it kept me cool and dry all day, but the same cannot be said of my fast drying underwear and bike shorts with pockets and padded liner. Which is probably more information than anyone wants about my biking exploits. So a question for any Lycra bikers out there .. Do you wear underwear as well under your Lycra? Nick's FB suggestion that I bike naked sounds quite appealing. I forget why he suggested it. For a laugh probably. Anyway tomorrow I will try my Lycra bike shorts instead of the ones with pockets for my iPhone and wallet.
As we are on the subject of seats we did 36 miles today and I got very saddle sore after about mile 25 and started fading by the time we got to our B&B at West Newton. Jim didn't seem to be having a problem but I was longing for a downhill section to be able to stand up in the stirrups and give the family jewels a break. Unfortunately as the trail is along an old railway line this means that there are no downhill sections and you just have to sit and pedal. I'm beginning to think that a bench seat or even sidesaddle is an attractive option. By the time we got to West Newton I was convinced that we had been making progress on a steady uphill all afternoon. This evening Jim assured me that this is true and we did, in fact, gain an altitude of 17 feet in those 36 miles
We met up with 74 yr old Bob the Biker on the trail and enjoyed his company for a while. He is through biking all the way to Washington DCand must have the secret of eternal youth. We had our afternoon moment of excitement while following him .... at one point on the trail he pointed at the ground as he went past and then when Jim got there he swerved onto the verge and also pointed excitedly at the ground as a large root made it's way across the trail. I stopped to take a look but could not get my iPhone out of my pocket, started up, slid to open, last app used closed, camera app selected, wait for it to start up and work out which way up to hold it in time to get a shot of a 3 foot long black snake heading into the undergrowth. Subsequent Google research indicates it was probably a Northern Racer which is a constrictor with a distribution of 'abundant' in Pa. Jim now seems to be worried about having snake nightmares. Might also be something to do with that email he sent me about sightings of Copperheads.
Tomorrow we head to Ohiopyle and a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. Rain forecast for the morning so we have to decide when to leave to cover the 42 miles to get there before 4 and avoiding as much wetness as possible.
Tony
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