Day 10 – The Pine Creek Rail Trail
Today’s Blog Entry
On Saturday Cindy and I drove about 30 miles northeast from Bald Eagle State Park to a wide spot in the road called Waterville for an outing on the Pine Creek Rail Trail.
This bike trail extends for a total of 65 miles from Wellsville southward through an area called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania to a town that’s rather improbably named Jersey Shore. No, it’s not *that* Jersey Shore. It’s not in New Jersey and it’s nowhere near the shore but it is on the banks of the Susquehanna River. The story goes that back in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s when the town (originally known as Waynesburg) was founded a lot of folks migrating westward from New Jersey settled on one side of the river. What started out as a somewhat derisive nickname from the folks who had settled on the *other* side of the river became the town’s official name in 1826. Yes, I had to look it up! 🙂
We had planned to start our ride in Jersey Shore, ride about 10 miles north to Waterville, have lunch at a popular inn, and then ride back. Unfortunately when we arrived at the trailhead it was drizzling and it looked like we might need to cancel the ride. The good news was that a quick check of the weather forecast and the radar loop via our mobile phones indicated that the rain should be clearing out fairly soon. Cindy figured out that while waiting for the rain to stop we could drive north to Waterville and ride north from there instead. The genius part of the plan was that it put us back in Waterville for lunch at the end of our ride instead of in the middle and, because of the alternate timing, after the lunch rush.
The weather did indeed improve as we drove to Waterville so we found the parking area, set up the bikes, and headed north to Ross Run, our intended turnaround point. The trail ran through the scenic countryside along the banks of Pine Creek. Based on what we saw it’s a creek in name only – in most places it would be called a river.
This section of the Pine Creek Rail Trail was very well groomed and maintained but storms from the night before had left a litter of leaves and small branches on what was otherwise a very nice surface for riding. There were two places where we had to lift our bikes over fallen tree trunks and one place where we had to walk our bikes around a fallen tree that totally blocked the trail. I joked to Cindy that when we started the ride we steered carefully around every leaf and twig but by the end we didn’t even bother to downshift for anything less than 3″ in diameter! 🙂
Our reward for just under 21 miles in the saddle was a nice al fresco lunch at the Waterville Tavern. Our revised plan to arrive after the lunch crowd worked perfectly as we had our choice of tables on the quiet, shaded front porch instead of in the relatively crowded courtyard bar area next to the building. The fact that we’d already finished our ride meant that we were able to enjoy a nice cold Fat Tire Ale with our shared lunch platter of fried haddock, fries, and vegetables du jour.
On the way back from our ride we tried to stop at no less than three different farm stands to pick up some fresh local sweet corn but alas, there seemed to be a conspiracy in that all of them were unexpectedly closed by 4 PM on what had become a sunny Saturday afternoon. No matter, Cindy fixed us a nice dinner (as usual) and we enjoyed a quiet evening watching the sun set from our campsite.
This will be the last post for this trip as we made the uneventful 4-1/2 hour drive home to Virginia the next day. Cindy and I really enjoyed the trip and exploring the Finger Lakes, so much in fact that we’ve already made plans to head back up in early October to see the fall colors.
Today’s Map
Today’s Photos
