The Ride before The RIDE

It was a perfect day for a bike ride. For once the weather was cool with no humidity. I did put my bike in the car to do a ride but it was a drive towards Pittsburgh. This is the beginning of my ride of the GAP trail. This will be a 3 day ride from Pittsburgh PA to Cumberland MD along a rail trail. The trip has been coming together for the past few months and not only involved planning the trip but also getting a new mountain bike, the Bloody Bastard, as well as doing some mountain bike rides in the summer to get ready for this trip. The GAP trail has been rated one of the best rail trails in the country and from my research it should be one of the more scenic and interesting rides I have done.

Because it is a point to point ride the logistics are more complicated since at the end of each day will be at a different point than where we started. This will usually mean dropping a car at the ending point so that we can get back to the starting point. I got all the details worked out but it will make each day a little longer.

This was going to be a rain or shine trip but we luck out as the weather looks good. Tomorrow's ride will be 60 miles on a mountain bike. That is 20 miles further than I have every ridden on a mountain bike. The first 12 miles of the trail is paved and the rest is hard packed limestone so it should be easy going but it is going be a long ride. The weather is going to be cool so cramping or getting dehydrated shouldn't be a problem but I plan to take it slow anyway and enjoy the sites.

The drive out here to Connellsville took about 5 hours mostly along the PA turnpike. It wasn't a bad ride and it turned out that Frank Llyod Wright's famous Falling Water house was only a few miles from where we were staying so I made a stop on the way out.

The house was even bigger and more impressive that I thought it would be so I'm glad I took the tour and was able to get some pictures from other angles that aren't normally shown.

Now that the drive and sight seeing are over its time to do some riding. I will try and post something each day about the GAP ride because there should be a lot to share.