So I'm working on another book. This one is about biking around Gettysburg mostly around the battlefields. Like most books I write this wasn't exactly my idea. I got a note from my publisher that they were looking for someone to write a book of short rides around the Gettysburg battlefield. Writing a book is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. I thought about not doing it and if was any place else but Gettysburg I probably would have. However for the past 10 years I have been going out to Gettysburg to ride with the Philadelphia bike club so it is one of the few places out side of my normal riding areas that I know really well. Beside I do enjoy the process of researching and writing guide books and it will be cool to be the official bike book of Gettysburg.
This book will be a short book of around 15 or so rides of 5 to 10 miles. This is mainly aimed at families and casual bikers who want to tour Gettysburg on bike. It didn't take long for me to put together the rides for this book from all my riding in this area. However I still had some questions about which was the best way to get around some parts of the battlefield and where are the best place to park so this weekend I headed out to the Gettysburg to do some research. Luckily I got Jim and his wife to join me.
The plan for the weekend was to do a bunch of the rides from the book. I created a few routes that were a combination of most of the rides in the book. This would allow me to refine the details of the rides in the book as well as gather some pictures.
On Friday I went out in the morning and checked out Hanover Junction. It has a train station that was restored to the way it was during the civil war and was one of the places Lincoln stopped on his way to giving the Gettysburg address.
This train station is where you can park to ride Heritage rail trail which is a 40 mile trail which is one of the rides in the book. Besides the train station they also have some bike art.
I also spent some time in New Oxford checking out some roads and a bakery that will be part of the rides in the book that will be outside of the battlefield.
On Saturday with Jim and Regina in tow it was time to tour the battlefield. I had a 24 mile ride mapped out based on rides I had done before. If you haven't been to the Gettysburg battlefield before it is both impressive and overwhelming. The main battlefield is over 6000 acres and there are over 1300 monuments of every possible shape and size. From simple historic markers to 3 story monuments that take up a city block.
Gettysburg was a complex battle with lots of stories of heroism and self sacrifice. It would take years of study to understand everything that happen during the three day battle. One thing that is obvious as you ride around is that there was a lot of death, suffering and sadness. But once you get past that you can see some signs of hope. Most of the monuments on the battlefield were put there by veterans of the battle. There were many reunions of both union and confederate soldiers at Gettysburg and even though they fought each other they did come to respect each other as evidence by the Eternal Light Peace Memorial which was build by by all the veterans to honor their sacrifice.
Even today there are people who volunteer to relieve what these soldiers experiences.
I asked them why they do it. They said it was to honor all the veterans and keep their stories alive. I guess it kind of like a living archeologist. It's also a hobby for most of them and a reason to get together with like minded people.
The 24 mile ride around the battlefield took quite a while because of stopping for pictures and a few wrong turns trying to find the best way around certain parts of the park. We did end up going the wrong way up a few roads but that's nothing unusual for my rides.
After touring the battlefield Jim and I did a quick 10 mile ride just outside the battlefield to the Sachs covered bridge.
This bridge was one of the main bridges used by the confederate army to retreat from the battle field. There are also rumors that some confederate spies where hung on this bridge so it is part of the Gettysburg ghost tour.
Saturday was a long day but I got all the information I needed for the rides around the battlefield so it was a successful day.
On Saturday night we tried to got to a historic restaurant but the wait was too long so we ended up at an Irish pub which actually ended up having some good food.
On Sunday the ride was on the east of Gettysburg. The book will have four to five short 8-10 mile rides in the farmland to the east of Gettysburg for riders who want to do more than ride around the battlefield. There are a lot of great roads around here so there is no shortage of traffic free horse farms and open fields to ride through.
It was a little cold but still a beautiful day. We did a 34 mile loop of roads I mostly did before. With Regina along I did get confirmation that these roads were enjoyable for a more causal rider.
It was a fun weekend and I did enjoy spending some time with Jim and Regina. I now have most of the information I need to write the book. Even thought the book isn't due until next September I will probably have most of it done by the end of the winter. I plan one more trip out to Gettysburg in late spring to do a final test of the routes and get some more pictures. I don't really mind coming back to Gettysburg because it really is a great place to ride.
