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The Grand Canyon(of Pennsylvania) is not really a canyon and how "grand" it is is very subjective, however its a good place to go for a bike vacation. The "canyon" is actually Pine Creek river valley and has a 60+ mile rail trail along it that is suppose to be picturesque especially during the fall season. The canyon is located in north central PA near the city of ...(actually it's not close to any city in PA). It was a 4 hour drive to get there but I didn't mind the drive as fall is at it's peak in PA so it was a very scenic drive through the hills. We stayed at Hotel Manor in Slate Run PA which is on Pine Creek rail trail near its center.
The hotel was more a restaurant with a bed and breakfast added upstairs. The rooms were just a bed and a bathroom with no TV or place to really sit down.
Which was fine as we weren't planning on spending a lot of time in the room. There was a comfortable sitting area on the same floor as the rooms that had a TV, sofa and tables and was a good place to gather.
The sitting area overlooked the restaurant which had good food.
That was good as we were an hour from any real town so we didn't have to worry about taking a long drive to eat. After settling in I actually went across to river to a general store to try and get some shots of Comet A3. Since we were in a rural area without a lot of lights I thought I would be able to get some good shots and I did (click on the photos below to get a larger view).
The next morning we set out for the top of the trail. It was a cloudy and a little foggy but there was only a slight chance of rain.
We used the shuttle service to get to Welsboro and the start of the trail. The shuttle service was a van with a rack on the back that hung the bikes from the front wheel and seemed to hold the bikes securely. Which was good because the hour ride up to the start was on a twisty turning narrow road. The driver gave us a lot of information about the area on the drive up including the best places for food and some interesting facts about the dreadlocks she had.
We got started at the top of the trail at 11am. We didn't mind the late start as it was just about freezing when we got up and now it was around 40 degrees.
From the starting point we headed south towards Pine Creek and after a few miles were seeing some of the hills that make up the "Grand Canyon"
The trail was wide and well maintained. It took us just over 8 miles to get the start of the canyon which starts at Darlington Run.
We then had 16 miles in the canyon itself. It was very scenic even with the mostly cloudy weather we had. We were all just looking up as we were riding. It was hard to get a good picture of the scenery but we stopped once or twice to try.
As with most scenic landscapes its not easy to capture what is was actually like to be there but I will just say it was worth the trip. After 16 miles we left the actual canyon but were still riding in the river valley. There were a few more towns as we headed south and by towns I mean there was a few buildings and a road or two but we didn't see a lot of actual people. The clouds got thicker and thinner as we rode and we have a few moments of light rain but nothing that bothered us.
When I researched the trail one of the not to be missed sites was Rattle Snake Rock. It was a 100 ft walk down a path from the trail to see... a large rock on the river?
I was expecting something more based on the write up but I guess some people are impressed by a big rock? We took a few pictures and moved on.
At just over 35 miles we were back at our hotel. Luckily one of the two general stores that are open along the trail was right across from our hotel so we stopped for some sandwiches before going back to the hotel. It was 3pm by the time we got back so we cleaned up relaxed and then had a light dinner at the hotel.
The next morning was sunny and a little warmer. We actually drove two of the three cars down to Jersey Shore PA, which is at the south end of the trail. It's weird to have a town named Jersey Shore in PA that is no where near a beach. You can read how they named it here but it seems that even in the 1800s they were making fun of people from New Jersey.
Yesterday we road south on the trail which was downhill. Today we road north which was slightly uphill but not real noticeable. It took us a few miles to get out of the actual town before we were riding along Pine Creek again. This trail is very popular and well maintained and it has the most number of bathrooms per mile of any trail I have done. There was one almost every 4 or 5 miles so I guess they really don't want you peeing in the woods here.
The valley down here is more wide open so the vista were a little bigger. We stopped a couple time on some of the old rail road bridges we crossed to take in the views.
We ran into a few Mennonites walking along the trail which brought up the question what is the different between the Amish and Mennonites. Here is the best answer I could find.
We stopped at the other open general store in Waterville before heading back to our hotel at Slate Run. I faded a little at the end and felt like I might cramp so stopped a few times to stretch. At 27 miles we were back at the hotel. Since we started earlier and had a shorter ride we were back by 1pm and back at the general store for another sandwich.
Since we had some extra time we walked the trail behind the hotel and took some more pictures of the grounds. Here is a panoramic of the hotel and river.
And another one looking north of the hotel.
For dinner we had to drive back and get the cars in Jersey Shore and stopped for dinner on the way back at the Pine Creek Inn.
It has been a while since I did an overnight bike trip so it was fun to get away again. Every time I do one of these trips I come up with some ideas for other ones so I know I will have more trips like this in my future.