Glomming a Coffee Ride in the Gloam.

Mon 10/17/11 #236 54miles

It was such a magnificent day for a ride that when I got to the Montour Trail and noticed the flat rear tire, it wasn't disappointing at all. I had the car's bike rack to use as a work stand, I had a floor pump in the car, and it was mild, daylight, and dry (as opposed to cold, dark, and wet). If you ever had to have a flat tire, these were perfect conditions for it.



I pushed off on the trail 30 minutes later than planned, starting at the Boggs Trailhead at MP11.5, riding southwest. There's quite a bit of trail improvement going on, scraping the surface, filling divots, widening the trail and clearing brush. The McDonald Trestle was impressive as always.

A few miles beyond the trestle I met my friend R, who I was supposed to meet earlier so he started riding toward me. He was riding his brand-new bike, a Rivendell Sam Hillborne touring bike, and it was a work of beauty - eminently functional, intelligently outfitted, and aesthetically pleasing.

We continued riding south. At MP 24-ish we saw that the through-rider campgrounds have been expanded from three to five, and it looks like an Adirondack shelter is going into one of the sites.

We stopped at the ever-welcoming trailside Farmhouse Coffee for hot chocolate, cappuccino, and red-velvet biscotti (to die for). They do a consistently great job there.

We continued out on the Montour Trail and I got to ride across the new JR Taylorbridge for the first time, it's a very nice bridge. R. commented that he appreciates that all of the bridges are of different styles, there's no cookie-cutter similarity among them.

Reached the end of the trail and then reversed to come back, I had 26ish miles to go to regain my car and the day was waning. We made a pretty good pace on the return leg.

You could see where work was progressing for the new bridges at Morganza Road and Georgetown Road. There's a groundbreaking ceremony for the two new bridges on Sunday October 23rd at 1:00.

The last ten miles were in the gathering darkness, and I felt like a glommed a ride in the gloam.