Type 2 Diabetic. Cyclist Flâneur.   Coffeeneur.    Errandoneur
A bike / map geek with a gadget obsession and a high-viz fetish.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Basic Burgh Bike Overnight S24O

Sat 9.13 24m
Sun 9.14 23m
In the end everybody's got to be somewhere, and on Saturday I decided to get out of town and spend the night in some fresh air.

Many trips begin with a sort of sendoff, so I treated myself to a MochaBianca and chocolate-chip and cherry scone at BigDog Coffee, nom nom wifi nom wifi. Excellent as always.



I rode from SouthSide out to McKeesport, Boston, and Buena Vista. Along the way I saw Mary and Roy on individual diamondframes which was a happy surprise, and I also saw fellow blogger Dean on his bike. I started following an athlete on rollerblades and I could just barely keep up, he was consistently doing 14 to 17 mph. Somewhere around Kennywood we switched leads and he playfully chased me all the way to McKeesport, I could not ride away from him. It was very impressive.

When I got to Boston, PA (home of the Green BoxCar™) I was pleased to see what appeared to be a local cycling event. Turned out it was motorcycles, I think they were this close to having a really great concept.



Got to the Dravos Cemetery Campground with about +45m of light remaining and made camp. It's a very nice campground.


I did not bring my 20F sleeping bag, and wanted to try out my sleeping bag liner as a standalone. It did very well and was quite comfortable. When the temps dropped below 50F-ish, I became cold and put on a light wool layer and then the liner was still very comfortable. This would be great as a standalone on nights when the temps stay above 50F.

Quite a bit of fog in the morning, and it took quite a while to dry off my tent and fly. Had some Starbucks Via, putzed around and put new brake pads on my front wheel, and then got on the road. Riding back in to Pittsburgh with panniers, everybody was congratulating me on riding in from DC. I didn't seem kindly to correct them.

From Pittsburgh, Dravos Cemetery Campground is a pretty simple overnight bike trip. From the Hot Metal Bridge it's about 23 miles or about two hours of cycling plus any stops. Highly Recommended.



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