Confluence Based

4.16.2016 25m Conf-Ohiopyle r/t
4.17 38m Conf-Rockwood r/t
mtd:88 ytd:421

Spent two days based in Confluence, PA, at the Outflow Campground. This is a very nice campground; on Saturday night it was quite full, and on Sunday it was only lightly occupied. Bike-in camping is $5/night until May 1st, which is a great deal. Real bathrooms with hot water; the showers building opens on May1.

Saturday I rode with BillM from Confluence to Ohiopyle and back, and it was a real treat to ride with somebody who knows the local history. He'd point out a pile of timbers and earth and explain that it was used to dump small carts of coal into trains below, stuff like that. Saw that there's a Duro-style tool workstation at the Ramcat trailhead now (so cool).

BillM is the most courteous of cyclists, offering assistance or information to others widely, but as we were riding his voice went kind of deep and he said to me: "don't make eye contact, don't speak, definitely don't stop" and when I'm in somebody else's neighborhood I listen to them. An opposite direction cyclist rolled by with something on the back of his bike that to me, looked like a portable ADF antenna. Later in the day, I saw the good folks at Confluence Cyclery took a picture of his rig:

Bill shows me trillium, and skunk cabbage, and an avalanche tube, explained how the remaining big rocks were all sandstone that didn't erode, and showed me a parking spot for a draisine which was very cool.

It seems like Confluence has a few restaurants that won't be opening in the spring- Sweeties and Shermans, for instance. The overnight at Confluence's Outflow Campground was very quiet after around 9pm.

Sunday I rode up to Rockwood, had lunch, and reversed. Saw this cyclist on a penny-farthing.


I love the Pinkerton Tunnel. I do think one of the portals would be a great place for a tools workstation; it's in the middle of so much nothing. I also learned that these posts in the Confluence campground are for hammocks; very cool.