Type 2 Clydesdale Cyclist: hostel

Friday, June 3, 2011

Rockwood to West Newton Bike Trip, Day Two

11-06-03 #???
74 miles, 5h35m

A few words about the Rockwood Hostel. It was great, in terms of basic shelter and showers for less than $30. Wifi, cable TV, coin-operated laundry; it was all good. I imagine your experience will vary with the quality of people you find yourself rooming with.

Suggestions for the Hostel: it would be great to have a floor pump, and it would be great to have individual lockers you could secure valuables in. I believe there's going to be Pittsburgh people using the Rockwood Hostel as a base for a 3-day trip: (1) West Newton to Rockwood, (2) Rockwood east to Cumberland and back, and (3) Rockwood back to West Newton. The qualities of the GAP are so far superior to the C&O that this sort of a 3-day trip, at less then $30/night for lodging, makes sense.

It was a bit brisk at wakeup, about 48F. We repacked the bikes and departed Rockwood, planning on eating breakfast 19 miles down the trail at Sister's in Confluence. This was a mistake for me, I should have eaten first, so I got dizzy and we ended up stopping so I could eat and stabilize the blood sugar.

As we rode into Confluence, we re-entered cellphone coverage and our phones beeped and told us we had messages and missed calls. We had an excellent breakfast as Sister's Cafe, as expected, and we sat in the town square and returned phone calls.

We rode into Ohiopyle and took a break there, then we rode to Connellsville, bought lunch at Sheetz, and ate it at the park. I took a long break after I ate and that worked real well for me.

I find that I'm somewhat low energy after I've eaten, and between 40minutes and 55minutes after I eat I get real low energy, and at 55 minutes something clicks and I feel good to go again.

We rode on to West Newton uneventfully, covering 74 miles in 5h35 minutes. That's a good time, recognizing that it was downhill (yesterday at 5h55m was climbing) and that today was our second day on the bike.

Lessons Learned:

Can't ride without breakfast
I need to wait an hour after I eat a meal, just like my mother always told me about waiting an hour before I swam
Size matters in twisting tools, and my mini-tool doesn't provide a sufficient arm-length for torque
Seventy miles is my new "perfect daily distance".

We saw a lot of people traveling with overnight loads, several recumbents, several Bob-Trailers. We encountered deer on the trail three different times, and I ran over one two-foot snake before I realized it.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Pittsburgh Overnight Bike Trip: Day One, West Newton to Rockwood, PA

THURS

11-06-02 #236
74 miles, 5h57m

Day One of an overnight ride from West Newton, PA to Rockwood, staying overnight, and returning tomorrow.

We made it to West Newton about 0900, and fiddled with installing my new pedals for longer than I would have expected. The task was made more difficult by the relatively short lever-arm provided by my (very cool but very small) mini-tool.

We met trail guru Betsy M along the way. The air was loaded with pollen, my eyes were tearing to the point of weeping, and M. gave me some antihistimine he was carrying. At times there were so many particles in the air it looked like a faint snowfall.

Just prior to Confluence I crossed 1000 miles in 2011. We made made a tremendous time from West Newton to Confluence, 25 miles in 1h50m. In Confluence we availed ourselves of their sink for the water bottles, bought lunch, and ate outside of the store.

Back on the trail to Ohiopyle, there was some construction going on in one part, and another stretch closer to Ohiopyle has a few potholes in it. Stopped at the General Store for a Starbucks DoubleShot. Got copies of the GAP map (Spring 2011 update) which shows how the Montour, Panhandle, Southside and Jail Trails integrate with the GAP and the trail from Pittsburgh to DC. It's a pretty cool map.

We rode to Confluence where we stopped for a quality meal, we had low expectations of the destination food and wanted to get something good. I had a cup of french onion soup and a crabcake.

The last 19 miles from Confluence to Rockwood were the most work. Saw the deforestation above the Pinkerton Horn where the railroad is preparing to "daylight" an existing tunnel (more on that in tomorrow's post). The pitch seemed to kick up a notch for the last ten miles, but it was all a nice ride.

In Rockwood there's no cellphone coverage except at the cellphone hotspot in a small shack along the trail. There's an antenna on one corner of the building, and you need to be within a few feet of it to get coverage, but it provides a chance to check in with the home front.

We had the Rockwood Hostel to ourselves. It was not bad, $26 for the night, a blanket, and towels; wifi and cable TV, plenty of hot water in private bathrooms, coin-operated laundry machines. There was a comfortable sitting room, and a large bunkroom that wasn't too different from a bootcamp-style bay barracks. There are trains that run in close proximity during the night, and they offered us earplugs, but I found I didn't need them; the train did wake me up a half-dozen times, but I quickly got back to sleep.

We rode 74 miles in 5h56m. The weather was perfect, and the bikes did well.