BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I believe the injunction against bikes on the T applies to the direction of rush hour. So, for instance, you could easily get on in town and head out any time you wanted in the morning since rush hour is headed the opposite way.

I'm originally from Uniontown and have ridden down to there a few times. All secondary roads until you get to Rt. 40. Lots of traffic on that route but plenty of room on the shoulders. I have a mapmyride route mapped out if you would like to see it. After Uniontown, I'd suggest Rt 119 south down into Mo-town.

Hooty, I'm not sure what a mapmyride is, but it sounds like something I want to see!

Mick

Mick, here you go:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/pa/pittsburgh/535126665566

The Western Pennsylvania Wheelmen have a map book that organizes rides throughout the region, and characterizes roads by traffic and terrain. I'll take a look at mine, and see what they might have as recommendations for heading south from Library.

The Greene County Bicycle Club organized about 6 rides in Greene County, and the Greene County Tourism office has prepared a map of the rides, complete with cue sheet. The maps are available on the web at: http://www.co.greene.pa.us/secured/gc/services/BicTrail/bicycling.htm#6rides

Ride No 2, from Prosperity to Waynesburg starts with the comment that "Route 18 is the sort of road that bicyclists live for......" (or something similar.) At Waynesburg that route meets up with another that would take you into West Virginia.

Hooty, Swalfort

Thanks a bunch. This stuff is incredibly helpful.

I'm probably going to follow roughly Hoty2's route to PA Bike Route A and follow that up to Mo-Town.

Maybe Uniontown on the way back.

If Route A is a "Wow! Couldn't be better!" ride, I might take it back as well, but that seems unlikely.

The "Click here to print out" on Swalfoort's link? Great. B & B's and all-you-can-eat Steakhouses. What more could a pig-dog carnivore like me ask for? I might go out of my way to ride on this Rt 18.

I'll do a debriefing here when I get back.

Mick

PS.

I took my bike out to library yesterday to check soem stuff out.

I asked the T operator if I could ride outbound at 6:30 AM on a week day - he says no. I asked about leaving town on one of the super early ones, before six - he was a bit hesitant, but said I probably could.

He had somewhat an attitude. "I-don't-want-bikes-on-my-trolley-anytime." Then again,the 5:50 AM T operator might not be in a great mood, either.

I have this fear the operator might say "OK. It's 6:04 - 'peak hours.' Get off here on Rt 51."

I'm going to bring some big ass rubber bands to lock my brakes while I'm on the T.

Mick

WARNING ! Long detailed trip report.

I did my trip to Morgantown.

Big fun! Great adventures! Sore muscles!

I planned to leave Thursday before the morning rush hour. I left my house at about 20 minutes after noon. (shrug)

Took the T to West Library-the second-to-last stop. Rubber bands for brakes on the T- a good idea. Took Church Hill road and some other roads to Thomas-Eighty four Rd and took that to PA 519 (AKA Bike Rt A). I took Rt A all the way to the PA-WV Border.

North of I-70 on PA 519, Rt A is nothing to recommend. No good shoulder, heavy traffic, and a lack of "share the road" signs leave it the same as any other busy road.

South of I-70, it's a mostly a great ride. Good direction signs, small roads with little or no traffic. Scenery. Cool covered bridge 100 feet from the road. All that.

I stayed in Waynesburg the first night. More miles than I had planned on - about twice as far as I've biked in a day this year. It was about 10 miles farther than I figured.

Looking at Mapquest, I could have saved a few miles south of Lone Pine by going on Baker Hill and Smith Run Rd instead of Lone Pine Rd, Little Creek Rd and Ten Mile run (i.e. instead of Rt A)

But then, a road with "hill" in the name? Maybe not the best route.

Friday out of Waynesburg. Rt A is US 19. Very little traffic, because it parallels I-79. They have some serious hills. 22 tooth chain ring and 32 tooth cog and I still walked up some hills (partly because I figured I might be using my bike muscles more than enough.) Rain. Serious headwinds.

I just found out today that Rt A leaves and returns to US 19 - I missed it. Next time, maybe I can go around one of the mountains or something.

Stopped for lunch in an ugly, smoky Mt Morris bar only to find out later there was a clean, nice-looking "home cooking" place a mile down the road.

I discovered I only had 10 miles to Mo-town instead the of the 25 more I had in my head. That was nice.

I took WV 100 instead of US 19 towards Morgantown. A little longer, but it seemed really nice - until I got to the Mon. As Oscar Swan says, to a coal truck driver, a biker is a species of groundhog.

Once I got to where the road went under the bridge over the Mon, it was a mile up a steep hill to get to the busy road over the bridge.

Fixed another flat - maybe a quarter inch from yesterday's patch.

Got to the hotel in Mo-town and checked in before it even started to get dark. That is a FIRST for me with bicycle traveling (I've had plans to do that, I tell ya, many a time...).

I saw a show at the Blue Moose - they let me in cheap because it was the break. Some guy I never heard of. Malcolm Holcombe. One part Bob Dylan. One part Leo Kottke. One part homeless drunk shouting on the street. If you get a chance to see him, do it.

Here's an OK video of Malcolm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDTWu4o9Rtw&feature=channel_page

He can get in your face.

Good blueberry smoothy. No way to get get comfortable on a stool at the counter - if a posture didn't make my feet hurt, it made my butt hurt.

Saturday. Rest day. Friends didn't understand why I didn't want to ride in a car to the Saturday dance. Every month or two I get in a car.

Really good bike paths next to the rivers in Morgantown. There's a path that follows the Mon from it's beginning in Fairmont to the PA Border.

Someone shouted "fag" at me in Morgantown and I didn't have the presence of mind to blow them a kiss.

Got a Kevlar tire and changed it in a parking lot between the motel and the bike trail. There was what look like a bike part on the ground.

I checked it out. It was a pipe. There was what appeared to pot in the bottom of it.

Being the good citizen I am, I called the authorities. We got a SWAT team and a hazardous waste team out there. We surrounded the thing. The pipe surrendered without incident.

Later that night, on the trail in the moonlight, the two-wheeled mobile CSI lab that came all the way from Pittsburgh made it's technical report: "Damn good pot! A lot of it, too, for such a little pipe."

I, myself, wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing.

I went to a square dance Saturday night. The caller didn't show up, but there were a few people that could call some and I got a chance to show my sCaRy dance calling skills. It was a small dance and I got to call a dance and dance it at the same time. It was fun and the mountain women with big blue eyes were easily impressed.

Sunday

Return. Took the trail from Mo-town to the PA line then a dirt road (railroad stone smoothed out by mud) into Point Marion. Rode up PA 88 (get your kicks, as they say, on Rt 66. Not on Rt. 88).

Went past a closed ugly greasy spoon to find a marina with a *good restaurant!* two miles out of town. You win some.

Me, another table and a in-tune piano in the nonsmoking room. I played the piano just enough to leave them wanting more. (With my piano playing that's 8 measures. I've measured it.)

Sunshine.

Some buzzards checked me out. I was reassured when they were not interested.

I heard some weird music and almost ran over a cell phone. So I answered it. The phone owner who called wondered where the hell I was. So did I. I told him how to find me. "There aren't a helluva lotta bicycles on Rt 88, dude."

Outside of Carmichaels, I saw a plane take off from a meadow on the side of a mountain starting about 20 feet from the road. Astonishing. Like seeing someone take off from Flagstaff hill or something.

From Carmichaels I took the inauspiciously named "Hill Rd" and some other little roads to get to rail-trail on the Mon at Rices landing. I had two good maps and still asked for directions 3 times, but it was OK. Country folks are nice.

I was looking at two maps and scratching my head and a woman stopped and said "I saw you on 88, how did you get here?" She had me follow her to the trail.

Damn. She went slowly. I guess. But a car driver views that slight uphill as being flat. I don't.

I really wasn't up for doing sprints, but I did them anyhow. She was kinda pretty, after all. It was fun when we went down the river bluff. Good brakes.

She did NOT stop to take advantage of my innocence and purity in the grass when we got to the trail. You can't win them all.

The trail is nice, but only goes a couple of miles though.

I rode on Rt 88 for a few miles through Millsboro and Frederick. Millsboro is like Clairton or Duquesne only not as clean, cultured and refined.

Pickup truck: "Get the f*ck off the road!" I gotta learn how to do that smile and wave thing.

I took Crawford Rd up a long hill with a mean dog at the top, when I should have stayed on Rt (dammit) 88 for another mile until

Bealsville/Ridgeway road. Went through Bealesville and a small nice road with many names to Bentleyvilles.

In Bentleyville I locked my bike outside a motel and worried about the local low-life. Sure enough, my worst fears were realized. When I went out in the morning, there were TWO bikes leaning on the post.

Monday - short distance but cold and getting colder.

I went up PA 917 when I should have gone on Carlton Rd (frontage for I-70) and a bunch of others.

I went down 1016/1087 - which wasn't on the map I had. I do mean down.

Way, way down into a valley below the Rt 43 turnpike. Below a railroad. The world loomed over me.

I climbed slowly back up the road that turned out to be Route ("wrong number!") 88.

In Findleyville, someone threw something at me from a pick up truck truck. They missed widely, so I wasn't really scared. It might

have been a cup they used as a spittoon. I didn't want to dwell on that possibility.

I think the worst behavior of "rednecks" and "hicks" and such actually happens in the distant suburbsand the mill towns. Those creeps don't know about nature and get lost in the city, so they are threatened by everything.

Then a hawk (peregrine falcon?) landed on a wire about 12 feet from my head and I talked with him for a bit. He listened and sagely nodded his head.

I'm pretty sure it was a "him" because afterwards i watched him politely chase another falcon (who I took to be a "her") over a field and though a swooping, diving dance in the sky for a bit.

It was heartwarming enough that I stopped thinking about my U-lock and pick-up windshields and everything.

Blasted down the last Route 88 hill in to Library in time to catch the last T before "peak hours".

Slept long and woke up to the snow on Tuesday, I was quite thankful the snow wasn't a couple of days earlier.

Thanks to all those that gave advice on routes and support, here.

Mick

thanks for the good tale, mick. i feel, when i have one to tell, that it would be the height of conceit to share the whole thing the way you did. but i did read every bit of your yarn, and i enjoyed it all. maybe i'll share mine next time.

Yeah, I suppose it was pretty long. I wanted to write it up, though, and I thought this would be an OK place to do it.

Should I have started a new topic with "LONG" in the subject? Should I have just skipped posting it here altogether? I dunno. How do folks feel?

As far as conceit? Different strokes. I posted this long-assed BS, but I would never respond to someone's tale of struggling up a hill with a post about how I upshift for that hill. Just sayin'.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed reading it, and would encourage others to post similar and suchlike stuff.

If anyone's concerned about length, there's always the "write a blog entry, post a link here" approach.