From: Christine W christineweir@hotmail.com
Subject: Kiwis crossing USA: hi from Williamsport, Maryland
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 08:07:58 PDT
Hi everyone
Well, as you can see we have diverted a bit further south than originally intended! All
will be revealed in a minute.
The last bulletin was from hot and humid Pittsburgh, and Margaret drove us to Boston
Bridge to join the Yough River trail, pointed us in the right direction and off we went on
another hot and humid day. Eventually there was a scattering of rain - the temperature
dropped a bit, the air cleared a bit, and the track got just enough puddles to splash grit
all over my bike.
However, it was a really lovely trail, nice and flat and very good surface.
When we stopped for lunch a young boy asked a very intelligent question - do we lose track
of time? I sure do, most days I look in my journal to see what the date is and what the
day is. He was blown away that we had ridden all the way from LA, some people cannot
comprehend that we could do that. There were a few deer in the bush, beautiful rocky
cliffs, big trees fallen over in the bush. We found a nice camp site slightly off the
track, just before the 17 mile marker after Connellsville, although it was very misty with
the humidity and the tents were soaking wet in the morning.
A few miles further down the track we got to Ohiopyle, and had been told that Frank Lloyd
Wright's house at Falling Water was worth visiting, however found out that it's 5 miles up
a hilly road, currently under renovation, and reservations are required for tours. That
convinced us that it wasn't worth the trip, so I can look at it on a postcard.
We met up with a couple of retired women who were going to Ohiopyle for morning coffee and
then Confluence for lunch, then back home to Connellsville. They were really great, what a
wonderful way to spend time in their retirement. The cycling is really only cross-training
for the race walking that they do! They said that they started going for rides and then
went to the bike shop, bought 4 Cannondales and got their husbands into biking as well!
At Ohiopyle there was a fantastic general store, the type with anything from fishing gear
to souvenirs to meals, so naturally that was a good stop. There is also a nice waterfall
on the river beside a really nice park with a couple of lookouts over the falls.
Here we were fortunate to meet up with Tom and Joyce from Annandale VA, who are biking
across to Seattle, Washington. They are probably in their 50's, and again it's so great to
see others out there doing it. They have the hard job I think, with a lot of head winds.
They told us about this Cumberland & Ohio trail which goes from Cumberland Maryland,
to Washington DC, and kindly invited us to stay at their house! Well, what an offer, so
that's where we are heading.
That trail ended at Confluence and we then had a short ride on hwy 281 north, uphill for
about 4 miles and then turned onto SR 3001 to Ford Hill, a steep descent and then got onto
the Allegheny Trail, another rail trail so again a good surface, flat, and beautiful
scenery. A farm paddock provided the camp site for that night, with a rail track and major
highway across the valley to provide the usual background noise.
A bit more highway riding after the trail ended at Meyersdale, and an extremely hot ride
through to Cumberland. We got groceries and found a fountain with seats around it to sit
in the shade with our feet in the water. A sign on the bank said 101F (31C) and it was
humid as well, pretty tough to be riding in.
The C&O trail is simply superb, it is an old canal towpath that the mules used to pull
the boats up the Potomac river, 184.5 miles of FLAT riding under a canopy of trees, deer
melting into the bush, badgers scurrying across the path, squirrels leaping into the
trees, beautiful birds and butterflies. About every 5 miles there is a hiker/biker
primitive campsite which is really 5-star because there is a water pump and clean toilet
there as well as a fire pit with abundant wood. It's a very popular trail, lots of people
on it, although not very many camping and we have had the sites to ourselves each night.
At the first one it soon became apparent why we had it to ourselves, there was a railway
track about 50' away. Oh well we said, there won't be very many trains around here. Wrong.
They started off about 1/2 hour apart, then got more frequent, and continued through the
night, until about 4 a.m. when one driver must have left his coffee behind because that
train shunted back and forth for ages!
We are going very slowly here, spinning it out because we have plenty time up our sleeves.
I called in at a town called Little Orleans, which consists of a general store and a
garage and a few houses. The store is also the mayor's office and the fire department, and
was so crammed full with stuff and very dim lights, it was hard to see anything inside. I
put 60c in the drink machine outside and got nothing back, so went inside and asked for a
root beer. The old guy behind the counter said there is some in the cooler over there, so
I had a look inside this cooler that had a lift-up lid and cans just lying inside.
Couldn't find a root beer so took what I hoped was a lemonade. When I took it to the
counter he said oh, you didn't find the root beer, let me get you one. He stopped and
chatted to 2 other customers, took a sip of his coffee, and ambled over to the cooler,
took the lid right off, plunged both his arms into the cans and came up with a root beer.
I thought I saw one in there the other day, he said! He asked me where I came from, and
when I said NZ he said there was a guy in there this morning from Finland, sounded just
like me. I thought that was a bit strange, I'm usually taken for English or Australian,
not Scandinavian. Oh no, he said, the man was from Wales. Hmm, I haven't been taken for a
Taffy before either!
Yesterday we camped a couple of miles away from Williamsport and I went to the bike shop
to get new brake pads, and $43 later I had them fitted, wow that seems expensive when I
double it to convert to NZ currency! $12.95 for each set of pads plus $17 labour and $5 to
change the mudguard around and 60c for some cable ties! At least my brakes work better
now.
The humidity has cleared and it is now hot, so it's good to be out of the sun and in the
cool shade of the trees.
Bye the way, there is a web site with all my emails on it, plus the newspaper articles
that we have received so far - Brian de Sousa kindly puts this information on it so you
can give the address to anyone who wants to look at the back issues! It's at
http://alum.wpi.edu/~desousa/kiwis/ - thanks Brian for doing this.
Well that's it for now, we will probably take a couple more days to enjoy this trail
before hitting the road again.
bye for now
Christine and Madi