The author would like to state that he is in no way affiliated with the Pine Creek Rail Trail, Petticoat Junction Campground, the surrounding communities, nor any of their affiliations. His opinions are strictly his own. He is long winded and his grammar sucks for the most part. Deal with it.
I never thought it would happen to me, but like most things bicycle related, it follows a progression. First you become interested in taking up cycling, I did mainly due to my aversion to running. I hate running, still do. Then you work up the guts to walk into a bicycle shop after researching the crap out of the subject on the internet (probably after trashing a bike from K-Mart). I bet you had a question on how to fix it, unleashed your Google-Fu, and the first few results were archived bikeforums threads from 2004, weren’t they? That’s how you found yourself here. Next you buy a bike. Within three months you decide the bike you wanted at first wasn’t the best bike for you. You buy a road bike or a hybrid. Then you buy lycra. If possible, you start riding to work now and then. Then you set your sights on a 50k…50k turns into 100k…100k turns into 100 miles…100 miles turns into 200k. If you’re CliftonGK1, 200k turns into some astronomical number that makes my head hurt just thinking about it. Then…well, it gets interesting at this point. For me, I started to grow weary of the charity rides and grinding what seemed like endless miles for no particular reason other than making the machine at the doctor’s office beep because your resting heart rate is so low. That happens in the low 40s, btw. It beeps to inquire if the cuff is on correctly. So, what do you do at this point?
For me, I set my sights on what remained as the great unknown. Bike touring. I never thought I would say that I am blessed to live in PA, but geographically speaking, within a 2-3 hour drive I can be at either the Pine Creek rail trail, the Great Allegheny Passage, or somewhere along the C&O. Not exactly local, but not far off either. I started pestering my long time riding partner, vXhanz, about going on a tour. This took exactly one PM to get a “Hell Yes” response. Three weeks from the initial email, we were at the trail head.
Needless to say, a lot of planning is involved in plotting a bike tour, even one as simple as a weekend overnighter. We read other posts on the forums, including the most invaluable ones from The Historian/Neil_B…but from this point on I am just going to refer to him as Neil because that is what everyone knows him best as. The first thing that has to be ironed out is where you are going to go. The GAP had some logistical issues to be worked out first, same as the C&O. This left Pine Creek…but which end to start at? Based on Neil’s reports, Neil started near Wellsboro and headed south…so having to be different, we started at Jersey Shore and went north. Fortunately a Snookie-Monster was never encountered. Jersey Shore itself is a nice little community, the facilities at the parking lot (the one with all the lights) was well groomed at had a very clean bathroom with running water. I guess overnight parking is permitted, my truck had no parking tickets, no vandalism, and all four tires were intact after a weekend being parked in the same spot. Oh, top up your bottles because water is somewhat scarce unless you bring water purification tablets. In that case the creek will provide all the water you can stomach.
Gear wise, I was using the following:
Basic 3 person dome tent – I have no idea how they figure three people are going to sleep in this. If you weren’t related before you went in the night…you will be come morning.
Light summer 3lb sleeping bag
Shimano SPD mountain bike shoes
Sneakers
Flip flops
Travel size toiletries
Nesting back packers cook set
Food (oat meal, brown sugar, Lipton pasta side dishes, tuna fish in pouches, and those healthy choice steam fresh microwave pasta dishes in a handy thick plastic bowl, and more cliff bars than any rational person would eat in a two day period.)
Extra socks
Mighty tighty whities
Gym shorts
t-shirt
cycling shorts (1)
cycling jersey (1)
Bic lighter
Towel (don’t leave home without one)
Altogether, this is what my bike looked like prior to departure:
My bike, a 2009 Specialized Tricross Sport, can best be described as the bastard love child of a Surly LHT and a Specialized Allez. Complete with long chain stays (only a ½’’ shorter than the LHT, front and rear rack eyelets (on a carbon fork of all things), and fender eyelets. All in all, an odd bike that is comfortable to ride but not the swiftest thing on two wheels. Classified as a cyclocross bike, I think Sport Touring would be more appropriate if there were such a class of bikes. For the tour, she (I call her Ms. Evil) was sporting 700x32 WTB Cross Wolf cyclocross tires and 36 spoke cross wheelset. I chose these over her regular road wheel set and tires (28 gator skins) because they are much larger, lower PSI, and generally a bit more plush to ride on plus the wheel set is considerably more beefy. Oh, that is a B-17 atop a carbon fiber seat post. Slightly dorked up, but that’s how I roll. For non-believers, I did this entire tour in regular gym shorts and regular underwear. More on that later…ok, maybe not because that tid-bit pretty much described everything there is to say about that. Suffice to say: total comfort, no chaffing, no problems, and a pair of bike shorts in the panniers that were just along for the ride. My companion had a similar set up on his LHT, but instead of a rack and pannier set up, he utilized his child bike trailer. His pack list was similar, with variations in the food brought, a first aid kit, multi-fuel camp stove, beer, and a hatchet. We planned on doing a comparison to determine which was better to tour with, a trailer or panniers. Also, it’s what we each respectively had so…rock what you brought.
We met at my residence at 7:30am. Loaded my truck up, and set off for Jersey Shore. 2 hours later, and after a big breakfast, we were in the parking lot. The skies were slightly cloudy, but the weatherman was only calling for a 20% chance of a slight afternoon rain shower and a clear upper 70s day on Sunday. It was cool, about 68 degrees if you were to believe the slightly optimistic thermometer in my bike computer, over cast, calm wind…couldn’t ask for better riding weather. We set off onto the trail. It’s surface was crushed gravel and well groomed. The first few miles meandered around the outskirts of Jersey Shore and generally snaked along Pine Creek. Then you entered the valley. Scenery wise, you were treated to a sheer cliff on one side, a lengthy drop and the river on the other side. Gorgeous.
And so it went on. There were a few too many gate crossings for my taste, but you take what you get. We saw plenty of wildlife including deer (7 grand total), a bald eagle, chipmunks galore, toads, and many turtles who were busy laying their eggs along the sides of the trail. Pardon us ladies, just passing through.
So who paid attention to the pack list? Anyone notice what was missing?
Roughly 18 miles into the ride, and 14 miles before the campground were our reservations were made (Petticoat Junction), the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and the sky’s opened up. First a gentle rain, then it picked up, then the thunder and lighting rolled in. Better wait this one out. We took cover under a tree until we were both shivering and soaked anyways. So we moved on once the thunder and lighting moved a sufficient distance west based on the highly unscientific measure of counting the time between the flash and the clap. The lighting may have passed, but the rain sure hadn’t. We rolled about 3 miles in the downpour before we pulled into a state campground to seek shelter of any sort. We found a restroom, which was little more than a giant porta-pot with a roof…but the smell was enough to gag a maggot, so we stood outside under it’s eves. A few minutes later another couple who were cycling had the same idea we did. We met up and had a nice conversation. All of us were soaked to the bone, but that didn’t really hamper their enthusiasm to be out sighting for eagles. They had stopped by earlier today at this very camp ground to check out a bald eagle nest, they showed us were it was at, and then they set off after telling us our campground was only “5 miles or so” up the trail.
“5 miles or so”, as translated from Eastern European Immigrant to English = 11.7 miles.
If it weren’t for the broken water pump in this campground, we would have made camp here. But we needed water for cooking and didn’t really want to camp without a state issued permit. Plus a hot shower at that point in time sounded better than a Siren’s call. We decided to move on. It poured for 6 more miles, then as soon as it started…it stopped. The sun peaked out and we were treated to humidity. We made our way to the campground, Petticoat Junction, and set up. I have to admit, I have never stayed at a place named after obscure women’s undergarments before, then again…I’d never been on a bike tour either, so why not? The campground itself was actually quite nice. The tent camp sites were a bit close together for my taste, but they were clean, included a fire ring and a picnic table. What more could you ask for? The bathroom facilities were clean, as were the showers. We bought a deck of cards, and a barrel of firewood. We set up camp and worked on some lunch.
If you’re asking yourself if it is worth it or not to lug around a 12 pack of Yuengling Black and Tan…totally worth it. After a long day of cycling through adverse conditions, the beer tasted amazing. Also, it is a valuable currency with other tent campers and can be traded for items like hamburgers and firewood.
Lunch consisted of tuna fish, pasta dishes, and warm beer (Rodeo Cool, to be precise). It’s a good thing that dark beer tastes pretty good when it’s warm. At least it doesn’t hurt. The wood we purchased was green as could be…seriously, pitch would boil out of it as it burned. This made fire a pain in the butt. Thankfully we were able to utilize the hatchet to cut it down into kindling and smaller pieces that actually had a chance of catching on fire. It was during this activity that vXhanz had an accident and probably would have severed his finger had that hatchet been a hair in the other direction. Luckily he only gave himself a nasty cut that bleed pretty good. His first aid kit came in handy, we were able to sterilize and dress the wound in short order. I learned that day that straight iodine in a wound burns like a mother******. With a full belly, and my partner’s wound dressed, I decided to press on up the trail to try and find a cell phone signal. Turns out that verizon wireless gets a sliver of service roughly 8 miles north of the campground. That is if you are standing atop a rock with it on speaker phone held out at arm’s reach. I was able to call my wife and let her know everything was ok. On my way back, I stopped by a place called Rattlesnake Rock.
It was down a short, bumpy side trail and worth the effort.
It was getting dark so I headed back to camp. Ate dinner, and was getting ready to turn in for the night. Then I noticed something was missing. My wedding ring. Quicker than you can say: “Where the heck are you going, Ben” I was back on my bike and in a dead sprint for 4 miles to Rattle Snake Rock. I made it there just as the sun was going over the mountain side. With my flashlight, I desperately searched for my ring until something large moving in the not too distant brush spooked me enough to get the heck out of the area. I shouted at it assuming it was a black bear, generally they are easily scared off, but this one didn’t get that memo, apparently. On the way in I did see several large piles of bear scat…time to get my rear in gear. Gear 27 to be precise (9 speed triple). Let me tell you, once the sun goes down, that place is pitch dark. The beam of my inadequate headlight pierced the darkness enough to navigate back to my tent. I told vXhanz and we decided to go back the next morning to search again.
I didn’t sleep well that night, mainly because I was so upset I lost my ring, and partly because the people camping next to me wouldn’t shut the hell up until 2am. I don’t wear my ring while riding because it falls off when my hand is sweating. Instead, I place it in my stash bag behind my stem with my cell phone. When I was sized for it, I weighed 40lbs more than I currently do. I can now place the ring on any finger, but I just can bring myself to get a ring that fits. Partly because of the achievement of the weight loss, and mostly because Tungsten Carbide rings cannot be resized, you turn your old one in and get a new one. Well, the new ring isn’t MY ring so I don’t want it. I know that is a bit of an irrational attachment to an object…but it is what it is. The next morning we broke camp and headed back to Rattlesnake Rock. Against all odds, vXhanz found the ring. What had happened was I laid my bike on it’s side in the weeds to go check out the rock formation. When I took my phone out of the stem bag to take some pictures, the ring toppled out. With the ring located and safely zipped into a zipper pocket, we set off towards the truck. My mood had improved roughly 10,000% once the ring was relocated.
The ride back was just as gorgeous as the ride in. Except this time it was sunny and in the mid eighties. It got pretty hot on that trail as the sun boiled the remaining rain water back out of the ground making for pretty humid conditions. It was slightly downhill, which helped a good bit with the tired legs. Here is a few more shots:
There is a good 15-20 foot drop from the edge of that rock to the water. Do be careful now.
All in all, I can’t wait to do this again. We did learn a few lessons:
1: Pack rain gear no matter what the meteorologist says.
2: Be really careful with that hatchet
3: Secure valuables in a zipper pouch when you have the opportunity
4: Sunscreen is only effective if you remember to put it on (ouch)
5: Bautieri and vXhanz are incapable of riding together without some form of misadventure.
6: It gets really cold in that valley at night, pack long pants next time
7: 100% Deet is super effective at keeping bugs and ticks off you, but stings like heck when applied to a sun burnt area…it also tastes terrible. Don’t taste it if you can avoid it.
8: Your water consumption will double while lugging your gear.
9: Your overall speed will reduce by roughly 30%.
10: Touring is addictive, you should do it.