Pennsylvania boasts its own Grand Canyon along Pine Creek. You can get the best view from Colton Point State Park. The morning ride north from Cedar Run is the last long forest run. I was up early. The wood was quiet and cool. I got completely lost on this section last year. This time I was right on target, and nailed the park first time. Being alone at the view point made it that much better. The viewpoint for the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon on Pine Creek is also a memorial for the Community Conservation Corps. Workers from the Corps helped build the roads and sites for Colton Point park. The posters memorialize the many other contributions to tourist and environmental infrastructure built by the Corps during the Depression. Made me wonder if we will have to ... read more

The road out of Mount Holly Springs runs through open farmland. The route zigs and zags as it climbs over the ridges, gradually carrying me NE towards New York. One crosses Blue Mountain ridge, then Tuscarora Ridge, before descending into a valley from another era. The Amish and Mennonite farms provide an island of order, peace and old world tranquility. Horse drawn carts and farm implements are used as naturally as if we were still living in 1850. Farmers and their families dressed in nineteenth century garb wave as one drives by. Flowers line the roads and fields. There is so much pride in the land and what it produces, it fills one with hope. State forests cover the ridges. The Amish country lead up to Tuscarora State Forest. Rothrock was next, named after the "Father ... read more

Mount Olivet is a common name for Methodist churches. I followed Mount Olive road for maybe 10 miles today, past the church building and cemetary arriving eventually at the door of the Horn Camp school house, which I had visited last year. Once in you are treated to a vision of the "good" old days of the one room for 8 grades schoolhouse, active between the 1880's and 1952, now filled with collections of farm tools and memorabilia. The neighbors are proud of their museum, and one can visit with the curator for as long as one wishes. Crossing the C & O Canal was like meeting an old friend. With a lock and a towpath and a Lock Keeper's House, it was like being in Carderock MD once again. There were even a couple of ... read more

The run up through Jefferson National Forest to Covington is recognized as one of the more challenging sections of the route. It is a day of continuous gravel, deep in the national forest, tracking the ridges towards the NE. Very tough if wet. The route planners have it down as one day's run. I wanted to complete it in half a day, and then do half of the following day's run, up to Williamsville VA. Getting there would put me in Highland County, and allow me to sleep in comfort and for free in our cabin just south of Monterey. So, it had to be done. The first of the classic sections is Tub Run Road, high in the mountains West of Blacksburg. Maybe 15 miles long, it is a never ending set of badly maintained ... read more

There are many routes from Arlington to Damascus VA, the starting point of the Mid Atlantic Backcountry Discovery Route (MABDR). Most of them require going South on I 81, a truck filled artery linking industrial towns in the gritty underbelly of the Mid Atlantic states. This freeway strikes fear into the hearts of ordinary four wheeled motorists -- and panic into two wheelers like myself. So Beth and I chose the most round about option, and headed for the town of Monterey in Highland County, Virginia, where we own a cabin. We spent Saturday night (June 27) there enjoying the quiet cool evening. Sunday I started South, following VA Route 92 to White Sulphur Springs and the famous Greenbrier Resort. From there the route followed the Greenbrier river til it emptied into the New River at ... read more