Monday 8-06 Day 43

Start: Washington, PA
End: Confluence, PA
Scheduled Miles: 88.4
Actual Miles: 89.3


Well it did rain hard last night and I only had a little water come in. Note to self, make sure both zipper pulls are at the top of the door, that's where the water came in! So we break camp packing all our gear wet, not the best thing to do, but we have to be on the road.
This morning I head out with Jodi and young David. It is very foggy and misty and the road is pretty heavily trafficked, so I have my lights on. We go through a bunch of quaint little towns, some of the places do look a bit rundown, and even abandoned. We do some really steep climbs, 15% grade at times. We gain 400 feet in two miles. Almost wish I had a triple crank. After a bit we turn onto the Youghiagheny Trail(YRT) (spelling?). This is a rails to trail path that is paved with crushed stone. It is not a bad surface even for my tires, but with the rain and dampness, I do get a build up between the frame and tire that I have to stop and clean out occasionally. The path as befits a a railroad bed is flat, but we are climbing. A total of 600 feet in 52 miles. There is no coasting here and the pace never changes, so we have to change up the speed and effort consciously. The trail is deep in hardwoods forest and all you see is a green tunnel effect in front of you. We are riding alongside the Youghiagheny River but almost never see it because of the dense foliage. Lunch today is provided by Fred, a past rider. He has put out a spread of sub sandwich's, chips, fruit and birch beer. Delicious and Generous! After lunch, it is more of the same trail. We pass by an old rail station, that has been coverted to a store, I stop but it's pretty rustic inside and nothing strikes my fancy. Getting back on the bike I realize the back tire is going flat. So, at a nice picnic spot, I stop and replace the tube and tire. The tire is the one I replaced back in South Dakota, before heading up to Mt Rushmore, so it has served me well. As I getting back on the trail, Alison, Tom and Scott go by, so I hook up with them for a while. They are so funny, Because of the storms, there are a number of trees that have fallen across the path, some I had "portaged" over, but these two guys have been stopping and clearing many of them as they go. So I join in.

After a while, I pull over and walk down a set of stairs on the side of the path that leads down to the river. After only catching glimpses of the river I decide it is time to see it and soak my feet. On the side I'm on there is what I presume to be a fishing guide, teaching a father and son to fly fish. On the other bank is a group of High School kids, being taught to kayak. I find a nice rock and take it all in. The water is like ice cold, but it is nice to sit and soak it all in. Putting my shoes back on, I turn around and can't see the stairs! It takes me 15 minutes to find it, boy do I feel dopey!. I find my way all across the country, but can't find a set of stairs that's less the 20 yards away!

Rolling into Confluence, we are at a state park. The area we can camp is very limited in size and to make matters worse, the area is covered in goose poop! Yeech! There are some areas which has very little poop, but the park rangers are adamant, that we cannot set up there, which is very frustrating. Also, we are camping beneath a huge "earthen" dam. We are below a huge pile of what is called rip rap when used for shore erosion. It looks like it is just piled there, and you know that there is a giant wall of water behind it, just wanting to wash over us. I would feel a lot better if there were some concrete in the thing. Also, because we are in a valley cell phone reception is very bad. It takes me walking around the park to get even a weak signal, so my conversation with Barbara is very short. "Hello, hello, done with the day, call you tomorrow."