The day started overcast and hazy, and with sprinkles here and there. We biked down the hill to the "official" start of the paved trail (at the intersection of Grant St. and the Boulevard of the Allies). This section is called Eliza Furnace Trail. It parallels the highway and the river, and it is nicely paved.
We crossed the Monongahela river for the first time using the Hot Metal Bridge. The bridge was used to move hot steel from the South Side to the Northeast side back in the day. It was decommissioned to serve as a bike trail, and restored in 2007. Pittsburgh seems far away, but we have just started. We have also just made our first friends on the trail; one of them had just completed the trail a few weeks ago.
Shortly after leaving the South Side (the second place in the US-after New Orleans- with more bars per mile), we stopped with our new friends to observe the bald eagles and their new fledglings. Watching the eagles there were scopes, cameras and a significant number of people at 9 am on Sunday. We chatted with our friends and got updates on the status of the trail to DC.
We left our friends behind (they told us to enjoy the asphalt as long as it last) and continued our ride through the industrialized outskirts of Pittsburgh. We went up and down bridges to avoid the railroad tracks. We rode by the Waterfront (a big shopping mall area that includes a Rockbottom) in a sidewalk-turned trail and continued our quest to leave Pittsburgh behind.
Railroad tracks are a continuous feature of the ride. You can hear trains day and night.
We left our friends behind (they told us to enjoy the asphalt as long as it last) and continued our ride through the industrialized outskirts of Pittsburgh. We went up and down bridges to avoid the railroad tracks. We rode by the Waterfront (a big shopping mall area that includes a Rockbottom) in a sidewalk-turned trail and continued our quest to leave Pittsburgh behind.
Railroad tracks are a continuous feature of the ride. You can hear trains day and night.
We arrived to a breaking point: the Riverton Bridge in McKeesport, that we used to cross the Monongahela river for a second time to leave it behind for good.
The trail around McKeesport remains to be finished, and we rode on local roads and climbed a final hill before the trail took its constant shape: a gravel crushed, slightly ascending, relatively shaded trail.
The trail around McKeesport remains to be finished, and we rode on local roads and climbed a final hill before the trail took its constant shape: a gravel crushed, slightly ascending, relatively shaded trail.
We were now riding upstream following the Youghiogheny river, a windy, beautiful tributary of the Monongahela. We stopped at views and made more friends. We rode for miles. On the left, the river. On the right, the occasional waterfall. The waterfall features repeated through the trip displaying very different geological features. And the sun came out to stay!
It was time for lunch when we arrived to West Newton. There is an old station reconverted into a visitor center, and a bike shop/6 pack store/pub (The Trailside pub) where we felt obliged to stop. We bought an additional travel bag and a lock, had a decent lunch and kept going. At the trailhead there is a cool statue of a pioneer made with railroad spikes to remind everybody what this area is about.
The ride from Pittsburgh is all uphill. It is not steep, but you feel the relentless climb on your legs. Average speeds are not rewarding, and you must keep pedaling unless you decide to stop. Along the way, we found many cool geological features, and Kiko took a lot of pictures, many of them in motion.
We also found some red waterfalls. Although they look cool, the history behind them is a sad one. Coal mining in the area exposed pyrite to the environment, which is made of sulfur and iron. The sulfur reacts with the air to produce sulfuric acid, and the iron gets deposited in the surface. These red waterfalls are acid washouts from the mines, and environmentally disastrous. Things are changing, but the remaining red waterfalls are left to remind us how polluted this area once was.
The trail was well marked with a post every mile. These posts sometimes coincided with some old concrete markers which seem to be measured in a different scale: sometimes they were together and sometimes several yards apart. Somebody measured wrongly!
We also rode by an old Tufa formation with was 12,000 years old. It does not look like your regular tufa (seems just like a smooth waterfall) but we believed it was that old.
Hours went by and mile markers kept going down as we got to the 100 mile mark. Our bodies were starting to feel tired and our minds were imagining the end. We had already ridden 50 miles!
The last 10 miles were silent. The entrance to Connellsville was framed by an arch and the nice downhill towards the downtown area was greatly appreciated from the waist down. Those two minutes of coasting were very welcomed.
We checked at the Connellsville B&B and into the Irish Room. While discussing places to have dinner, we were highly recommended to visit the Italian Oven. This is a singular place where you can dine. You must try to order alcoholic beverages with your dinner. Since they do not have a license, they cannot sell you alcohol. Their solution? Give it for FREE!
Unfortunately, that place was closed and we had dinner somewhere else: Bud Murphy's, the town's prominent sports bar and karaoke place. There we watched the US soccer team. We were surrounded by very friendly people who were starting to warm up for karaoke night. On the way back, we stopped at the Carnegie Library, a place that, as we were told, is it positively, totally haunted following an investigation by the Pittsburgh Paranormal Society. Then, we returned to our room, with the first 100K now done.
Beer of the day: All Saints IPA (Greensburg, PA)
Dinner: Bud Murphy's Sports Bar
Bird of the day: Bald eagle
Dinner: Bud Murphy's Sports Bar
Bird of the day: Bald eagle