Great Times on the Great Allegheny Passage: Day 1

After a marginal amount of actual planning, and a lot of training for myself (Brother Jon decided not to train given his peak physical conditioning), we were finally ready to depart.

Loading up in McKeesport.

Ready to roll.

Two brothers ready to pedal the path to enlightenment.

Riverton Bridge

As you can see, Jon and I packed relatively light. Our camping gear (tarp, sleeping bags, air mattresses), clothes, and food were about all that we brought. I was expecting to pack lighter and eat out more, but Jon had other ideas. He had quite the little food bag packed up for us! We actually had so much food that it took up almost the entire bag on the one side of his bike. This did not lead to what would be the ideal packing job, which would have balanced out the load more evenly, but hey, why sweat the small stuff.

While we had not planned on getting up with the roosters, we did end up with a little later start than anticipated until everything was loaded up. This meant fewer breaks later in the day to achieve the desired mileage required to make it to our campsite, something that Jon would have appreciated. The day ended up being gorgeous and quite warm initially as we were riding in the open from McKeesport, across the above bridge to Duquesne, back through McKeesport and east. Once we entered into tree cover the ride cooled down immensely.

Historical Dravo Cemetery

One of the hundreds of waterfalls along the trail.

One of the examples of mining damage along the trail. Acidity in the water from mine runoff turned this waterfall this awesome color.

Railroad nail "settler" in West Newton.

The day was uneventful except for a stop in West Newton for some burgers and beers. We also had to get Jon a new seat since he was already getting sore. Thankfully, the new seat was much more comfortable and prevented any further "significant" soreness. We camped at a campsite just before Connellsville and feasted on fire roasted sausages and freeze dried chili. Some other campers must have felt bad for us, because they also gave us a whole steak and some homemade fig cookies. Total miles: 44.92.