Riding in Coal Country

[false_Aest]

NYT

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/travel/escapes/23passage.html

[fiamme red]

THREE hours by bike from Cumberland, Md., on the Great Allegheny Passage, I rode into the mouth of the abandoned Borden Tunnel near here, where freight trains once rumbled, hauling coke, steel and coal. The air was black as engine oil.

In the middle of the tunnel, darkness swallowed my pedals and handlebars. My wheels wobbled on crushed limestone, but I couldn’t see them anymore. My friend David Howard was pedaling far in front of me and loving every minute of it. “I can’t see a thing,” he said gleefully. “It feels like an out-of-body experience.”

But I was so unnerved that my bike spun out of control and I nearly slammed into the wall.Soon afterward we came face to face with the 3,294-foot-long Big Savage Tunnel. Inside, the tunnel was dreamlike, like a Roman catacomb or a secret passageway between the Great Pyramids. Every hundred feet or so a pale yellow light hanging from the ceiling showed the way.

I was enjoying the echoes and the distant drip of water, when David warned me about a burned-out light. Darkness fell suddenly and I slammed the brakes; I skidded, lost control of the bike and fell to the gravel with a heavy plop.It would have been a good idea to bring lights. :rolleyes:

[false_Aest]

Bah,

I do that when I'm drunk . . . who needs a bicycle to do that stuff?

[goonster]

Last year, 10,000 to 15,000 people used the trail for a long-distance trip.

I don't know what their criteria is for a "long-distance trip", but if anywhere close to that number did a multi-day unsupported ride, that's pretty impressive.

[palincss]

It would have been a good idea to bring lights. :rolleyes:

I rode the GAP last month. My photos are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97916047@N00/sets/72157622381493111/show/

Everyone in my party had lights, and none of us had any trouble riding through the Great Savage Tunnel.

There's a sign outside the Borden tunnel telling you to dismount and walk through. It's a pretty short tunnel, and you can see the end of it. There are no lights at all in that tunnel. I rode it. Thing is, once you get into it and the darkness surrounds you, you lose all your peripheral vision; and when that happens to me, I start to lose my equilibrium. I had to stop to switch my lights on. With a headlight beam to focus on, I had no trouble riding through the tunnel.

[dd74]

Wow! What a great slide show. How long was your journey?

[palincss]

Wow! What a great slide show. How long was your journey?

Thanks! We spent 4 days on the GAP. Day 1 was mostly consumed in the drive to McKeesport and the return of the van to the Pittsburg airport. We were 4; we dropped 2 of us and the gear in McKeesport while the other 2 went on to Pittsburg. It took them over 3 hours to get to the airport, return the van, and taxi back. We didn't start riding until after 3 pm, and it took us a while to actually find the trail even with directions. Day 1 was around 20 miles. Day 2 and 3 were roughly 40-45 mi, and the last day was around 30 or so. We arrived in Cumberland at around 1 pm, in time for lunch.

I drove home, but the rest of the party continued on the next day on the C&O Canal. I think they spent the afternoon in Cumberland getting their bikes cleaned and serviced.

Total distance on the GAP is around 150 miles.

[keevon]

GREAT shots of the route, especially Ohiopyle. That place is near n' dear to my heart.

[SamIAm]

I did this ride a couple of years ago, we went from Pittsburgh to Williamsburg, but the best part was the 150 miles or so on the Allegheny. Good times.

Don't even get me started on the C&O.

[fiamme red]

Don't even get me started on the C&O.I'll bite. What's wrong with it?

Edit: I guess that here's the answer:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_633399.html#

As more and more cyclists take advantage of a 320-mile, car-free bike route to the nation's capital, they are learning that the journey is a tale of two trails.

There's the Great Allegheny Passage, stretching about 150 miles from McKeesport to Cumberland, Md., on a restored railroad bed. The crushed limestone surface is smooth, the trail is scenic and the trip is a joy, said several people who rode the trail last month.

Then comes the C&O Canal towpath.

The second half of the trip, they said, descends into an odyssey of tire-gripping mud, exposed rocks and roots, deeply rutted trails, overhanging branches, poor signage and many flat tires and spills.

"Maybe I was wrong to assume that the trail would be like the Great Allegheny Passage all the way to D.C., but that is the impression I got," said Max McIntosh, 36, of Coraopolis, who rode with friend Nick Santillo, 47, of Carnegie in early June.

"With all the roots, rocks, potholes and mud ... Nick and I had to ride single-file in some areas because the trail was so overgrown."

[palincss]

OK, my nibble: I tried riding the C&O end to end in 2003. I hit a root, went off the towpath into the canal and broke my shoulder. It took 3 surgeries and a year of physical therapy to put me back together again. That's why I left the group at Cumberland.

[mschol17]

It's pretty rough.

[konstantkarma]

Anyone out there have a decent route mapped from Pittsburgh to Cleveland? I would love to ride from Great Falls via the C&O and Allegheny to Pittsburgh, and then on to Northern Ohio, where I have family.

[Blue Jays]

An alternative would be to use a suspension mountainbike with 2.35" tires and that trail would be perfectly fine.

[palincss]

Anyone out there have a decent route mapped from Pittsburgh to Cleveland? I would love to ride from Great Falls via the C&O and Allegheny to Pittsburgh, and then on to Northern Ohio, where I have family.

The GAP isn't complete to Pittsburg. There's no trail currently between McKeesport and Pittsburg, and the road connection is said to be very bad. They're building the Montour trail out to the Pittsburg airport, but that's not done either.

You can monitor trail status here: http://www.atatrail.org/maps/open.cfm