Day 1 - Pittsburgh to Rockwood, PA

We drug ourselves out of bed, 6:30 AM.  The Quality Inn had a Panera's restaurant on the first floor, where we loaded up on expensive calories, but it was convenient.  

We finally were on trail at 7:45.  We had to descend a typical Pittsburgh street, very steep, down to the trail.  We backtracked about 1.5 miles to get closer to the actual trail head at Point Park.  There were a lot commuters on the trail, which was encouraging to see.

Dale at start point

View looking back toward downtown, while crossing the river

Views of what remains of steel industry along trail

There were a lot of twists and turns on the way into McKeesport going through old steel towns and passing many old industrial buildings, some vacant and some still in use.

View of the trail, somewhere before Connellsville

Park in Connellsville where we ate lunch

We took our lunch break in Connellsville, PA.  We got food at a Sheetz about a half mile off the trail and returned to a park trail to eat in a pavilion along the trail.

While we were approaching Ohiopyle, PA, the trail did quick bend on a steep downhill.  Dale was caught off guard and his sweaty hands slipped off the handle bars.  We gathered the bike and a few accessories off the trail and checked the wounds.  Fortunately there were just a few brush-burns on the hands and knees, so after cleaning up a little he was back on the bike.

Falls along trail heading toward Ohiopyle

A few miles later I stopped to take picture of one of the many beautiful waterfalls along the trail.  While stopped I heard a crash behind me and saw (and heard) a tree falling across the trail behind me.  It was not huge, maybe 8 to 10" in diameter on the main trunk, but it came down about 45 seconds after we had passed that spot on the trail.  We briefly pondered the chances that it would have actually landed on a cyclist moving about 12 miles an hour along the trail, and what kind of mark it would have left on them.  We went back and easily moved it off the trail, as it had broken into sections on impact, since it was mostly dead.

Yough in full flow from High bridge about 1
mile before Ohiopyle

Falls Market and Inn

The trail was well shaded, and the day was not too hot, so the weather conditions were very comfortable for riding.  Each time we passed a waterfall or stream crossing, we encountered a nice cool breeze caused by the air moving down the stream gorge after being cooled by the 55 deg water.  That was something to look forward to as we progressed along the trail.  The GAP trail has plastic markers each mile, so we were checking how close our bicycle computers were to the mile markers.  Today my computer was usually + 0.01 per mile.

There was a a heavy rain in the area Tues night, So the rivers were pretty high.  We stopped in Ohiopyle to refuel with drinks and snacks at the Falls Market and Inn, which had a cafe, served ice cream and sold food and other goods.  The town is in a beautiful location along the river, near a falls and has at least 3 whitewater rafting outfitters operating out of the town.  this is the starting point of many outdoor adventure opportunities, and there are a lot of other attractions in the area.  The train station is nicely restored, and the trail is widely used due to the amount tourist traffic in the region.

The town of Confluence, PA is is located at the juncture of the Casselman River and Laurel Hill Creek with the Youghiogheny River.  It apparently is a nice, small town, but we continued on the trail without taking time to go into town.  Beyond Confluence, the trail started following the Casselman upstream.

Further up the trail we followed a permanent detour around the Pinkerton Tunnel, which received permanent damage and was closed many years ago.  CSX is opening their adjacent tunnel to create a deep cut through the mountain that looks to be 75 to 100 feet deep.  It was dark when we passed through by rail the day before, so we could only see parts of the cut that is still under excavation, from the trail.  The detour followed another old railroad bed, and added no more than 1 extra mile to our ride for the day.

As we passed the town of Markleton, an SUV entered the trail just behind us and when the driver passed, he told us he was driving up the trail to remove a tree that had fallen across the trail.  After taking a short break we passed that spot and the tree had been removed and they were already gone.

When we arrived in Rockwood, we first went to the Rockwood Mill Shoppes to check into the Hostel on Main which is apparently co-owned or operated. We walked a couple blocks to get dinner at the Rock City Cafe.  I had the TNT burger which featured the fries and coleslaw in the sandwich and totaled 2 lbs.

The hostel was clean and comfortable, and a great valie at $22 per head.  The only drawback was that the very busy rail line ran about 50 yards from the back porch.  However, we both slept well enough that it wasn't a problem.

Daily Statistics

Total riding time: 8:51:55

Trail riding time: 8:48:00

Total miles: 110.13

Average speed: 12.4 mph