Epic Bicycle Trip

Today I only had a few hours to ride so I decided to just ride to Franklin. This ride takes me through the village of Galloway via 417. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shoulders of the road are in great shape, I felt pretty safe doing the ride in spite of the traffic. I stopped at the top of the Rocky Grove hill, so technically I didn't make it all the way to Franklin. This is a challenging ride due to the hills, and I've decided I'm going to use this more often when I am only doing a short ride.

Today we took another leisurely ride, this time to Fisherman's cove. We left from the Belmar parking area, and the ride to the Cove road was about 4.5 miles. It didn't take us long, so on the return trip we continued past the parking area, across the Belmar Bridge , and on to the Sandycreek Tunnel, then back. Total trip was about 14 miles.

Wife and I took a ride together today; we rode the Oil Creek trail, which I rode on 8/20/16 . Of course we took it slower - average speed 9 MPH - and when we got to Drake Well Park , we decided to continue via the Queen City Trail into downtown Titusville . We visited the park in Titusville and enjoyed some refreshments while sitting in the gazebo. On our way out of Titusville my wife's pack came loose from her bike; we didn't discover the loss until we reached the Drake Well parking lot, so I got a "sprint" in; I rode back the entire Queen City Trail length into Titusville hunting for the pack. Fortunately I was able to find it, and nothing was missing. Total distance: 28.6 miles Max. speed: 26 MPH Average speed: 9 MPH Total Time: just over 3 hours, but we stopped several times on this trip.

I finally got a "major" (for me) ride in today, riding from Franklin to Emlenton on the Allegheny River trail. The ride turned out to be just a bit more of an adventure than I had originally anticipated. All was well until I got to the first tunnel . The tunnel is nearly a mile long and has a large curve in the middle, so you literally can't see "the light at the end of the tunnel." I forgot my glasses have transition lenses, and when I hit the tunnel at 15 mph, I went from bright sunlight to total blackness faster than I could adjust. The result was that, for the first time in a long time, I went over the handlebars. Ouch. I also learned that I really, really need to "upgrade" my headlight. The next adventure is a short stretch of this trail that requires looping up onto a poorly maintained dirt road to avoid a contested piece of real estate. The road was pretty washed out and provided a challenging ride. I was glad I had a mountain bike cro...

I did the entire Oil Creek bike trail today, from Oil Creek State Park to Drake Well . Not a long ride (just 18 miles) but a good one.

I got up early and did a 25 mile ride today. I remembered to "tank up" on water before I left. My plan today was to try for a little more speed. Unfortunately, I haven't been as regular as I would like with my riding, and I chose to leave before breakfast and I didn't eat anything before the ride, so I ended up "bonking" pretty bad about a quarter mile before I finished; but I did manage to finish. Along the way I saw some amazing scenery, including one stretch of road where both sides of the road were lined with wildflowers - chicory, Queen Anne's Lace, ditch daisies, and clover - that looked like someone had planted them on purpose.   My ride took me through Chapmanville, a small village with ties to my family (my cousin lives there.) - history snippet below. STATS 25.73 miles 2.094  hours Average Speed 11.9 MPH CHAPMANVILLE. This village is situated on the Oil creek road, the shortest route between Meadville ...

Today I rode the tandem to Two Mile Run Lake with my grandson as co-pilot and second source of power. Not a long ride, but it was good to be on a bike and my grandson seemed to enjoy it.